Application of metadata to documents and document objects via an operating system user interface

• US 7,747,557 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2006
• Issued: 06/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nizar, Shaheeda Parveen, Sareen, Chaitanya Dev
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil; Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liang; Vei-Chung
• Application Number:
  US11/326,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168378A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/707
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer products provide for applying metadata to documents and/or document objects in local and/or remote file storage systems. Application of metadata (flags) to documents and/or document objects allows a user to easily locate and utilize flagged items. A single metadata type, such as a colored flag, may be applied to documents or document objects of different file types across a file storage system to which data is stored via different software applications. Documents and/or document objects bearing like flags may be surfaced to a user in a flag summary with which documents and/or document objects may be sorted by flag type. Flagged documents or document objects related to a launched document may be listed in an information pane adjacent to the launched document.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining other documents of an operating system file storage via flags, the method comprising:

providing a flag library storage that includes a plurality of pregenerated flags that include metadata indicating a flag type, wherein the flag library is stored independently of any document files, wherein the plurality of flags are independent of any document file type;

providing a file storage accessible from an operating system of a computing device, wherein the file system includes a plurality of document files having a plurality of file types based on a plurality of respective applications associated with the operating system;

providing an operating system user interface;

receiving a selection in the operating system user interface of at least one of the document files in the file system;

identifying, in association with the at least one selected document file, flag type metadata stored with the selected document file that points to the flag library storage, wherein the flag type metadata points to at least one flag applied to the selected document file and at least one flag applied to an individual document object embedded within the at least one selected document file;

searching the file storage for any document files related to the at least one flag applied to the selected document file;

searching the file storage for any individual document objects related to the at least one flag applied to the individual document object;

populating the operating system user interface with icons of;

any other documents files having a flag related to the at least one flag applied to the selected document file, and

any other individual document objects having a flag related to the at least one flag applied to the individual document object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating system user interface is a different user interface than any user interface association with any of the respective applications.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing a flag library menu of the flag library storage from the operating system user interface, receiving a selection of a flag type in the flag library menu, and applying flag type metadata that points to the selected flag type to at least one file document of the operating system user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing a dialog pane of the flag library storage from the operating system user interface, wherein the dialog pane includes a listing of flag types and a count of document files having a respective flag type within the file storage of the operating system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the dialog pane of the flag library storage includes an icon selection field, a color selection field and a label selection field.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the operating system user interface by flag type.

7. A system for obtaining other documents of a operating system file storage via flags, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer-executable instructions are configured for;

providing a flag library storage that includes a plurality of pregenerated flags that include metadata indicating a flag type, wherein the flag library is stored independently of any document files, wherein the plurality of flags are independent of any document file type;

providing a file storage accessible from an operating system of a computing device, wherein the file system includes a plurality of document files having a plurality of file types based on a plurality of respective applications associated with the operating system;

providing an operating system user interface, wherein the operating system user interface includes a document file icon pane and a document tag pane;

receiving a selection in the document file icon pane of the operating system user interface of at least one of the document files in the file system;

determining whether the at least one selected document file includes type metadata that points to one of the plurality of flags located in the flag library storage that is stored independently from any document files, wherein the flag type metadata includes metadata applied to the document file in entirety stored in a peer relationship with metadata embedded in the document file and applied to one document object embedded in of the document file;

when the at least one selected document file includes flag type metadata that points to one of the plurality of flags located in the flag library and the metadata is applied to the document file in entirety;

determining the flag type based on the flag type metadata, and

populating the document tag pane with icons of at least one other document file having a same flag type, wherein the at least one other document file has a file type different than the at least one selected document file, wherein a respective application of the at least one other document file is different than a respective application of the at least one selected document file;

when the at least one selected document file includes flag type metadata that points to one of the plurality of flags located in the flag library and the flag type metadata embedded in the document file is applied to the one document object embedded within the document file;

determining the flag type based on the flag type metadata, and

populating the document tag pane with a quantity of embedded flags in any other document of the file storage in having a flag related to the flag type.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the operating system user interface is a different user interface than any user interface association with any of the respective applications.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising accessing a flag library menu of the flag library storage from the operating system user interface, receiving a selection of a flag type in the flag library menu, and applying flag type metadata that points to the selected flag type to at least one file document of the operating system user interface.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising accessing a dialog pane of the flag library storage from the operating system user interface, wherein the dialog pane includes a listing of flag types and a count of document files having a respective flag type within the file storage of the operating system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the dialog pane of the flag library storage includes an icon selection field, a color selection field and a label selection field.

12. The system of claim 7, further comprising filtering the operating system user interface by flag type.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one selected document includes flag type metadata that points to a plurality of flags located in the flag library storage.

14. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions to cause a processor to obtain other documents of an operating system file storage via flags, the instructions comprising:

providing a flag library storage that includes a plurality of pregenerated flags that include metadata indicating a flag type, wherein the flag library is stored independently of any document files, wherein the plurality of flags are independent of any document file type;

providing a file storage accessible from an operating system of a computing device, wherein the file system includes a plurality of document files having a plurality of file types based on a plurality of respective applications associated with the operating system;

providing an operating system user interface, wherein the operating system user interface includes a document file icon pane and a document tag pane;

receiving a selection in the document file icon pane of the operating system user interface of at least one of the document files in the file system;

identifying, in association with the at least one selected document file, flag type metadata stored with the selected document file that points to the flag library storage, wherein the flag type metadata points to at least one flag applied to the selected document file and at least one flag applied to an individual document object embedded within the at least one selected document file;

searching the file storage for any document files related to the at least one flag applied to the selected document file;

searching the file storage for any individual document objects related to the at least one flag applied to the individual document object;

populating the operating system user interface with icons of;

any other documents files having a flag related to the at least one flag applied to the selected document file, and

any other individual document objects having a flag related to the at least one flag applied to the individual document object.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising accessing a flag library menu of the flag library storage from the operating system user interface, receiving a selection of a flag type in the flag library menu, and applying the flag type metadata that points to the selected flag type to at least one file document of the operating system user interface.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising accessing a dialog pane of the flag library storage from the operating system user interface, wherein the dialog pane includes a listing of flag types and a count of document files having a respective flag type within the file storage of the operating system.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the dialog pane of the flag library storage includes an icon selection field, a color selection field and a label selection field.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising filtering the operating system user interface by flag type.