Time-based organization of desktop items

• US 9,588,644 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2011
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: McCann, William Jon
• Primary Examiner(s): Belousov, Andrey
• Application Number:
  US13/050,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20120240073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,182 Days
• Field of Search: 715/775
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method and system for time-based organization of desktop items is described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

extracting contextual information from a plurality of data objects, wherein the contextual information comprises a time-based information associated with an action on a respective one of the plurality of data objects, and a respective last-accessed timestamp for each of the plurality of data objects;

assigning a label to at least one of the plurality of data objects, wherein the label is in view of the extracted contextual information;

tracking the labels of the at least one of the plurality of data objects;

associating each of a plurality of desktop items to a respective one of each of the plurality of data objects;

creating a time-ordered desktop view of each of the plurality of desktop items from the plurality of data objects in view of the contextual information;

organizing, by a processing device, the time-ordered desktop view in view of the labels, wherein the organizing comprising organizing the desktop items in view of the time-based information associated with the action on the respective one of the plurality of data objects;

determining that a respective data item is expired upon the last-accessed timestamp of the respective data object associated with the respective data item is prior to a time; and

presenting a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display, the GUI displaying a portion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items in view of the organizing, wherein the portion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items does not include the expired desktop item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data objects stored in a file directory of a file system of a computing system, and wherein said creating the time-ordered desktop view comprises organizing the plurality of desktop items according to the contextual information regardless of storage locations of the plurality of desktop items in the file directory.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of data objects is stored in a file directory of a file system of a computing system and one of the plurality of data objects is stored remotely from the computing system, and wherein said creating the time-ordered desktop view comprises organizing the plurality of desktop items according to the contextual information regardless of storage locations of the data object stored in the file directory and the data object stored remotely.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the contextual information in a data store of a computing system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the time-based information about each of the plurality of data objects comprises at least one of a creation timestamp, a last-modified timestamp, a calendar event, a reminder event, or a follow-up date.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextual information about each of the plurality of data objects comprises a time-based type of action to be performed on the respective one of the plurality of data objects, and wherein the time-based type of actions comprises a current action and a past action.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said wherein said creating the time-ordered desktop view comprises organizing the plurality of desktop items according to the time-based type of actions, and wherein said presenting the GUI comprises presenting the time-ordered desktop view according to organized time-based type of actions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said creating the time-ordered desktop view comprises organizing the plurality of desktop items into one or more sub-categories, wherein the one or more sub-categories comprises at least one of a current desktop, a desktop of today, a desktop of this week, a desktop of last week, a desktop of tomorrow, or a desktop of by end of week, and wherein said presenting the GUI comprises presenting one or more of the sub-categories in the time-ordered desktop view.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving user input to customize the time-ordered desktop view.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting the GUI comprises generating a symbolic link for each of the plurality of desktop items to be displayed in the GUI, and wherein each of the symbolic links comprises a path to a storage location where the respective data object is stored.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the symbolic links each comprise at least one of an icon, a thumbnail, a shortcut, an alias, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), or a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting comprising presenting the time-ordered desktop view in at least one of a list view, a thumbnail view, an icon view, or a menu view.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting comprising presenting the GUI in at least one of a file browser, a web browser, a viewing area of an application executing on a computing system, or a main view of the display.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting the GUI comprises generating a link for each of the plurality of desktop items to be displayed in the GUI, and wherein each of the links refers to one of the plurality of data objects stored in a computing system or stored remotely from the computing system.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

extract contextual information from a plurality of data objects, wherein the contextual information and comprises a time-based information associated with an action on a respective one of the plurality of data objects, and a respective last-accessed timestamp for each of the plurality of data objects;

assign a label to at least one of the plurality of data objects, wherein the label is in view of the extracted contextual information;

track the labels of the at least one of the plurality of data objects;

associate each of a plurality of desktop items to a respective one of each of the plurality of data objects;

create a time-ordered desktop view of each of the plurality of desktop items from the plurality of data objects in view of the contextual information;

organize the time-ordered desktop view in view of the labels, wherein to organize, the processing device is to organize the desktop items in view of the time-based information associated with the action on the respective one of the plurality of data objects;

determine that a respective data item is expired upon the last-accessed timestamp of the respective data object associated with the respective data item is prior to a time; and

present a graphical user interface (GUI) having a portion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items in view of the organized time-ordered desktop view, wherein the portion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items does not include the expired desktop item.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of data objects are stored in a file directory of a file system of a computing system, and wherein said to create the time-ordered desktop view, the processing device is to organize the plurality of desktop items according to the contextual information regardless of storage locations of the plurality of desktop items in the file directory.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein one of the plurality of data objects is stored in a file directory of a file system of a computing system and one of the plurality of data objects is stored remotely from the computing system, and wherein said to create the time-ordered desktop view, the processing device is to organize the plurality of desktop items according to the contextual information regardless of storage locations of the data object stored in the file directory and the data object stored remotely.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processing device is further to store the contextual information in a data store of a computing system.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the time-based information about each of the plurality of data objects comprises at least one of a creation timestamp, a last-modified timestamp, a calendar event, a reminder event, or a follow-up date.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein said to create the time-ordered desktop view, the processing device is to organize the plurality of desktop items into one or more sub-categories, wherein the one or more sub-categories comprises at least one of a current desktop, a desktop of today, a desktop of this week, a desktop of last week, a desktop of tomorrow, or a desktop of by end of week, and wherein said presenting the GUI comprises presenting one or more of the sub-categories in the time-ordered desktop view.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processing device is further to receive user input to customize the time-ordered desktop view.

22. A system, comprising:

data storage to store contextual information about a plurality of data objects, wherein the contextual information is extracted from the plurality of data objects, wherein the contextual information comprises a time-based information associated with an action on a respective one of the plurality of data objects, and a respective last-accessed timestamp for each of the plurality of data objects; and

a processing device operatively coupled to the data storage and, wherein the processing device executes a desktop manager to;

associate each of a plurality of desktop items to a respective one of each of the plurality of data objects,

assign a label to at least one of the plurality of data objects, wherein the label is in view of the extracted contextual information,

track the labels of the at least one of the plurality of data objects;

create a time-ordered desktop view of each of the plurality of desktop items from the plurality of data objects in view of the contextual information,

organize the time-ordered desktop view in view of the labels, wherein to organize, the processing device is to organize the desktop items in view of the time-based information associated with the action on the respective one of the plurality of data objects,

determine that a respective data item is expired upon the last-accessed timestamp of the respective data object associated with the respective data item is prior to a time, and

present a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display, the GUI to display at least a portion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items in view of the organized time-ordered desktop view, wherein the portion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items does not include the expired desktop item.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the desktop manager comprises:

a time information collector communicatively coupled to the data storage and to extract the contextual information about the plurality of data objects and to store the contextual information in the data storage;

a desktop view generator communicatively coupled to the data storage to create the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items using the contextual information stored in the data storage; and

a GUI engine communicatively coupled to the display and the desktop view generator to present the GUI on the display, the GUI to display a portion of the time-ordered desktop view generated by the desktop view generator.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the contextual information is stored in a first database stored on the data storage, wherein one of the plurality of data objects is stored in a second database stored on the data storage, and wherein a time information collector is to access the second database to extract the contextual information about the one of the plurality of data objects stored in the second database.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the contextual information is stored in a first database stored on the data storage, wherein one of the plurality of data objects is stored in a second database stored on a network remotely from a computing system, wherein the desktop manager further comprises a network interface to communicate with the second database over the network, and wherein a time information collector is to access the second database via the network interface to extract the contextual information about the one of the plurality of data objects stored in the second database.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the plurality of data objects are stored in a file directory of a file system of a computing system.