US 7,526,507 B2
Methods, apparatus and computer programs for visualization and management of data organisation within a data processing system
Timothy N Holloway, Lyndhurst (United Kingdom); and Graham D Wallis, West Wellow (United Kingdom)
Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. (US)
Filed on Jun. 28, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/880,033.
Claims priority of application No. 0315190.9 (GB), filed on Jun. 28, 2003.
Prior Publication US 2005/0010458 A1, Jan. 13, 2005
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 17/30 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 707—200  [707/6; 707/7; 707/203] 1 Claim
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for managing data organization, the method comprising the steps of:
generating a candidate reference taxonomy for representing an organization of stored data for multiple disparate application programs that are operating under different operating systems in different computer systems, wherein each of the multiple disparate application programs and each of the different operating systems utilize a different adapter to modify file formats in order to afford communication among the multiple disparate application programs and among the different operating systems, wherein the candidate reference taxonomy is a proposed hierarchical organization of folders for the stored data, and wherein the multiple disparate application programs comprise an e-mail program, a browser and word processor, wherein a name of a mail folder in the e-mail program is used as a new name for corresponding folders in the browser and word processor that have different names, and wherein generating the candidate reference taxonomy is performed by:
receiving user inputs via a graphical user interface; and
interpreting the user inputs to generate nodes that represent relationships between data structures in the candidate reference taxonomy;
comparing the candidate reference taxonomy with an application taxonomy for each of the multiple disparate application programs, wherein the application taxonomy is an innate hierarchy of folders that is associated with a particular application program, and wherein the candidate reference taxonomy is generated through selective: use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) script that describes the application taxonomy of each of the multiple disparate application programs, and wherein the candidate reference taxonomy is auto-generated by a taxonomy manager according to a predefined schedule to detect changes to the application taxonomy for each of the multiple disparate application programs;
in response to a user selecting the candidate reference taxonomy to be used to replace the application taxonomy for each of the disparate application programs, storing the candidate reference taxonomy as a replacement reference taxonomy for the application taxonomies for all of the disparate application programs, wherein each of the disparate application programs utilizes the replacement reference taxonomy instead of the application taxonomy to organize the folders of the stored data;
automatically updating the replacement reference taxonomy in response to an addition of a data structure to any of the application taxonomies of the disparate application programs;
persistently storing a history of all updates to the replacement reference taxonomy;
storing, in a publish/subscribe message broker, a set of subscriptions in a form of topic names that identify topics to which users wish to subscribe;
matching, by the message broker, an incoming topic name, of an incoming published message, to a stored topic name in a stored subscription list, wherein the incoming topic name describes a new candidate reference taxonomy, wherein the new candidate reference taxonomy is generated by auto-genetation, wherein auto-generation of the new candidate reference taxonomy is performed by a taxonomy engine comparing different sets of organization information to identify similarities and differences between the different sets of organization information to create an aggregation taxonomy;
providing the aggregation taxonomy to users by publishing the aggregation taxonomy to the users, wherein the users are unaware of the aggregation taxonomy until the aggregation taxonomy is provided by the publish/subscribe message broker;
in response to one or more of the users issuing a save instruction, generating a new XML file for storage of the aggregation taxonomy as a saved aggregation taxonomy;
deploying the saved aggregation taxonomy to a managed program specified by one or more of the users;
removing, by one or more of the users, selected taxonomy features and nodes from the saved aggregation taxonomy;
in response to one or more of the users receiving an e-mail destined for a pre-determined name, adding a new node to the saved aggregation taxonomy, wherein the new node has a same name as the pre-determined name;
synchronizing the saved aggregation taxonomy with the pre-determined name by updating a laptop-resident taxonomy in a laptop computer used by a specific user with a desktop computer used by the specific user;
denoting certain nodes in the saved aggregation taxonomy as being back-up nodes, wherein back-up nodes enable data assigned to the back-up nodes to be backed-up by the taxonomy manager;
backing up, by the taxonomy manager, data assigned to the back-up nodes;
denoting certain nodes in the saved aggregation taxonomy as being retrieval nodes, wherein retrieving nodes enable data assigned to the back-up nodes to be retrieved by the taxonomy manager; and
retrieving, by the taxonomy manager, data assigned to the retrieval nodes.