U.S. patent application number 12/412257 was filed with the patent office on 2009-08-27 for methods and systems for managing data.
Invention is credited to Yan Arrouye, Andrew Carol, Dominic Giampaolo.
Application Number | 20090216776 12/412257 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38042195 |
Filed Date | 2009-08-27 |
United States Patent
Application |
20090216776 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Carol; Andrew ; et
al. |
August 27, 2009 |
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MANAGING DATA
Abstract
Methods and systems for managing an index database. In one
exemplary method, an index database is stored on a machine readable
volume with an operating system and the files which have been
indexed, and then the volume is, after the storing, made available
for distribution to licensees or customers. In this manner, the
volume will include a previously created index database, allowing a
user to begin use of the index database without having to perform
an indexing operation.
Inventors: |
Carol; Andrew; (Half Moon
Bay, CA) ; Arrouye; Yan; (Mountain View, CA) ;
Giampaolo; Dominic; (Mountain View, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
APPLE INC./BSTZ;BLAKELY SOKOLOFF TAYLOR & ZAFMAN LLP
1279 OAKMEAD PARKWAY
SUNNYVALE
CA
94085-4040
US
|
Family ID: |
38042195 |
Appl. No.: |
12/412257 |
Filed: |
March 26, 2009 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11112255 |
Apr 22, 2005 |
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12412257 |
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10877584 |
Jun 25, 2004 |
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11112255 |
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60643087 |
Jan 7, 2005 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 ;
707/999.003; 707/999.01; 707/999.1; 707/999.2; 707/E17.005;
707/E17.01; 707/E17.108; 709/227; 709/230 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/168 20190101;
G06F 16/90335 20190101; G06F 16/10 20190101; G06F 16/14 20190101;
G06F 16/13 20190101 |
Class at
Publication: |
707/10 ; 709/227;
707/100; 707/E17.01; 707/200; 707/E17.005; 709/230; 707/E17.108;
707/3 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30; G06F 15/16 20060101 G06F015/16 |
Claims
1. A method for handling data, the method comprising: establishing
a connection with a server system; receiving from the server
system, by a data processing system for storage on a machine
readable volume, at least a portion of an Operating System (OS) and
files of different file types and an index created from the
files.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the connection uses an Internet
Protocol and is through at least one network, and wherein
substantially all files are indexed into the index.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the index is searchable and the
machine readable volume is a bootable volume which boots a data
processing system to run the OS on the machine readable volume and
wherein the machine readable volume also stores metadata for the
files and wherein the files are user editable such that a user can
modify the files by storing new or modified information in the
files.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the metadata is for a plurality of
different file types such that metadata for one file type is
different than metadata for another file type.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the files are not help files and
are user accessible.
6. A machine readable storage medium storing executable
instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause
the data processing system to perform a method for handling data,
the method comprising: establishing a connection with a server
system; receiving from the server system, for storage on another
machine readable storage volume, at least a portion of an Operating
System (OS) and files of different file types and an index created
from the files.
7. The machine readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the
connection uses an Internet Protocol and is through at least one
network, and wherein substantially all files are indexed into the
index.
8. The machine readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the index
is searchable and the another machine readable storage medium is a
bootable volume which boots a data processing system to run the OS
on the another machine readable storage medium and wherein the
another machine readable storage medium also stores metadata for
the files and wherein the files are user editable such that a user
can modify the files by storing new or modified information in the
files.
9. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the
metadata is for a plurality of different file types such that
metadata for one file type is different than metadata for another
file type.
10. The machine readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the
files are not help files and are user accessible.
11. A data processing system comprising: means for establishing, by
a hardware device, a connection with a server system; means for
receiving from the server system, for storage on a machine readable
volume, at least a portion of an Operating System (OS) and files of
different file types and an index created from the files.
12. The data processing system of claim 11 wherein the connection
uses an Internet Protocol and is through at least one network, and
wherein substantially all files are indexed into the index.
13. The data processing system of claim 11 wherein the index is
searchable and the machine readable volume is a bootable volume
which boots a data processing system to run the OS on the machine
readable volume and wherein the machine readable volume also stores
metadata for the files and wherein the files are user editable such
that a user can modify the files by storing new or modified
information in the files.
14. The data processing system of claim 13 wherein the metadata is
for a plurality of different file types such that metadata for one
file type is different than metadata for another file type.
15. The data processing system of claim 11 wherein the files are
not help files and are user accessible.
16. A method for handling data, the method comprising: establishing
a connection with a licensee; transmitting to the licensee, by a
data processing system for storage on a machine readable volume, at
least a portion of an Operating System (OS) and user related files
and an index created from the files wherein substantially all user
related files are indexed in the index.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein the connection uses an Internet
Protocol and is through at least one network.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein the index is searchable and the
machine readable volume is a bootable volume which boots a data
processing system to run the OS on the machine readable volume and
wherein the machine readable volume also stores metadata for the
files and wherein the files are user editable such that a user can
modify the files by storing new or modified information in the
files.
19. The method of claim 17 wherein the metadata is for a plurality
of different file types such that metadata for one file type is
different than metadata for another file type.
20. The method of claim 16 wherein the files are not help files and
are user accessible.
21. A machine readable storage medium storing executable
instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause
the data processing system to perform a method for handling data,
the method comprising: establishing a connection with a licensee;
transmitting to the licensee, for storage on another machine
readable storage volume, at least a portion of an Operating System
(OS) and user related files and an index created from the files
wherein substantially all user related files are indexed in the
index.
22. The machine readable storage medium of claim 21 wherein the
connection uses an Internet Protocol and is through at least one
network.
23. The machine readable storage medium of claim 21 wherein the
index is searchable and the another machine readable storage medium
is a bootable volume which boots a data processing system to run
the OS on the another machine readable storage medium and wherein
the another machine readable storage medium also stores metadata
for the files and wherein the files are user editable such that a
user can modify the files by storing new or modified information in
the files.
24. The machine readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the
metadata is for a plurality of different file types such that
metadata for one file type is different than metadata for another
file type.
25. The machine readable storage medium of claim 21 wherein the
files are not help files and are user accessible.
26. A data processing system comprising: means for establishing, by
a hardware device, a connection with a licensee; means for
transmitting to the licensee, for storage on machine readable
volume, at least a portion of an Operating System (OS) and user
related files and an index created from the files wherein
substantially all user related files are indexed in the index.
27. The data processing system of claim 26 wherein the connection
uses an Internet Protocol and is through at least one network.
28. The data processing system of claim 26 wherein the index is
searchable and the machine readable volume is a bootable volume
which boots a data processing system to run the OS on the machine
readable volume and wherein the machine readable volume also stores
metadata for the files and wherein the files are user editable such
that a user can modify the files by storing new or modified
information in the files.
29. The data processing system of claim 28 wherein the metadata is
for a plurality of different file types such that metadata for one
file type is different than metadata for another file type.
30. The data processing system of claim 26 wherein the files are
not help files and are user accessible.
Description
[0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/112,255, filed on Apr. 22, 2005, which is a
continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.
10/877,584, filed on Jun. 25, 2004. This application also claims
priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/643,087
filed on Jan. 7, 2005, which provisional application is
incorporated herein by reference in its entirety; this application
claims the benefit of the provisional's filing date under 35 U.S.C.
.sctn.119(e). This present application hereby claims the benefit of
these earlier filing dates under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.120.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Modern data processing systems, such as general purpose
computer systems, allow the users of such systems to create a
variety of different types of data files. For example, a typical
user of a data processing system may create text files with a word
processing program such as Microsoft Word or may create an image
file with an image processing program such as Adobe's PhotoShop.
Numerous other types of files are capable of being created or
modified, edited, and otherwise used by one or more users for a
typical data processing system. The large number of the different
types of files that can be created or modified can present a
challenge to a typical user who is seeking to find a particular
file which has been created.
[0003] Modern data processing systems often include a file
management system which allows a user to place files in various
directories or subdirectories (e.g. folders) and allows a user to
give the file a name. Further, these file management systems often
allow a user to find a file by searching for the file's name, or
the date of creation, or the date of modification, or the type of
file. An example of such a file management system is the Finder
program which operates on Macintosh computers from Apple Computer,
Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Another example of a file management
system program is the Windows Explorer program which operates on
the Windows operating system from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,
Wash. Both the Finder program and the Windows Explorer program
include a find command which allows a user to search for files by
various criteria including a file name or a date of creation or a
date of modification or the type of file. However, this search
capability searches through information which is the same for each
file, regardless of the type of file. Thus, for example, the
searchable data for a Microsoft Word file is the same as the
searchable data for an Adobe PhotoShop file, and this data
typically includes the file name, the type of file, the date of
creation, the date of last modification, the size of the file and
certain other parameters which may be maintained for the file by
the file management system.
[0004] Certain presently existing application programs allow a user
to maintain data about a particular file. This data about a
particular file may be considered metadata because it is data about
other data. This metadata for a particular file may include
information about the author of a file, a summary of the document,
and various other types of information. A program such as Microsoft
Word may automatically create some of this data when a user creates
a file and the user may add additional data or edit the data by
selecting the "property sheet" from a menu selection in Microsoft
Word. The property sheets in Microsoft Word allow a user to create
metadata for a particular file or document. However, in existing
systems, a user is not able to search for metadata across a variety
of different applications using one search request from the user.
Furthermore, existing systems can perform one search for data
files, but this search does not also include searching through
metadata for those files.
[0005] Indexing of the content of files can take a considerable
amount of time. The content of the files is typically not available
for searching until the indexing process is completed. Some
software developers, such as developers of full text indexing
software, have distributed demonstration versions of their software
with some files and a previously created index of the files;
however, the files are of the same type (e.g. the files are all
word processing files) and the medium (e.g. CD) which is the
mechanism of the distribution does not include an operating system
which can be used to boot a computer system. Some manufacturers
and/or distributors of computer systems have included on a storage
volume (e.g. hard drive) help files which were indexed and an
operating system. However, other user related files (e.g. template
files for a word processing program) were not indexed and the help
files were the same type of files. While such systems provided the
benefit of searchable help files even when the computer was first
used, the other files still had to be indexed to be able to use
index software to search through an index database of the content
of these other files.
SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION
[0006] Methods for managing data in a data processing system and
systems for managing data are described herein.
[0007] Many of these methods and systems include the distribution
of user related files and the preindexed content of these user
related files and at least a portion of an operating system which
is used to boot a computer system.
[0008] In one aspect of the inventions described herein, an
exemplary method for managing data includes storing on a machine
readable volume files and an index database created from the files
and an Operating System (OS) and making the volume, after the
storing, available for distribution to licensees and customers. In
certain embodiments, the index database is searchable and the
volume is a bootable volume which boots a data processing system to
run the OS on the volume and wherein the volume also stores
metadata for the files. Further, the files may be user editable
(for example, the existing text in the files may be edited or
modified or new text may be added and then the file is saved in a
nonvolatile storage medium) and there may be many different types
of files, such as word processing files, spreadsheet files,
portable document format (PDF) files, graphics files (e.g. jpeg or
gif), web page files (e.g. html files), presentation files (e.g.
".ppt" files), email files, etc. In certain embodiments, in the
metadata database, the type of information in metadata for a first
type of file differs from the type of information in metadata for a
second type of file.
[0009] According to another aspect of the inventions described
herein, an exemplary method for managing data includes storing on a
volume an index database created for all or substantially all user
related files which are normally accessible to a user through user
application software, with the user related files and an Operating
System (OS) and making the volume, after the storing, available for
distribution to licensees or customers.
[0010] In certain embodiments, the volume is a bootable volume
which boots a data processing system to run the Operating System on
the volume and wherein the index is searchable and wherein the
volume also stores metadata for the files. The metadata may be for
a plurality of different file types such that the type of
information in metadata for one type of file differs from the type
of information in metadata for another type of file.
[0011] According to another aspect of the inventions described
herein, an exemplary method of processing data includes adopting a
previously created index database, which is stored on a storage
volume, as a database managed by an index management software
component, which is also stored on the storage volume, as an
initialization process of the index management software component.
In certain embodiments, user search queries may be received and a
search may be performed of the index database without having to
require the user to index the files which are being search before
attempting to do a search. In certain embodiments, the adopting
occurs upon first execution of the index management software
component on the data processing system, and the previously created
index database has an index of all user files on the storage volume
which stores the user files and the index database and an operating
system. User files which are indexed into the index database are
beyond merely help files which specify how to operate a program.
The User files which have been indexed contain user content such as
sample files, template files, reference materials such as
dictionaries or encyclopedias or famous literature and these user
files are normally editable by the user (e.g. text may be added to
the files or the existing text may be modified and then the files
may be saved on the storage volume).
[0012] Other aspects of the present invention includes various data
processing systems which perform these methods and machine readable
media which perform various methods described herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] The present invention is illustrated by way of example and
not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which
like references indicate similar elements.
[0014] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a data processing
system, which may be a general purpose computer system and which
may operate in any of the various methods described herein.
[0015] FIG. 2 shows a general example of one exemplary method of
one aspect of the invention.
[0016] FIG. 3A shows an example of the content of the particular
type of metadata for a particular type of file.
[0017] FIG. 3B shows another example of a particular type of
metadata for another particular type of file.
[0018] FIG. 4 shows an example of an architecture for managing
metadata according to one exemplary embodiment of the
invention.
[0019] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing another exemplary method of
the present invention.
[0020] FIG. 6 shows an example of a storage format which utilizes a
flat file format for metadata according to one exemplary embodiment
of the invention.
[0021] FIGS. 7A-7E show a sequence of graphical user interfaces
provided by one exemplary embodiment in order to allow searching of
metadata and/or other data in a data processing system.
[0022] FIGS. 8A and 8B show two examples of formats for displaying
search results according to one exemplary embodiment of the
invention.
[0023] FIG. 9 shows another exemplary user interface of the present
invention.
[0024] FIG. 10 shows another exemplary user interface of the
present invention.
[0025] FIGS. 11A-11D show, in sequence, another exemplary user
interface according to the present invention.
[0026] FIGS. 12A-12D show alternative embodiments of user
interfaces according to the present invention.
[0027] FIGS. 13A and 13B show further alternative embodiments of
user interfaces according to the present invention.
[0028] FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C, and 14D show further alternative
embodiments of user interfaces according to the present
invention.
[0029] FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D show another alternative
embodiment of user interfaces according to the present
invention.
[0030] FIGS. 16A and 16B show certain aspects of embodiments of
user interfaces according to the present invention.
[0031] FIG. 17 shows an aspect of certain embodiments of user
interfaces according to the present invention.
[0032] FIGS. 18A and 18B show further aspects of certain
embodiments of user interfaces according to the present
invention.
[0033] FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C, 19D, and 19E show further illustrative
embodiments of user interfaces according to the present
invention.
[0034] FIG. 20 is a flow chart which illustrates another exemplary
method of the present invention.
[0035] FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing another exemplary method of
the present invention.
[0036] FIGS. 22A, 22B, 22C, and 22D illustrate the display of a
display device on which an embodiment of the method of FIG. 21 is
performed.
[0037] FIG. 23 is a flowchart which illustrates an exemplary method
for pre-indexing volumes which contain user related files.
[0038] FIG. 24 is a flowchart which illustrates another exemplary
method according to an aspect of the present invention in which
user files are pre-indexed before the user receives the files.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0039] The subject invention will be described with reference to
numerous details set forth below, and the accompanying drawings
will illustrate the invention. The following description and
drawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be
construed as limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are
described to provide a thorough understanding of the present
invention. However, in certain instances, well known or
conventional details are not described in order to not
unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail.
[0040] The present description includes material protected by
copyrights, such as illustrations of graphical user interface
images. The owners of the copyrights, including the assignee of the
present invention, hereby reserve their rights, including
copyright, in these materials. The copyright owner has no objection
to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or
the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark
Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights
whatsoever. Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 2004.
[0041] FIG. 1 shows one example of a typical computer system which
may be used with the present invention. Note that while FIG. 1
illustrates various components of a computer system, it is not
intended to represent any particular architecture or manner of
interconnecting the components as such details are not germane to
the present invention. It will also be appreciated that network
computers and other data processing systems which have fewer
components or perhaps more components may also be used with the
present invention. The computer system of FIG. 1 may, for example,
be a Macintosh computer from Apple Computer, Inc.
[0042] As shown in FIG. 1, the computer system 101, which is a form
of a data processing system, includes a bus 102 which is coupled to
a microprocessor(s) 103 and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 107 and
volatile RAM 105 and a non-volatile memory 106. The microprocessor
103 may be a G3 or G4 microprocessor from Motorola, Inc. or one or
more G5 microprocessors from IBM. The bus 102 interconnects these
various components together and also interconnects these components
103, 107, 105, and 106 to a display controller and display device
104 and to peripheral devices such as input/output (I/O) devices
which may be mice, keyboards, modems, network interfaces, printers
and other devices which are well known in the art. Typically, the
input/output devices 109 are coupled to the system through
input/output controllers 108. The volatile RAM (Random Access
Memory) 105 is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) which
requires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data
in the memory. The mass storage 106 is typically a magnetic hard
drive or a magnetic optical drive or an optical drive or a DVD RAM
or other types of memory systems which maintain data (e.g. large
amounts of data) even after power is removed from the system.
Typically, the mass storage 106 will also be a random access memory
although this is not required. While FIG. 1 shows that the mass
storage 106 is a local device coupled directly to the rest of the
components in the data processing system, it will be appreciated
that the present invention may utilize a non-volatile memory which
is remote from the system, such as a network storage device which
is coupled to the data processing system through a network
interface such as a modem or Ethernet interface. The bus 102 may
include one or more buses connected to each other through various
bridges, controllers and/or adapters as is well known in the art.
In one embodiment the I/O controller 108 includes a USB (Universal
Serial Bus) adapter for controlling USB peripherals and an IEEE
1394 controller for IEEE 1394 compliant peripherals.
[0043] It will be apparent from this description that aspects of
the present invention may be embodied, at least in part, in
software. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computer
system or other data processing system in response to its
processor, such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of
instructions contained in a memory, such as ROM 107, RAM 105, mass
storage 106 or a remote storage device. In various embodiments,
hardwired circuitry may be used in combination with software
instructions to implement the present invention. Thus, the
techniques are not limited to any specific combination of hardware
circuitry and software nor to any particular source for the
instructions executed by the data processing system. In addition,
throughout this description, various functions and operations are
described as being performed by or caused by software code to
simplify description. However, those skilled in the art will
recognize what is meant by such expressions is that the functions
result from execution of the code by a processor, such as the
microprocessor 103.
Capturing and Use of Metadata Across a Variety of Application
Programs
[0044] FIG. 2 shows a generalized example of one embodiment of the
present invention. In this example, captured metadata is made
available to a searching facility, such as a component of the
operating system which allows concurrent searching of all metadata
for all applications having captured metadata (and optionally for
all non-metadata of the data files). The method of FIG. 2 may begin
in operation 201 in which metadata is captured from a variety of
different application programs. This captured metadata is then made
available in operation 203 to a searching facility, such as a file
management system software for searching. This searching facility
allows, in operation 205, the searching of metadata across all
applications having captured metadata. The method also provides, in
operation 207, a user interface of a search engine and the search
results which are obtained by the search engine. There are numerous
possible implementations of the method of FIG. 2. For example, FIG.
5 shows a specific implementation of one exemplary embodiment of
the method of FIG. 2. Alternative implementations may also be used.
For example, in an alternative implementation, the metadata may be
provided by each application program to a central source which
stores the metadata for use by searching facilities and which is
managed by an operating system component, which may be, for
example, the metadata processing software. The user interface
provided in operation 207 may take a variety of different formats,
including some of the examples described below as well as user
interfaces which are conventional, prior art user interfaces. The
metadata may be stored in a database which may be any of a variety
of formats including a B tree format or, as described below, in a
flat file format according to one embodiment of the invention.
[0045] The method of FIG. 2 may be implemented for programs which
do not store or provide metadata. In this circumstance, a portion
of the operating system provides for the capture of the metadata
from the variety of different programs even though the programs
have not been designed to provide or capture metadata. For those
programs which do allow a user to create metadata for a particular
document, certain embodiments of the present invention may allow
the exporting back of captured metadata back into data files for
applications which maintain metadata about their data files.
[0046] The method of FIG. 2 allows information about a variety of
different files created by a variety of different application
programs to be accessible by a system wide searching facility,
which is similar to the way in which prior art versions of the
Finder or Windows Explorer can search for file names, dates of
creation, etc. across a variety of different application programs.
Thus, the metadata for a variety of different files created by a
variety of different application programs can be accessed through
an extension of an operating system, and an example of such an
extension is shown in FIG. 4 as a metadata processing software
which interacts with other components of the system and will be
described further below.
[0047] FIGS. 3A and 3B show two different metadata formats for two
different types of data files. Note that there may be no overlap in
any of the fields; in other words, no field in one type of metadata
is the same as any field in the other type of metadata. Metadata
format 301 may be used for an image file such as a JPEG image file.
This metadata may include information such as the image's width,
the image's height, the image's color space, the number of bits per
pixel, the ISO setting, the flash setting, the F/stop of the
camera, the brand name of the camera which took the image,
user-added keywords and other fields, such as a field which
uniquely identifies the particular file, which identification is
persistent through modifications of the file. Metadata format 331
shown in FIG. 3B may be used for a music file such as an MP3 music
file. The data in this metadata format may include an
identification of the artist, the genre of the music, the name of
the album, song names in the album or the song name of the
particular file, song play times or the song play time of a
particular song and other fields, such as a persistent file ID
number which identifies the particular MP3 file from which the
metadata was captured. Other types of fields may also be used. The
following chart shows examples of the various fields which may be
used in metadata for various types of files.
TABLE-US-00001 Copied Item Parent in Multi- User with App name
hierarchy Attribute name Description/Notes CFType value Localized
settable Gettable copy viewable Item n/a Authors Who created or
CFString Yes No Yes Yes Yes Address contributed to the Book
contents of this item Comment A free form text CFString No No Yes
Yes Yes comment ContentType This is the type that is CFString No ?
No Yes Yes determined by UTI ContentTypes This is the inheritance
of CFString Yes ? No Yes Yes the UTI system CreatedDate When was
this item CFDate No No No Yes Yes created DisplayName The name of
the item as CFString No Yes Yes Yes Yes Finder (or the user would
like to Launch read it. Very well may Services) be the file name,
but it may also be the subject of an e-mail message or the full
name of a person, for example. Keywords This is a list words set
CFString Yes System- Yes Yes Ask by the user to identify provided
arbitrary sets of keywords organization. The scope (if any) is
determined by the user and can be flexibly used for any kind of
organization. For example, Family, Hawaii, Project X, etc. Contact
A list of contacts that CFString Yes No Yes Yes Ask Address
Keywords are associated with this Book document, beyond what is
captured as Author. This may be a person who's in the picture or a
document about a person or contact (performance review, contract)
ModifiedDate When this item was last CFDate No No No Yes modified
Rating A relative rating (0 to 5 CFNumber No n/a Yes Yes value) on
how important a particular item is to you, whether it's a person,
file or message RelatedTos A list of other items that CFString Yes
No Yes Yes are arbitrarily grouped together. TextContent An indexed
version of CFString No No No Yes any content text UsedDates Which
days was the CFDate Yes No No Yes document opened/viewed/played
Content/ Item Copyright Specifies the owner of CFString No No Yes
Yes Data this content, i.e. Copyright Apple Computer, Inc.
CreatorApp Keeps track of the CFString No ? No Yes application that
was used to create this document (if it's known). Languages The
languages that this CFString Yes Yes Yes Yes document is composed
in (for either text or audio-based media) ParentalControl A field
that is used to CFString No ? Yes Yes determine whether this is
kid-friendly content or not CFString No ? Yes Yes Publishers The
name or a person or CFString Yes No Yes Yes Address organization
that Book published this content. PublishedDate The original date
that CFDate No No Yes Yes this content was published (if it was),
independent of created date. Reviewers A list of contacts who
CFString Yes No Yes Yes Address have reviewed the Book contents of
this file. This would have to be set explicitly by an application.
ReviewStatus Free form text that used CFString No ? Yes Yes to
specify where the document is in any arbitrary review process
TimeEdited Total time spent editing CFDate No No No Yes document
WhereTos Where did this go to, eg. CFString Yes System- ? Yes CD,
printed, backedup provided words only (if any) WhereFroms Where did
this come CFString Yes System- ? Yes from, e.g. camera, email,
provided web download, CD words only (if any) Image Data
BitsPerSample What is the bit depth of CFNumber No Yes the image
(8-bit, 16-bit, etc.) ColorSpace What color space model CFString No
Yes ColorSync is this document Utility? following ImageHeight The
height of the image CFNumber No Yes in pixels ImageWidth The width
of the image CFNumber No Yes in pixels ProfileName The name of the
color CFString No Yes ColorSync profile used with for Utility?
image ResolutionWidth Resolution width of this CFNumber No Yes
image (i.e. dpi from a scanner) ResolutionHeight Resolution height
of this CFNumber No Yes image (i.e. dpi from a scanner) LayerNames
For image formats that CFString Yes Yes contain "named" layers
(e.g. Photoshop files) Aperture The f-stop rating of the CFNumber
No Yes camera when the image was taken CameraMake The make of the
camera CFString No Yes Yes that was used to acquire this image
(e.g. Nikon) CameraModel The model of the camera CFString No Yes
Yes used to acquire this image (Coolpix 5700) DateTimeOriginal
Date/time the picture CFDate No Yes was taken ExposureMode Mode
that was used for CFString No Yes the exposure ExposureTime Time
that the lens was CFDate No Yes exposed while taking the picture
Flash This attribute is CFNumber No Yes overloaded with information
about red- eye reduction. This is not a binary value GPS Raw value
received CFString No Yes from GPS device associated with photo
acquisition. It hasn't necessarily been translated to a user-
understandable location. ISOSpeed The ISO speed the CFNumber No Yes
camera was set to when the image was acquired Orientation The
orientation of the CFString No Yes camera when the image was
acquired WhiteBalance The white balance CFNumber No Yes setting of
the camera when the picture was taken EXIFversion The version of
EXIF CFString No Yes that was used to generate the metadata for the
image Time- Data Acquisition- The name or type of CFString Yes Yes
based Sources device that used to acquire the media Codecs The
codecs used to CFString Yes Yes encode/decode the media
DeliveryType FastStart or RTSP CFString No Yes Duration The length
of time that CFNumber No Yes the media lasts Streamable Whether the
content is CFBoolean No Yes prepared for purposes of streaming
TotalBitRate The total bit rate (audio CFNumber No Yes & video
combined) of the media. AudioBitRate The audio bit rate of the
CFNumber No Yes media AspectRatio The aspect ratio of the CFString
No Yes video of the media ColorSpace The color space model CFString
No Yes used for the video aspect of the media FrameHeight The frame
height in CFNumber No Yes pixels of the video in the media
FrameWidth The frame width in CFNumber No Yes pixels of the video
in the media ProfileName The name of the color CFString No Yes
profile used on the video portion of the media VideoBitRate The bit
rate of the video CFNumber No Yes aspect of the media Text Data
Subject The subject of the text. CFString No Yes This could be
metadata that's supplied with the text or something automatically
generated with technologies like VTWIN PageCount The number of
printable CFNumber No Yes pages of the document LineCount The
number of lines in CFNumber No Yes the document WordCount The
number of words in CFNumber No Yes the document URL The URL that
will get CFString No Yes you to this document (or at least did at
one time). Relevant for saved HTML documents, bookmarks, RSS feeds,
etc. PageTitle The title of a web page. CFString No Yes Relevant to
HTML or bookmark documents Google Structure of where this CFString
No Yes Hierarchy page can be found in the Google hierarchy.
Relevant to HTML or bookmark documents Compound Data
<Abstract> There are no specific n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
document attributes assigned to this item. This is to catch all
app-specific file formats that fall within Data, but don't fit into
any of the other types. Typically these documents have multiple
types of media embedded within them. (e.g. P PDF Compound
NumberOfPages The number of printable CFNumber No Yes document
pages in the document PageSize The size of the page CFNumber No No
Yes stored as points
PDFTitle PDF-specific title CFString No ? Yes metadata for the
document PDFAuthor PDF-specific author CFString No ? Yes Address
metadata for the Book document PDFSubject PDF-specific subject
CFString No ? Yes metadata for the document PDFKeywords
PDF-specific keywords CFString Yes ? Yes metadata for the document
PDFCreated PDF-specific created CFDate No ? Yes metadata for the
document PDFModified PDF-specific modified CFDate No ? Yes metadata
for the document PDFVersion PDF-specific version CFString No ? Yes
metadata for the document SecurityMethod Method by which this
CFString No Yes document is kept secure Presentation Compound
SlideTitles A collection of the titles CFString Yes Yes (Keynote)
document on slides SlideCount The number of slides CFString No Yes
SpeakerNotes- The content of all the CFString ? Yes Content speaker
notes from all of the slides together Application Item Categories
The kind of application CFString Yes Yes this is: productivity,
games, utility, graphics, etc. A set list that Message Item
Recipients Maps to To and Cc: CFString Yes Yes Address addresses in
a mail Book message. Priority The priority of the CFString No Yes
message as set by the sender Recipients Maps to To and Cc: CFString
Yes Yes Address addresses in a mail Book message. Priority The
priority of the CFString No Yes message as set by the sender
Attachment- The list of filenames that CFString Yes Yes Names
represent attachments in a particular message (should be actionable
within the Finder) Authors maps to From address in CFString Yes No
Yes Yes Yes Address mail message Book Comment Not applicable to
Mail CFString No No Yes Yes Yes right now (should we consider?)
ContentType CFString No No Yes Yes ContentTypes CFString Yes No Yes
Yes CreatedDate When was this message CFDate No No No Yes Yes was
sent or received DisplayName Subject of the message CFString No Yes
Yes Yes Yes Keywords There will be a way to CFString Yes System-
Yes Yes Ask set keywords within provided Mail keywords (if any)
Contact Could be where CFString Yes No Yes Yes Ask Address Keywords
recipients are held Book ModifiedDate Not applicable CFDate No No
No Yes Rating A relative rating (0 to 5 CFNumber No n/a Yes Yes
stars) on how important a particular message is to you (separate
from a message's Priority) RelatedTos Potentially threaded CFString
Yes No Yes Yes messages could be put into this category TextContent
An indexed version of CFString No No No Yes the mail message
UsedDates The day/time in which CFDate Yes No No Yes the mail
message was viewed/read Contact Item Company The company that this
CFString No Yes Address contact is an employee Book of E-mails A
list of e-mail CFString Yes Yes Mail addresses that this contact
has IMs A list of instant message CFString Yes Yes iChat handles
this contact has Phones A list of phone numbers CFString Yes that
relate to this contact CFString Yes Addresses A list of physical
CFString Yes addresses that relate to this person Authors the name
of the owner CFString Yes No Yes Yes Yes Address of the Address
Book Book (current user name) Comment CFString No No Yes Yes Yes
ContentType CFString No No Yes Yes ContentTypes CFString Yes No Yes
Yes Meeting Item CreatedDate date the user entered this CFDate No
No No Yes Yes (TBD) into his AddressBook (either through import or
direct entry) DisplayName Composite name of CFString No Yes Yes Yes
Yes contact (First Name, Last Name) Keywords There will be a way to
CFString Yes System- Yes Yes Ask set keywords within provided
Address Book keywords (if any) Contact CFString Yes No Yes Yes Ask
Address Keywords Book ModifiedDate Last time this contact CFDate No
No No Yes entry was modified Rating A relative rating (0 to 5
CFNumber No n/a Yes Yes stars) on how important a particular
contact is to you (separate from a message's Priority) RelatedTos
(potentially could be CFString Yes No Yes Yes used to associate
people from the same company or family) TextContent An indexed
version of CFString No No No Yes the Notes section UsedDates The
day/time in which CFDate Yes No No Yes the contact entry was viewed
in Address Book Body text, rich text or CFString No Yes document
that represents the full content of the event Description text
describing the event CFString No Yes EventTimes time/date the event
starts CFDate Yes Yes Duration The length of time that CFNumber No
Yes the meeting lasts Invitees The list of people who CFString Yes
Yes Address are invited to the Book meeting Location The name of
the location CFString No Yes where the meeting is taking place
[0048] One particular field which may be useful in the various
metadata formats would be a field which includes an identifier of a
plug in or other software element which may be used to capture
metadata from a data file and/or export metadata back to the
creator application.
[0049] Various different software architectures may be used to
implement the functions and operations described herein. The
following discussion provides one example of such an architecture,
but it will be understood that alternative architectures may also
be employed to achieve the same or similar results. The software
architecture shown in FIG. 4 is an example which is based upon the
Macintosh operating system. The architecture 400 includes a
metadata processing software 401 and an operating system (OS)
kernel 403 which is operatively coupled to the metadata processing
software 401 for a notification mechanism which is described below.
The metadata processing software 401 is also coupled to other
software programs such as a file system graphical user interface
software 405 (which may be the Finder), an email software 407, and
other applications 409. These applications are coupled to the
metadata processing software 401 through client application program
interface 411 which provide a method for transferring data and
commands between the metadata processing software 401 and the
software 405, 407, and 409. These commands and data may include
search parameters specified by a user as well as commands to
perform searches from the user, which parameters and commands are
passed to the metadata processing software 401 through the
interface 411. The metadata processing software 401 is also coupled
to a collection of importers 413 which extract data from various
applications. In particular, in one exemplary embodiment, a text
importer is used to extract text and other information from word
processing or text processing files created by word processing
programs such as Microsoft Word, etc. This extracted information is
the metadata for a particular file. Other types of importers
extract metadata from other types of files, such as image files or
music files. In this particular embodiment, a particular importer
is selected based upon the type of file which has been created and
modified by an application program. For example, if the data file
was created by PhotoShop, then an image importer for PhotoShop may
be used to input the metadata from a PhotoShop data file into the
metadata database 415 through the metadata processing software 401.
On the other hand, if the data file is a word processing document,
then an importer designed to extract metadata from a word
processing document is called upon to extract the metadata from the
word processing data file and place it into the metadata database
415 through the metadata processing software 401. Typically, a
plurality of different importers may be required in order to handle
the plurality of different application programs which are used in a
typical computer system. The importers 413 may optionally include a
plurality of exporters which are capable of exporting the extracted
metadata for particular types of data files back to property sheets
or other data components maintained by certain application
programs. For example, certain application programs may maintain
some metadata for each data file created by the program, but this
metadata is only a subset of the metadata extracted by an importer
from this type of data file. In this instance, the exporter may
export back additional metadata or may simply insert metadata into
blank fields of metadata maintained by the application program.
[0050] The software architecture 400 also includes a file system
directory 417 for the metadata. This file system directory keeps
track of the relationship between the data files and their metadata
and keeps track of the location of the metadata object (e.g. a
metadata file which corresponds to the data file from which it was
extracted) created by each importer. In one exemplary embodiment,
the metadata database is maintained as a flat file format as
described below, and the file system directory 417 maintains this
flat file format. One advantage of a flat file format is that the
data is laid out on a storage device as a string of data without
references between fields from one metadata file (corresponding to
a particular data file) to another metadata file (corresponding to
another data file). This arrangement of data will often result in
faster retrieval of information from the metadata database 415.
[0051] The software architecture 400 of FIG. 4 also includes find
by content software 419 which is operatively coupled to a database
421 which includes an index of files. The index of files represents
at least a subset of the data files in a storage device and may
include all of the data files in a particular storage device (or
several storage devices), such as the main hard drive of a computer
system. The index of files may be a conventional indexed
representation of the content of each document. The find by content
software 419 searches for words in that content by searching
through the database 421 to see if a particular word exists in any
of the data files which have been indexed. The find by content
software functionality is available through the metadata processing
software 401 which provides the advantage to the user that the user
can search concurrently both the index of files in the database 421
(for the content within a file) as well as the metadata for the
various data files being searched. The software architecture shown
in FIG. 4 may be used to perform the method shown in FIG. 5 or
alternative architectures may be used to perform the method of FIG.
5.
[0052] The method of FIG. 5 may begin in operation 501 in which a
notification of a change for a file is received. This notification
may come from the OS kernel 403 which notifies the metadata
processing software 401 that a file has been changed. This
notification may come from sniffer software elements which detect
new or modified files and deletion of files. This change may be the
creation of a new file or the modification of an existing file or
the deletion of an existing file. The deletion of an existing file
causes a special case of the processing method of FIG. 5 and is not
shown in FIG. 5. In the case of a deletion, the metadata processing
software 401, through the use of the file system directory 417,
deletes the metadata file in the metadata database 415 which
corresponds to the deleted file. The other types of operations,
such as the creation of a new file or the modification of an
existing file, causes the processing to proceed from operation 501
to operation 503 in which the type of file which is the subject of
the notification is determined. The file may be an Acrobat PDF file
or an RTF word processing file or a JPEG image file, etc. In any
case, the type of the file is determined in operation 503. This may
be performed by receiving from the OS kernel 403 the type of file
along with the notification or the metadata processing software 401
may request an identification of the type of file from the file
system graphical user interface software 405 or similar software
which maintains information about the data file, such as the
creator application or parent application of the data file. It will
be understood that in one exemplary embodiment, the file system
graphical user interface software 405 is the Finder program which
operates on the Macintosh operating system. In alternative
embodiments, the file system graphical user interface system may be
Windows Explorer which operates on Microsoft's Windows operating
system. After the type of file has been determined in operation
503, the appropriate capture software (e.g. one of the importers
413) is activated for the determined file type. The importers may
be a plug-in for the particular application which created the type
of file about which notification is received in operation 501. Once
activated, the importer or capture software imports the appropriate
metadata (for the particular file type) into the metadata database,
such as metadata database 415 as shown in operation 507. Then in
operation 509, the metadata is stored in the database. In one
exemplary embodiment, it may be stored in a flat file format. Then
in operation 511, the metadata processing software 401 receives
search parameter inputs and performs a search of the metadata
database (and optionally also causes a search of non-metadata
sources such as the index of files 421) and causes the results of
the search to be displayed in a user interface. This may be
performed by exchanging information between one of the
applications, such as the software 405 or the software 407 or the
other applications 409 and the metadata processing software 401
through the interface 411. For example, the file system software
405 may present a graphical user interface, allowing a user to
input search parameters and allowing the user to cause a search to
be performed. This information is conveyed through the interface
411 to the metadata processing software 401 which causes a search
through the metadata database 415 and also may cause a search
through the database 421 of the indexed files in order to search
for content within each data file which has been indexed. The
results from these searches are provided by the metadata processing
software 401 to the requesting application which, in the example
given here, was the software 405, but it will be appreciated that
other components of software, such as the email software 407, may
be used to receive the search inputs and to provide a display of
the search results. Various examples of the user interface for
inputting search requests and for displaying search results are
described herein and shown in the accompanying drawings.
[0053] It will be appreciated that the notification, if done
through the OS kernel, is a global, system wide notification
process such that changes to any file will cause a notification to
be sent to the metadata processing software. It will also be
appreciated that in alternative embodiments, each application
program may itself generate the necessary metadata and provide the
metadata directly to a metadata database without the requirement of
a notification from an operating system kernel or from the
intervention of importers, such as the importers 413.
Alternatively, rather than using OS kernel notifications, an
embodiment may use software calls from each application to a
metadata processing software which receives these calls and then
imports the metadata from each file in response to the call.
[0054] As noted above, the metadata database 415 may be stored in a
flat file format in order to improve the speed of retrieval of
information in most circumstances. The flat file format may be
considered to be a non-B tree, non-hash tree format in which data
is not attempted to be organized but is rather stored as a stream
of data. Each metadata object or metadata file will itself contain
fields, such as the fields shown in the examples of FIGS. 3A and
3B. However, there will typically be no relationship or reference
or pointer from one field in one metadata file to the corresponding
field (or another field) in the next metadata file or in another
metadata file of the same file type. FIG. 6 shows an example of the
layout in a flat file format of metadata. The format 601 includes a
plurality of metadata files for a corresponding plurality of data
files. As shown in FIG. 6, metadata file 603 is metadata from file
1 of application A and may be referred to as metadata file A1.
Similarly, metadata file 605 is metadata from file 1 of application
B and may be referred to as metadata file B1. Each of these
metadata files typically would include fields which are not linked
to other fields and which do not contain references or pointers to
other fields in other metadata files. It can be seen from FIG. 6
that the metadata database of FIG. 6 includes metadata files from a
plurality of different applications (applications A, B, and C) and
different files created by each of those applications. Metadata
files 607, 609, 611, and 617 are additional metadata files created
by applications A, B, and C as shown in FIG. 6.
[0055] A flexible query language may be used to search the metadata
database in the same way that such query languages are used to
search other databases. The data within each metadata file may be
packed or even compressed if desirable. As noted above, each
metadata file, in certain embodiments, will include a persistent
identifier which uniquely identifies its corresponding data file.
This identifier remains the same even if the name of the file is
changed or the file is modified. This allows for the persistent
association between the particular data file and its metadata.
User Interface Aspects
[0056] Various different examples of user interfaces for inputting
search parameters and for displaying search results are provided
herein. It will be understood that some features from certain
embodiments may be mixed with other embodiments such that hybrid
embodiments may result from these combinations. It will be
appreciated that certain features may be removed from each of these
embodiments and still provide adequate functionality in many
instances.
[0057] FIG. 7A shows a graphical user interface which is a window
which may be displayed on a display device which is coupled to a
data processing system such as a computer system. The window 701
includes a side bar having two regions 703A, which is a
user-configurable region, and 703B, which is a region which is
specified by the data processing system. Further details in
connection with these side bar regions may be found in co-pending
U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ filed Jun. 22, 2004, and
entitled "Methods and Apparatuses for Operating a Data Processing
System," by inventors Donald Lindsay and Bas Ording, attorney
docket number 04860.P3306. The window 701 also includes a display
region 705 which in this case displays the results of searches
requested by the user. The window 701 also includes a search
parameter menu bar 707 which includes configurable pull down menus
713, 715, and 717. The window 701 also includes a text entry region
709 which allows a user to enter text as part of the search query
or search parameters. The button 711 may be a start search button
which a user activates in order to start a search based upon the
selected search parameters. Alternatively, the system may perform a
search as soon as it receives any search parameter inputs or search
queries from the user rather than waiting for a command to begin
the search. The window 701 also includes a title bar 729 which may
be used in conjunction with a cursor control device to move, in a
conventional manner, the window around a desktop which is displayed
on a display device. The window 701 also includes a close button
734, a minimize button 735, and a resize button 736 which may be
used to close or minimize or resize, respectively, the window. The
window 701 also includes a resizing control 731 which allows a user
to modify the size of the window on a display device. The window
701 further includes a back button 732 and a forward button 733
which function in a manner which is similar to the back and forward
buttons on a web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Safari. The
window 701 also includes view controls which include three buttons
for selecting three different types of views of the content within
the display region 705. When the contents found in a search exceed
the available display area of a display region 705, scroll
controls, such as scroll controls 721, 722, and 723, appear within
the window 701. These may be used in a conventional manner, for
example, by dragging the scroll bar 721 within the scroll region
721A using conventional graphical user interface techniques.
[0058] The combination of text entry region 709 and the search
parameter menu bar allow a user to specify a search query or search
parameters. Each of the configurable pull down menus presents a
user with a list of options to select from when the user activates
the pull down menu. As shown in FIG. 7A, the user has already made
a selection from the configurable pull down menu 713 to specify the
location of the search, which in this case specifies that the
search will occur on the local disks of the computer systems.
Configurable pull down menu 715 has also been used by the user to
specify the kind of document which is to be searched for, which in
this case is an image document as indicated by the configurable
pull down menu 715 which indicates "images" as the selected
configuration of this menu and hence the search parameter which it
specifies. The configurable pull down menu 717, as shown in FIG.
7A, represents an add search parameter pull down menu. This add
search parameter pull down menu allows the user to add additional
criteria to the search query to further limit the search results.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7A, each of the search parameters
is logically ANDed in a Boolean manner. Thus the current search
parameter specified by the user in the state shown in FIG. 7A
searches all local disks for all images, and the user is in the
middle of the process of selecting another search criteria by
having selected the add search criteria pull down menu 717,
resulting in the display of the pull down menu 719, which has a
plurality of options which may be selected by the user.
[0059] FIG. 7B shows the window 701 after the user has caused the
selection of the time option within pull down menu 719, thereby
causing the display of a submenu 719A which includes a list of
possible times which the user may select from. Thus it appears that
the user wants to limit the search to all images on all local disks
within a certain period of time which is to be specified by making
a selection within the submenu 719A.
[0060] FIG. 7C shows the window 701 on the display of a data
processing system after the user has selected a particular option
(in this case "past week") from the submenu 719A. If the user
accepts this selection, then the display shown in FIG. 7D results
in which the configurable pull down menu 718 is displayed showing
that the user has selected as part of the search criteria files
that have been created or modified in the past week. It can be seen
from FIG. 7D that the user can change the particular time selected
from this pull down menu 718 by selecting another time period
within the pull down menu 718A shown in FIG. 7D. Note that the
configurable pull down menu 717, which represents an add search
parameter menu, has now moved to the right of the configurable pull
down menu 718. The user may add further search parameters by
pressing or otherwise activating the configurable pull down menu
717 from the search parameter menu bar 707. If the user decides
that the past week is the proper search criteria in the time
category, then the user may release the pull down menu 718A from
being displayed in a variety of different ways (e.g. the user may
release the mouse button which was being depressed to keep the pull
down menu 718A on the display). Upon releasing or otherwise
dismissing the pull down menu 718A, the resulting window 701 shown
in FIG. 7E then appears. There are several aspects of this user
interface shown in FIG. 7A-7E which are worthy of being noted. The
search parameters or search query is specified within the same
window as the display of the search results. This allows the user
to look at a single location or window to understand the search
parameters and how they affected the displayed search results, and
may make it easier for a user to alter or improve the search
parameters in order to find one or more files. The configurable
pull down menus, such as the add search parameter pull down menu,
includes hierarchical pull down menus. An example of this is shown
in FIG. 7B in which the selection of the time criteria from the
pull down menu 717 results in the display of another menu, in this
case a submenu 719A which may be selected from by the user. This
allows for a compact presentation of the various search parameters
while keeping the initial complexity (e.g. without submenus being
displayed) at a lower level. Another useful aspect of the user
interface shown in FIG. 7A-7E is the ability to reconfigure pull
down menus which have previously been configured. Thus, for
example, the configurable pull down menu 713 currently specifies
the location of the search (in this case, all local disks),
however, this may be modified by selecting the pull down region
associated with the configurable pull down menu 713, causing the
display of a menu of options indicating alternative locations which
may be selected by the user. This can also be seen in FIG. 7D in
which the past week option has been selected by the user (as
indicated by "past week" being in the search parameter menu bar
707), but a menu of options shown in the pull down menu 718A allows
the user to change the selected time from the "past week" to some
other time criteria. Another useful aspect of this user interface
is the ability to continue adding various search criteria by using
the add search criteria pull down menu 717 and selecting a new
criteria.
[0061] It will also be appreciated that the various options in the
pull down menus may depend upon the fields within a particular type
of metadata file. For example, the selection of "images" to be
searched may cause the various fields present in the metadata for
an image type file to appear in one or more pull down menus,
allowing the user to search within one or more of those fields for
that particular type of file. Other fields which do not apply to
"images" types of files may not appear in these menus in order
reduce the complexity of the menus and to prevent user
confusion.
[0062] Another feature of the present invention is shown in FIGS.
7A-7E. In particular, the side bar region 703A, which is the
user-configurable portion of the side bar, includes a
representation of a folder 725 which represents the search results
obtained from a particular search, which search results may be
static or they may be dynamic in that, in certain instances, the
search can be performed again to obtain results based on the
current files in the system. The folder 725 in the example shown in
FIGS. 7A-7E represents a search on a local disk for all images done
on December 10.sup.th. By selecting this folder in the side bar
region 703A, the user may cause the display in the display region
705 of the results of that search. In this way, a user may retrieve
a search result automatically by saving the search result into the
side bar region 703A. One mechanism for causing a search result or
a search query to be saved into the side bar region 703A is to
select the add folder button 727 which appears in the bottom
portion of the window 701. By selecting this button, the current
search result or search query is saved as a list of files and other
objects retrieved in the current search result. In the case where
the search query is saved for later use rather than the saving of a
search result, then the current search query is saved for re-use at
a later time in order to find files which match the search query at
that later time. The user may select between these two
functionalities (saving a search result or saving a search query)
by the selection of a command which is not shown.
[0063] FIGS. 8A and 8B show another aspect of a user interface
feature which may be used with certain embodiments of the present
invention. The window 801 of FIG. 8A represents a display of the
search results which may be obtained as a result of using one of
the various different embodiments of the present invention. The
search results are separated into categories which are separated by
headers 805, 807, 809, and 811 which in this case represent periods
of time. This particular segmentation with headers was selected by
the user's selecting the heading "date modified" using the date
modified button 803 at the top of the window 801. An alternative
selection of the kind category by selecting the button 802 at the
top of the window 801A shown in FIG. 8B results in a different
formatting of the search results which are now categorized by
headers which indicate the types of files which were retrieved in
the search and are separated by the headings 815, 817, 819, and 821
as shown in FIG. 8B. The use of these headings in the search
results display allows the user to quickly scan through the search
results in order to find the file.
[0064] FIG. 9 shows another aspect of the present invention that is
illustrated as part of the window 901 shown in FIG. 9. This window
includes a display region 905 which shows the results of the search
and the window also includes two side bar regions 903A and 903B,
where the side bar region 903A is the user-configurable portion and
the side bar region 903B is the system controlled portion. A folder
add button 927 may be selected by the user to cause the addition of
a search result or a search query to be added to the
user-configurable portion of the side bar. The window 901 also
includes conventional window controls such as a title bar or region
929 which may be used to move the window around a display and view
select buttons 937 and maximize, minimize and resize buttons 934,
935, and 936 respectively. The window 901 shows a particular manner
in which the results of a text-based search may be displayed. A
text entry region 909 is used to enter text for searching. This
text may be used to search through the metadata files or the
indexed files or a combination of both. The display region 905
shows the results of a search for text and includes at least two
columns, 917 and 919, which provide the name of the file that was
found and the basis for the match. As shown in column 919, the
basis for the match may be the author field or a file name or a key
word or comments or other data fields contained in metadata that
was searched. The column 921 shows the text that was found which
matches the search parameter typed into the text entry field 909.
Another column 911 provides additional information with respect to
the search results. In particular, this column includes the number
of matches for each particular type of category or field as well as
the total number of matches indicated in the entry 913. Thus, for
example, the total number of matches found for the comments field
is only 1, while other fields have a higher number of matches.
[0065] FIG. 10 shows certain other aspects of some embodiments of
the present invention. Window 1001 is another search result window
which includes various fields and menus for a user to select
various search parameters or form a search query. The window 1001
includes a display region 1005 which may be used to display the
results of a search and a user-configurable side bar portion 1003A
and a system specified side bar portion 1003B. In addition, the
window 1001 includes conventional scrolling controls such as
controls 1021 and 1022 and 1021A. The window further includes
conventional controls such as a title bar 1029 which may be used to
move the window and view control buttons 1037 and maximize,
minimize, and resize buttons 1034, 1035, and 1036. A start search
button 1015 is near a text entry region 1009. A first search
parameter menu bar 1007 is displayed adjacent to a second search
parameter bar 1011. The first search parameter search bar 1007
allows a user to specify the location for a particular search while
two menu pull down controls in the second search parameter menu bar
1011 allow the user to specify the type of file using the pull down
menu 1012 and the time the file was created or last modified using
the menu 1013.
[0066] The window 1001 includes an additional feature which may be
very useful while analyzing a search result. A user may select
individual files from within the display region 1005 and associate
them together as one collection. Each file may be individually
marked using a specific command (e.g. pressing the right button on
a mouse and selecting a command from a menu which appears on the
screen, which command may be "add selection to current group") or
similar such commands. By individually selecting such files or by
selecting a group of files at once, the user may associate this
group of files into a selected group or a "marked" group and this
association may be used to perform a common action on all of the
files in the group (e.g. print each file or view each file in a
viewer window or move each file to a new or existing folder, etc.).
A representation of this marked group appears as a folder in the
user-configurable portion 1003A. An example of such a folder is the
folder 1020 shown in the user-configurable portion 1003A. By
selecting this folder (e.g. by positioning a cursor over the folder
1020 and pressing and releasing a mouse button or by pressing
another button) the user, as a result of this selection, will cause
the display within the display region 1005 of the files which have
been grouped together or marked. Alternatively, a separate window
may appear showing only the items which have been marked or
grouped. This association or grouping may be merely temporary or it
may be made permanent by retaining a list of all the files which
have been grouped and by keeping a folder 1020 or other
representations of the grouping within the user-configurable side
bar, such as the side bar 1003A. Certain embodiments may allow
multiple, different groupings to exist at the same time, and each
of these groupings or associations may be merely temporary (e.g.
they exist only while the search results window is displayed), or
they may be made permanent by retaining a list of all the files
which have been grouped within each separate group. It will be
appreciated that the files within each group may have been created
from different applications. As noted above, one of the groupings
may be selected and then a user may select a command which performs
a common action (e.g. print or view or move or delete) on all of
the files within the selected group.
[0067] FIGS. 11A, 11B, 11C, and 11D show an alternative user
interface for allowing a user to input search queries or search
parameters. The user interface shown in these figures appears
within the window 1101 which includes a user-configurable side bar
region 1103A and a system specified side bar region 1103B. The
window 1101 also includes traditional window controls such as a
window resizing control 1131 which may be dragged in a conventional
graphical user interface manner to resize the window, and the
window further includes scrolling controls such as controls 1121,
1122, and 1123. The scrolling control 1121 may, for example, be
dragged within the scrolling region 1121A or a scroll wheel on a
mouse or other input device may be used to cause scrolling within a
display region 1105. Further, traditional window controls include
the title bar 1129 which may be used to move the window around a
desktop which is displayed on a display device of a computer system
and the window also includes view buttons 1137 as well as close,
minimize, and resize buttons 1134, 1135 and 1136. A back and
forward button, such as the back button 1132, are also provided to
allow the user to move back and forth in a manner which is similar
to the back and forth commands in a web browser. The window 1101
includes a search parameter menu bar 1111 which includes a "search
by" pull down menu 1112 and a "sort by" pull down menu 1114. The
"search by" pull down menu 1112 allows a user to specify the
particular search parameter by selecting from the options which
appear in the pull down menu once it is activated as shown in FIG.
11B. In particular, the pull down menu 1113 shows one example of a
pull down menu when the "search by" pull down menu 1112 has been
activated. The "sort by" pull down menu 1114 allows a user to
specify how the search results are displayed within a display
region 1105. In the example shown in FIGS. 11A-11D a user has used
the "sort by" pull down menu 1114 to select the "date viewed"
criteria to sort the search results by. It should also be noted
that the user may change the type of view of the search results by
selecting one of the three view buttons 1137. For example, a user
may select an icon view which is the currently selected button
among the view buttons 1137, or the user may select a list view or
a column view.
[0068] FIG. 11B shows the result of the user's activation of a
"search by" pull down menu 1112 which causes the display of the
menu 1113 which includes a plurality of options from which the user
may choose to perform a search by. It will be appreciated that
there are a number of different ways for a user to activate the
"search by" pull down menu 1112. One way includes the use of a
cursor, such as a pointer on a display which is controlled by a
cursor control device, such as a mouse. The cursor is positioned
over the region associated with the "search by" menu title (which
is the portion within the search parameter menu bar 1111 which
contains the words "search by") and then the user indicates the
selection of the menu title by pressing a button, such as a mouse's
button, to cause the pull down menu to appear, which in this case
is the menu 1113 shown in FIG. 11B. At this point, the user may
continue to move the cursor to point to a particular option within
the menu, such as the "time" option. This may result in the display
of a submenu to the left or to the right of the menu 1113. This
submenu may be similar to the submenu 719A or to the menu 1214
shown in FIG. 12A. If the "kind" option is selected in the menu
1113, the submenu may include a generic list of the different kinds
of documents, such as images, photos, movies, text, music, PDF
documents, email documents, etc. or the list may include references
to specific program names such as PhotoShop, Director, Excel, Word,
etc. or it may include a combination of generic names and specific
names. FIG. 11C shows the result of the user having selected
PhotoShop type of documents from a submenu of the "kind" option
shown in menu 1113. This results in the display of the search
parameter menu bar 1111A shown in FIG. 11C which includes a
highlighted selection 1111B which indicates that the PhotoShop type
of documents will be searched for. The search parameter menu bar
1111 appears below the search parameter menu bar 1111A as shown in
FIG. 11C. The user may then specify additional search parameters by
again using the "search by" pull down menu 1112 or by typing text
into the text entry field 1109. For example, from the state of the
window 1101 shown in FIG. 11C, the user may select the "search by"
pull down menu 1112 causing the display of a menu containing a
plurality of options, such as the options shown within the menu
1113 or alternative options such as those which relate to PhotoShop
documents (e.g. the various fields in the metadata for PhotoShop
type of documents). A combination of such fields contained within
metadata for PhotoShop type documents and other generic fields
(e.g. time, file size, and other parameters) may appear in a menu,
such as the menu 1113 which is activated by selecting the "search
by" pull down menu. The user may then select another criteria such
as the time criteria. In this case, the window 1101 displays a new
search parameter menu bar 1115 which allows a user to specify a
particular time. The user may select one of the times on the menu
bar 1115 or may activate a pull down menu by selecting the menu
title "time," which is shown as the menu title 1116. The state of
the window 1101 shown in FIG. 11D would then search for all
PhotoShop documents created in the last 30 days or 7 days or 2 days
or today or at any time, depending on the particular time period
selected by the user.
[0069] FIGS. 12A, 12B, 12C and 12D show another example of a user
interface for allowing the creation of search queries for searching
metadata and other data and for displaying the results of the
search performed using a search query. The different implementation
shown in FIGS. 12A-12D shows a user interface presentation in a
column mode; this can be seen by noting the selection of the column
button, which is the rightmost button in the view buttons 1237
shown in FIG. 12A. The window 1201 has two columns 1211 and the
display region 1205, while the window 1251 of FIG. 12C has three
columns which are columns 1257, 1259, and the display region 1255,
and the window 1271 has three columns which are columns 1277, 1279,
and the display region 1275.
[0070] The window 1201 shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B includes a
display region 1205 which shows the results of a search; these
results may be shown dynamically as the user enters search
parameters or the results may be shown only after the user has
instructed the system to perform the search (e.g. by selecting a
"perform search" command). The window 1201 includes conventional
window controls, such as a resizing control 1231, a scrolling
control 1221, a title bar 1229 which may be used to move the
window, a window close button, a window minimize button, and a
window resize button 1234, 1235, and 1236, respectively. The window
1201 also includes a user-configurable side bar region 1203A and a
system specified side bar region 1203B. It can be seen from FIG.
12A that a browse mode has been selected as indicated by the
highlighted "browse" icon 1203C in the system specified side bar
region 1203B. The window 1201 also includes a text entry region
1209, which a user may use to enter text for a search, and the
window 1201 also includes view selector buttons 1237.
[0071] A column 1211 of window 1201 allows a user to select various
search parameters by selecting one of the options which in turn
causes the display of a submenu that corresponds to the selected
option. In the case of FIG. 12A, the user has selected the "kind"
option 1212 and then has used the submenu 1214 to select the
"photos" option from the submenu, resulting in an indicator 1213
(photos) to appear in the column 1211 under the "kind" option as
shown in FIG. 12A. It can also be seen that the user has previously
selected the "time" option in the column 1211 and has selected from
a submenu brought up when the "time" option was selected the "past
week" search parameter. When the user has finished making
selections of the various options and suboptions from both the
column 1112 and any of the corresponding submenus which appear,
then the display showed in FIG. 12B appears. Note that the submenus
are no longer present and that the user has completed the selection
of the various options and suboptions which specify the search
parameters. Column 1211 in FIG. 12B provides feedback to the user
indicating the exact nature of the search query (in this case a
search for all photos dated in the past week), and the results
which match the search query are shown in the display region
1205.
[0072] FIGS. 12C and 12D show an alternative embodiment in which
the submenus which appear on a temporary basis in the embodiment of
FIGS. 12A and 12B are replaced by an additional column which does
not disappear after a selection is made. In particular, the column
1259 of the window 1251 functions in the same manner as the submenu
1214 except that it remains within the window 1251 after a
selection is made (wherein the submenu 1214 is removed from the
window after the user makes the selection from the submenu). The
column 1279 of window 1271 of FIG. 12D is similar to the column
1259. The window 1251 includes a side bar which has a
user-configurable side bar region 1253A and a system defined side
bar region 1253B. The system specified side bar region 1253B
includes a "browse" selection region 1254 which has a clear button
1258 which the user may select to clear the current search query.
The window 1271 of FIG. 12D provides an alternative interface for
clearing the search query. The window 1271 also includes a user
configurable side bar region 1273A and a system specified side bar
region 1273B, but the clear button, rather than being with the
"search" region 1274 is at the top of the column 1277. The user may
clear the current search parameter by selecting the button 1283 as
shown in FIG. 12D.
[0073] FIG. 13A shows another embodiment of a window 1301 which
displays search results within a display region 1302. The window
1301 may be a closeable, minimizeable, resizeable, and moveable
window having a resizing control 1310, a title bar 1305 which may
be used to move the window, a text entry region 1306 and a user
configurable portion 1303, and a system specified portion 1304. The
window 1301 further includes buttons for selecting various views,
including an icon view, a list view, and a column view. Currently,
the list view button 1316 has been selected, causing the display of
the search results in a list view manner within the display region
1302. It can be seen that the text ("button") has been entered into
the text entry region 1306 and this has caused the system to
respond with the search results shown in the display region 1302.
The user has specified a search in every location by selecting
"everywhere" button 1317. Further, the user has searched for any
kind of document by selecting the "kind" option from the pull down
menu 1315 and by selecting the "any" option in the pull down menu
1319. The where or location slice 1307 includes a "+" button which
may be used to add further search parameters, and similarly, the
slice 1308 includes a "+" and a "-" button for adding or deleting
search parameters, respectively. The slice 1307 further includes a
"save" button 1309 which causes the current search query to be
saved in the form of a folder which is added to the user
configurable portion 1303 for use later. This is described further
below and may be referred to as a "smart folder." The search input
user interface shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B is available within, in
certain embodiments, each and every window controlled by a
graphical user interface file management system, such as a Finder
program which runs on the Macintosh or Windows Explorer which runs
on Microsoft Windows. This interface includes the text entry region
1306 as well as the slices 1307 and 1308.
[0074] The window 1301 shown in FIG. 13B shows the activation of a
menu by selecting the search button 1323A, causing a display of a
menu having two entries 1323 and 1325. Entry 1323 displays recently
performed searches so that a user may merely recall a prior search
by selecting the prior search and cause the prior search to be run
again. The menu selection 1325 allows the user to clear the list of
recent searches in the menu.
[0075] FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C show examples of another window in a
graphical user interface file system, such as the Finder which runs
on the Macintosh operating system. These windows show the results
of a particular search and also the ability to save and use a smart
folder which saves a prior search. The window 1401 shown in FIG.
14A includes a display region 1403, a user configurable region
1405, a smart folder 1406, a system specified region 1407, an icon
view button 1409, a list view button 1410, and a column view button
1411. The window 1401 also includes a text entry region 1415 and a
location slice 1416 which may be used to specify the location for
the search, which slice also includes a save button 1417.
Additional slices below the slice 1416 allow the user to specify
further details with respect to the search, in this case specifying
types of documents which are images which were last viewed this
week. The user has set the search parameters in this manner by
selecting the "kind" option from the pull down menu 1419 and by
selecting the "images" type from the pull down menu 1420 and by
selecting the "last viewed" option from pull down menu 1418 and by
selecting "this week" from the pull down menu 1422. The user has
also selected "everywhere" by selecting the button 1421 so that the
search will be performed on all disks and storage devices connected
to this system. The results are shown within the display region
1403. The user can then save the search query by selecting the
"save" button 1417 and may name the saved search query as "this
week's images" to produce the smart folder 1406 as shown in the
user configurable portion 1405. This allows the user to repeat this
search at a later time by merely selecting the smart folder 1406
which causes the system to perform a new search again, and all data
which matches the search criteria will be displayed within the
display region 1403. Thus, after several weeks, a repeating of this
search by selecting the smart folder 1406 will produce an entirely
different list if none of the files displayed in the display region
1403 of FIG. 14A are viewed in the last week from the time in which
the next search is performed by selecting the smart folder
1406.
[0076] FIG. 14B shows a way in which a user may sort or further
search within the search results specified by a saved search, such
as a smart folder. In the case of FIG. 14B, the user has selected
the smart folder 1406 and has then entered text "jpg" 1425 in the
text entry region 1415. This has caused the system to filter or
further limit the search results obtained from the search query
saved as the smart folder 1406. Thus, PhotoShop files and other
files such as TIF files and GIF files are excluded from the search
results displayed within the display region 1403 of FIG. 14B
because the user has excluded those files by adding an additional
search criteria specified by the text 1425 in the text entry region
1415. It can be seen that the "jpg" text entry is ANDed logically
with the other search parameters to achieve the search results
displayed in the display region 1403. It can also be seen that the
user has selected the icon view by selecting the icon view button
1409. Thus, it is possible for a user to save a search query and
use it later and to further limit the results of the search query
by performing a search on the results of the search query to
further limit the search results.
[0077] FIG. 14C shows the window 1401 and shows the search results
displayed within the display region 1403, where the results are
based upon the saved search specified by the smart folder 1406. The
user has caused a pull down menu 1427 to appear by selecting the
pull down region 1427A. The pull down region 1427 includes several
options which a user may select. These options include hiding the
search criteria or saving the search (which is similar to selecting
the button 1417) or showing view options or opening the selected
file. This allows the user, for example, to hide the search
criteria, thereby causing the slice 1416 and the other search
parameters to be removed from the window 1401 which is a moveable,
resizeable, minimizeable, and closeable window.
[0078] FIG. 14D shows an example of a user interface which allows
the user to specify the appearance of a smart folder, such as the
smart folder 1406.
[0079] FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C, and 15D show an example of a system
wide search input user interface and search result user interface.
In one particular exemplary embodiment, these user interfaces are
available on the entire system for all applications which run on
the system and all files and metadata, and even address book
entries within an address book program, such as a personal
information manager, and calendar entries within a calendar
program, and emails within an email program, etc. In one exemplary
embodiment, the system begins performing the search and begins
displaying the results of the search as the user types text into a
text entry field, such as the text entry field 1507. The search
results are organized by categories and are displayed as a short
list which is intentionally abbreviated in order to present only a
selected number of the most relevant (scored) matches or hits to
the search query. The user can ask for the display of all the hits
by selecting a command, such as the "show all" command 1509. FIG.
15A shows a portion of a display controlled by a data processing
system. This portion includes a menu bar 1502 which has at its far
end a search menu command 1505. The user can select the search menu
command by positioning a cursor, using a mouse, for example, over
the search menu command 1505 and by pressing a button or by
otherwise activating or selecting a command. This causes a display
of a text entry region 1507 into which a user can enter text. In
the example shown in FIG. 15A, which is a portion of the display,
the user has entered the text "shakeit" causing the display of a
search result region immediately below a "show all" command region
1509 which is itself immediately below the text entry region 1507.
It can be seen that the hits or matches are grouped into categories
("documents" and "PDF documents") shown by categories 1511 and 1513
within the search result region 1503. FIG. 15B shows another
example of a search. In this case, a large number of hits was
obtained (392 hits), only a few of which are shown in the search
result region 1503. Again, the hits are organized by categories
1511 and 1513. Each category may be restricted in terms of the
number of items displayed within the search result region 1503 in
order to permit the display of multiple categories at the same time
within the search result region. For example, the number of hits in
the documents category may greatly exceed the available display
space within the search result region 1503, but the hits for this
category are limited to a predetermined or dynamically determinable
number of entries within the search result region 1503 for the
category 1511. An additional category, "top hit" is selected based
on a scoring or relevancy using techniques which are known in the
art. The user may select the "show all" command 1509 causing the
display of a window, such as window 1601 shown in FIG. 16A. FIG.
15C shows a display of a graphical user interface of one embodiment
of the invention which includes the menu bar 1502 and the search
menu command 1505 on the menu bar 1502. FIG. 15D shows another
example of the search result region 1503 which appeared after a
search of the term "safari" was entered into the text entry region
1507. It can be seen from the search result region 1503 of FIG. 15D
that the search results are again grouped into categories. Another
search result window 1520 is also shown in the user interface of
FIG. 15D. It can be seen that application programs are retrieved as
part of the search results, and a user may launch any one of these
application programs by selecting it from the search result region,
thereby causing the program to be launched.
[0080] FIGS. 16A and 16B show examples of search result windows
which may be caused to appear by selecting the "show all" command
1509 in FIG. 15A or 15B. Alternatively, these windows may appear as
a result of the user having selected a "find" command or a some
other command indicating that a search is desired. Moreover, the
window 1601 shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B may appear in response to
either of the selection of a show all command or the selection of a
find command. The window 1601 includes a text entry region 1603, a
group by menu selection region 1605, a sort by menu selection
region 1607, and a where menu selection region 1609. The group by
selection region 1605 allows a user to specify the manner in which
the items in the search results are grouped according to. In the
example shown in FIG. 16A, the user has selected the "kind" option
from the group by menu selection region 1605, causing the search
results to be grouped or sorted according to the kind or type of
document or file. It can be seen that the type of file includes
"html" files, image files, PDF files, source code files, and other
types of files as shown in FIG. 16A. Each type or kind of document
is separated from the other documents by being grouped within a
section and separated by headers from the other sections. Thus,
headers 1611, 1613, 1615, 1617, 1619, 1621, and 1623 designate each
of the groups and separate one group from the other groups. This
allows a user to focus on evaluating the search results according
to certain types of documents. Within each group, such as the
document groups or the folder groups, the user has specified that
the items are to be sorted by date, because the user has selected
the date option within the sort by menu region 1607. The user has
also specified that all storage locations are to be searched by
selecting "everywhere" from the where menu selection region 1609.
Each item in the search result list includes an information button
1627 which may be selected to produce the display of additional
information which may be available from the system. An example of
such additional information is shown in FIG. 17 in which a user has
selected the information button 1627 for item 1635, resulting in
the display of an image 1636 corresponding to the item as well as
additional information 1637. Similarly, the user has selected the
information button for another item 1630 to produce the display of
an image of the item 1631 as well as additional information 1632.
The user may remove this additional information from the display by
selecting the close button 1628 which causes the display of the
information for item 1635 to revert to the appearance for that item
shown in FIG. 16A. The user may collapse an entire group to hide
the entries or search results from that group by selecting the
collapse button 1614 shown in FIG. 16A, thereby causing the
disappearance of the entries in this group as shown in FIG. 16B.
The user may cause these items to reappear by selecting the expand
button 1614A as shown in FIG. 16B to thereby revert to the display
of the items as shown in FIG. 16A.
[0081] The search results user interface shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B
presents only a limited number of matches or hits within each
category. In the particular example of these figures, only the five
top (most relevant or most highly sorted) hits are displayed. This
can be seen by noticing the entry at the bottom of each list within
a group which specifies how many more hits are within that group;
these hits can be examined by selecting this indicator, such as
indicator 1612, which causes the display of all of the items in the
documents category or kind for the search for "button" which was
entered into the text entry region 1603. Further examples of this
behavior are described below and are shown in conjunction with
FIGS. 18A and 18B. It will be appreciated that window 1601 is a
closeable and resizable and moveable window and includes a close
button and a resizing control 1625A.
[0082] FIGS. 18A and 18B illustrate another window 1801 which is
very similar to the window 1601. The window 1801 includes a text
entry region 1803, a group by menu selection region 1805, a sort by
menu selection region 1807, and a where menu selection region 1809,
each of which function in a manner which is similar to the regions
1605, 1607, and 1609 respectively of FIG. 16A. Each item in a list
view within the window 1801 includes an information button 1827,
allowing a user to obtain additional information beyond that listed
for each item shown in the window 1801. The window 1801 further
includes headers 1811, 1813, 1815, 1817, 1819, 1821, and 1823 which
separate each group of items, grouped by the type or kind of
document, and sorted within each group by date, from the other
groups. A collapse button 1814 is available for each of the
headers. The embodiment shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B shows the
ability to switch between several modes of viewing the information.
For example, the user may display all of the hits within a
particular group by selecting the indicator 1812 shown in FIG. 18A
which results in the display of all of the images files within the
window 1801 within the region 1818A. The window is scrollable,
thereby allowing the user to scroll through all the images. The
user can revert back to the listing of only five of the most
relevant images by selecting the "show top 5" button 1832 shown in
FIG. 18B. Further, the user can select between a list view or an
icon view for the images portion shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B. The
user may select the list view by selecting the list view button
1830 or may select the icon view by selecting the icon view button
1831. The list view for the images group is shown in FIG. 16A and
the icon view for the images group is shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B.
It can be seen that within a single, moveable, resizable, closeable
search result window, that there are two different views (e.g. a
list view and an icon view) which are concurrently shown within the
window. For example, the PDF documents under the header 1819 are
displayed in a list view while the images under the header 1817 are
displayed in an icon view in FIGS. 18A and 18B. It can also be seen
from FIGS. 18A and 18B that each image is shown with a preview
which may be capable of live resizing as described in a patent
application entitled "Live Content Resizing" by inventors Steve
Jobs, Steve Lemay, Jessica Kahn, Sarah Wilkin, David Hyatt, Jens
Alfke, Wayne Loofbourrow, and Bertrand Serlet, filed on the same
date as this application, and being assigned to the assignee of the
present inventions described herein, and which is hereby
incorporated herein by reference.
[0083] FIG. 19A shows another example of a search result window
which is similar to the window 1601. The window 1901 shown in FIG.
19A includes a text entry region 1903 and a group by menu selection
region 1905 and a sort by menu selection region 1907 and a where
menu selection region 1908. Further, the window includes a close
button 1925 and a resizing control 1925A. Text has been entered
into the text entry region 1903 to produce the search results shown
in the window 1901. The search results again are grouped by a
category selected by a user which in this case is the people
options 1906. This causes the headers 1911, 1913, 1915, and 1917 to
show the separation of the groups according to names of people.
Within each group, the user has selected to sort by the date of the
particular file or document. The user interface shown in FIG. 19A
allows a user to specify an individual's name and to group by
people to look for communications between two people, for example.
FIG. 19B shows another way in which a user can group a text search
("imran") in a manner which is different from that shown in FIG.
19A. In the case of FIG. 19B, the user has selected a flat list
from the group by menu selection region 1905 and has selected
"people" from the sort by menu region 1907. The resulting display
in window 1901A is without headers and thus it appears as a flat
list.
[0084] FIG. 19C shows the user interface of another search result
window 1930 which includes a text entry region 1903 and the
selection regions 1905, 1907, and 1908 along with a scrolling
control 1926. The results shown in the window 1930 have been
grouped by date and sorted within each group by date. Thus, the
headers 1932, 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1940 specify time periods such
as when the document was last modified (e.g. last modified today,
or yesterday, or last week). Also shown within the search results
window 1930 is the information button 1942 which may be selected to
reveal further information, such as an icon 1945 and additional
information 1946 as shown for one entry under the today group. This
additional information may be removed by selecting the contraction
button 1944.
[0085] FIG. 19D shows a search result window 1950 in which a search
for the text string "te" is grouped by date but the search was
limited to a "home" folder as specified in the where menu selection
region 1908. Time specific headers 1952, 1954, 1956, and 1958
separate items within one group from the other groups as shown in
FIG. 19D.
[0086] FIG. 19E shows an alternative embodiment of a search result
window. In this embodiment, the window 1970 includes elements which
are similar to window 1901 such as the selection regions 1905,
1907, and a scrolling control 1926 as well as a close button 1925
and a resizing control 1925A. The search result window 1970 further
includes a "when" menu selection region 1972 which allows the user
to specify a search parameter based on time in addition to the text
entered into the text entry region 1903. It can be seen from the
example shown in FIG. 19E that the user has decided to group the
search results by the category and to sort within each group by
date. This results in the headers 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1979 as
shown in FIG. 19E.
[0087] FIG. 20 shows an exemplary method of operating a system wide
menu for inputting search queries, such as the system wide menu
available by selecting the search menu command 1505 shown in FIG.
15A or 15B, or 15C. In operation 2001, the system displays a system
wide menu for inputting search queries. This may be the search menu
command 1505. The user, in operation 2003, inputs a search, and as
the search query is being inputted, the system begins performing
and begins displaying the search results before the user finishes
inputting the search query. This gives immediate feedback and input
to the user as the user enters this information. The system is, in
operation 2005, performing a search through files, metadata for the
files, emails within an email program, address book entries within
an address book program, calendar entries within a calendar
program, etc. The system then, in operation 2007, displays an
abbreviated (e.g. incomplete) list of hits if there are more than a
certain number of hits. An example of this abbreviated listing is
shown in FIG. 15B. The listing may be sorted by relevance and
segregated into groups such as categories or types of documents.
Then in operation 2009, the system receives a command from the user
to display all the hits and in operation 2011 the system displays
the search results window, such as the window 1601 shown in FIG.
16A. This window may have the ability to display two different
types of views, such as an icon view and a list view within the
same closeable, resizable, and moveable window. It will be
appreciated that the searching, which is performed as the user is
typing and the displaying of results as the user is typing may
include the searching through the metadata files created from
metadata extracted from files created by many different types of
software programs.
[0088] FIGS. 21, and 22A, 22B, 22C, and 22D will now be referred to
while describing another aspect of the inventions. This aspect
relates to a method of selecting a group of files, such as a group
of individual data files. In an exemplary method of this aspect, a
data processing system receives a selection of a plurality of
items, such as data files, folders (e.g. graphical user interface
representations of subdirectories), application programs or a
combination of one or more of these items. This selection may be
performed by one of the many conventional ways to select a
plurality of items such as (a) positioning a cursor at each item
individually (e.g. through the movement of a mouse) and indicating
a selection individually by, for example, pressing and releasing a
button, such as a mouse's button; (b) pointing a cursor at a first
item in a list and indicating a selection of the first item and
pointing the cursor at a last item in a list of items and
indicating a selection of all items from the first item to the last
item in the list; (c) drawing a selection rectangle by a dragging
operation of the cursor, etc. Thus operation 2101 shown in FIG. 21
receives one or more inputs indicating a selection of a plurality
of items. The system in operation 2103 receives a command
requesting both the creation of a new storage facility (e.g. a
folder) and an association of the plurality of items with the new
storage facility. While the operation 2103 is shown following
operation 2101, in certain embodiments operation 2103 may precede
operation 2101. The association of operation 2103 may be a copy or
a move operation. For example, the user may select multiple items
and then command the system to move those items from their existing
locations to a new folder which is created in one operation as a
result of the move and create new folder command. In response to
the command received in operation 2103, the system creates a new
storage facility, such as a new folder, with a predetermined
directory path name or a user specified path name and the system
further associates the selected plurality of items with the new
storage facility. This association may be either a move or a copy
operation. A copy operation would typically involve making a copy
of each selected item and storing the item with a path name that
reflects the storage of the item within the new folder having a
predetermined directory path name or a user specified directory
path name. A move operation, in which the items are moved into the
new folder, may merely change the path names associated with each
of the selected items (rather than making a copy of the items)
which changed path names will reflect the new file system location
(e.g. within the subdirectory of the new folder) of the selected
items.
[0089] FIGS. 22A-22D show one example of the method of FIG. 21. A
desktop 2201 on a display device is shown containing multiple
windows and also an icon 2227 on the desktop. A cursor 2211 is also
shown on the desktop. The windows 2203, 2205, and 2207 each contain
a plurality of items shown as icons. In particular, window 2203
includes a data file represented by icon 2215 in a folder (e.g. a
graphical representation of a subdirectory in a file storage
system) represented by icon 2217. The window 2205 includes a
program icon 2223 and a document icon 2219 and another document
icon 2225 and a folder icon 2221. The window 2207 shows a list view
of several files including "File B." The user may then, using the
cursor 2211 or using other conventional user interface techniques,
select multiple items. This may be done with one input or more
inputs which indicate the selection of multiple items. FIG. 22B
shows the result of the user having selected icons 2215, 2217,
2223, 2225, 2227, and "File B" in window 2207. It can be seen that
the cursor 2211 is positioned adjacent to the icon 2225 at this
point in the operation. Then the user, after having selected a
plurality of items, may invoke the command referred to in operation
2103. An example of this is shown in FIG. 22C which represents a
portion of the desktop 2101, which portion is designated 2201A as
shown in FIG. 22C. The user has caused a pop up menu 2230 to
appear, which pop up menu includes three options 2231, 2232, and
2233. Option 2231 would allow a user to move all the selected items
into the trash (e.g. delete them) while options 2232 and 2233
relate to the command referred to in operation 2103 of FIG. 21. In
particular, option 2232 is a command which is selectable by the
user to create a new folder and, in the same operation, move the
items which have been selected into the new folder. Option 2233 is
a command which allows the user to, in one operation, create a new
folder and copy the selected items into the new folder. In the
example shown in FIGS. 22A-22D, the user will select option 2232,
thereby causing the system to create a new storage facility, such
as a new folder with a predetermined directory name (e.g. "new
folder") or alternatively, a user specified path name. This result
is shown in FIG. 22D in which the desktop 2201 now includes a new
window labeled "new folder" which represents and shows the contents
of this new folder, which is also shown as the folder 2253 which is
a graphical user interface representation of this new folder.
[0090] It will be appreciated that this method may employ various
alternatives. For example, a window may appear after the command
option 2232 or 2233 has been selected, and this window asks for a
name for the new folder. This window may display a default name
(e.g. "new folder") in case the user does not enter a new name.
Alternatively, the system may merely give the new folder or new
storage facility a default path name. Also, the system may merely
create the new folder and move or copy the items into the new
folder without showing the new window as shown in FIG. 22D.
[0091] FIG. 23 shows another aspect of at least certain embodiments
in which volumes containing user related files are indexed prior to
the user receiving the volume. In certain embodiments, all user
related files are indexed for a particular volume which will also
have an operating systems stored on the volume. This is shown in
operation 2301. In certain alternative embodiments, substantially
all user related files (e.g. more than about 75% of all user
related files) are indexed for a particular volume). The volume may
be a CD ROM or DVD medium or the boot hard drive which is
integrated into a data processing system, and the volume contains
an operating system, certain user software applications and user
related files. The volume may be part of a server computer system.
The user related files may include template files, reference data
files, such as dictionaries and/or encyclopedias and/or famous
literature, read me files and other related files in addition to
help files. So, for example if the volume contains a word
processing application, such as Microsoft Word, the user related
files may include many WORD template files and other pre-existing
user related files which are accessible and editable by the user
through the use of Microsoft Word or another user application
program. The user related files were designed to be user editable
by allowing the user to enter and remove data contained in the user
related file. This is unlike help files which are designed to give
information to a user about how to operate a program, and help
files are not designed to be user editable. The user related files
may include many different types of files, such as word processing
files, spreadsheet files, portable document format (PDF) files,
graphics files (e.g. jpeg or gif, etc.) web page files (html
files), presentation files (".ppt" files), email files, music files
(e.g. MP3 files), etc. The volume may be a magnetic hard drive
which is the main boot drive of the computer system, and the method
of FIG. 23 shows a portion of the manufacturing process in which
the hard drive is created with all the necessary operating system
software as well as the user related files and application programs
for use by the user. In the context of a manufacturing process,
operation 2301 involves the indexing, by the manufacturer's system,
of all user related files for a particular volume. This indexing is
beyond the indexing of just help files which are not designed to be
user editable and are designed to give information to the user
about how to operate a program. After the index is created in an
operation 2301, it is stored with the user related files and with
the operating system software on a volume in operation 2303. The
storage process of operation 2303 may involve a block copy
operation to write the data to the storage volume, such as a CD ROM
or a magnetic hard drive which would be the main boot drive of a
newly manufactured computer system. Then in operation 2305, the
volume is distributed to a licensee or customer. For example, the
volume is distributed as a CD ROM or a DVD disk to a licensee or a
customer. Or the volume may be distributed as a magnetic hard drive
of a computer system, which hard drive causes the system to boot by
using the operating system software stored on the hard drive. The
pre-indexing of files prior to the user receiving the volume saves
the user time and allows the user to use the index database without
having to previously index the user related files. In certain
embodiments, the volume is used to transmit the content of the
volume to a licensee or customer during a downloading operation,
rather than physically distributing the volume to the licensee or
customer. The downloading operation typically involves establishing
a connection with the licensee or customer (e.g. through an
Internet protocol based connection) and transmitting the user
related files and an index of the user related files and at least a
portion (e.g. modified software or security updates, etc.) of an
operating system software which is executable and which may be used
to boot a computer system. The licensee or customer stores the
transmitted files and index of the files and the portion of an OS
on a machine readable volume after receiving the transmission.
[0092] FIG. 24 shows another method of certain embodiments of the
invention. Operation 2401 creates an index database of the full
text content of user files which include non-help files such as
sample files and template files which are designed to be user
editable. The user files and the index database of the user files
is to be stored on a volume with an operating system. In certain
embodiments, each file has a persistent file identifier. Further,
the source volume may have a source volume identifier. In operation
2403, the index database and the user files are stored onto a
destination volume using block copy operations, without copying the
source volume's identifier and without changing the persistent file
identifiers for the user files. Also stored on this destination
volume is an operating system. Then in operation 2405, the
destination volume is made available for distribution by, for
example selling the computer which contains the destination volume.
The user receives the destination volume and activates, in
operation 2407 the index database software which adopts the
previously created database as its own database. At this point, the
index database is ready for searching with an operating system
level searching software upon the system's initial use. Thus, the
system may receive a user search query in operation 2409 and
perform the search in operation 2411 without having to index the
original set of user files.
[0093] When a volume has not been previously indexed, the user may
still cause the volume to be indexed by selecting a command to
begin indexing. This may happen automatically as a consequence of
the attaching the volume, which may be a portable hard drive to a
computer system through a port, such as a USB port, etc. or as a
result of the user instructing the system to begin indexing through
a command or a graphical user interface. In either case, it may
take some time to index the volume, and a progress bar may be
displayed while the indexing is being performed. In one
implementation, no searching may be allowed while the indexing is
being performed. In an alternative implementation, a search of the
files which have been indexed so far may be allowed, and the
results of the search (possibly a partial list of the results) may
be displayed before indexing is completed.
[0094] In the foregoing specification, the invention has been
described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof.
It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto
without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the
invention as set forth in the following claims. The specification
and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative
sense rather than a restrictive sense.
* * * * *