The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 10, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 05, 1998
Steven Victor Kauffman, San Jose, CA (US);
Lara Marie Lewis, Campbell, CA (US);
James Albert Willey, Cupertino, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A distributed client server system for managing and storing digital files includes a digital library and a shared file system, wherein the digital library further includes a library client, a library server including a library catalog, and an object server and wherein the shared file system includes a workstation with a local storage and a shared file server with a shared file storage. The digital library maintains metadata about the files in the shared file system, in a database in the library catalog. The metadata for a file includes different names for different versions of the file and a check-in status flag. A read operation is performed on the shared file system by a user retrieving a file directly from the shared file system. A write operation is performed by the user invoking a digital library application, which in turn changes the status of the flag to “checked-out”. When a file is “checked-out” it can not be edited by any other user. When the “checked-out” file is saved, it is saved under a new name. When a user quits after editing the file, the status of the file is changed back to “checked-in”.