Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-27
2004-10-05
Robinson, Greta (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06801902
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Documents are understood within the meaning of the present patent application to be both digital data files in different formats, and also complete application programs for electronic data processing installations consisting of one data file or a plurality of data files. Therefore, documents within the meaning of the present patent application are one data file or a plurality of data files with any type of information content.
It is known in the prior art that documents are managed by means of data banks installed in electronic data processing equipment. Different types of data banks such as, for example relational, object-oriented or full-text, but also combinations of different data banks are employed in this connection for different areas of application. Irrespective of which type of data bank is employed, such a data bank offers the advantage of having at its disposal comprehensive access and managing mechanisms, via which the documents filed therein, or the cross references to such documents, can be managed in optimized time frames and in a comfortable manner.
However, in order to make it possible for applications programs having no or only limited functional access to data banks, to make use of said comprehensive access and managing mechanisms of a data bank, a communications link has to be established between the data bank, on the one hand, and between the operating system and the application programs on the other hand. The application programs are then capable of accessing the data bank with the help of the operating system. In order to establish such a line of communication, suitable communiccation interfaces have to be available to both the operating system and/or the application programs, and also to the data bank. In addition, adaptations need to be arranged between said communication interfaces, which to a great extent are programmed individually and have to be adapted to the data bank and the respective application program. The adaptations are designed, for example as macros in the specific macro language of the respective operating system and/or application program. The application of new versions of application programs often requires a revision of the adaptations. Apart from the great expenditure required for generating, adapting and maintaining such adaptations, such a connection of communication between the application programs and the data bank is afflicted with other drawbacks. For example, programmed adaptations are application program-specific and have only limited access to the functionality of the given data bank environment.
Another possibility of managing documents in electronic data processing installations, which is known according in the prior art and currently widely implemented, is the management by means of a data file system. The management of documents by means of data file systems does in fact permit the documents and/or to the document attributes (to the extent such document attributes are available) to be accessed by the operating system or any given type of application program. Within data file systems of the type commonly employed at the present time, however, the individual documents are arranged in different indexes configured in a hierarchical form, which permits only limited document management. When searching for a certain document or document attribute, the various hierarchical levels of the data file system have to be searched sequentially (recursively), which may lead to long search times. Furthermore, the type and scope of the document attributes for managing the documents in the data file system are preset by the operating system and cannot be changed or extended by the user. Finally, no hierarchical management of storage media (e.g. an optical memory) for increasing the data safety is feasible in connection with the data file systems of the known type.
In order to counteract the drawback of lack of data safety in connection with data file systems, a hierarchical storage unit is known, for example from EP 0 665 499 A2, which comprises magnetic and optical storage media and a storage driver. A standard fixed-disk interface is reproduced on said storage driver by means of a peripheral driver configured in the form of an SCSI bus. The operating system and any desired type of application programs can access said interface. The hierarchical management of storage media is possible in connection with a data file system generated on the storage unit.
However, no search mechanisms of any type are made available by the storage unit disclosed in EP 0 665 499 A. The operating system and the application programs are in fact capable of accessing the storage unit directly via the standard fixed-disk interface, however, said system and said programs can only file selected documents in the storage unit, or retrieve such documents from said storage unit, whereas a targeted search for defined documents or document attributes is not possible. The disclosed hierarchical storage unit would thus be suited only in the form of a storage subsystem, for example for a data file system or a data bank, whereby the desired search mechanisms could be made available by such a data file system or data bank. However, so as to be able to make use of both the advantageous possibilities for accessing the storage unit from the operating system and the application programs, and the comfortable search and management mechanisms of the data bank, one would be faced again with the aforementioned problem posed by the communication connection between the operating system and the application programs, on the one hand, and the data bank on the other.
On the other hand, a data file system is known from WO 95/16 241, which is expected to counteract the drawback of the fact that the document attributes are limited by the operating system. Several quasi-data banks are subordinated to the data file system disclosed in said patent document, and the contents of the extended index features of the individual documents can be filed in said quasi-data banks. A cross-reference in the quasi-data bank finally refers to the document, which continues to be filed in the data file system as before.
With the data file system known from WO 95/16 241, the operating system and the application programs are in fact provided with the capability of accessing the documents filed in the data file system, and it is possible to search for certain documents and document attributes or for the contents of extended document index features. However, only the extended index features of an index entry of the data file system are contained in each case in one of the quasi-data banks. Therefore, when searching for defined documents and document attributes, or for the contents of extended document index features, it is necessary to first determine on the basis of the individual index entries of the data file system via cross-references the associated quasi-data banks, and the latter then have to be sequentially opened and searched, and subsequently closed again. Therefore, the search for a document with a defined document attribute content from the operating system or the application programs takes place not directly but always via the detour of the quasi-data banks. Such a two-stage search is extremely time-intensive and, in connection with great numbers of documents and document attributes as they are frequently filed, for example in a data bank in a network comprising a plurality of data processing installations, leads to long search times.
In summary, the conflict that exists between the goals can be elicited from the prior art specified above in the following way: documents and/or document attributes are either filed in data banks, with the availability of the advantageous search and management mechanisms associated with such data banks, but without having the possibility of accessing the documents or the document attributes by means of the operating system or any desired type of application programs, or the documents and/or document attributes are filed in data file systems, with
Collard & Roe P.C.
Rayyan Susan
Robinson Greta
winrechte GbmH
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