Granted Patent B2

US 7,103,602 · App. 09/944,712 · Granted Sep 5, 2006

Abstract

Claims (31)

1. A data management system, comprising:

a first server processor for receiving a plurality of received data files, the data files being capable of being different file types;

a file organizing/categorizing processor for organizing the received data files, based on a predetermined list, into a source directory structure including at least one source directory, and a corresponding destination directory structure including a least one destination directory;

a file logging processor for logging the received data files into a database formed by the source directory structure and identifying a file type of the received data files;

a de-duplicate processor for calculating a value of the received data files to determine whether the received data files have duplicates and flagging duplicated data files in the database;

a plurality of image conversion processors for converting the remaining, de-duplicated, data files into image files, respectively; and

a second server processor for exporting the image files to the destination directory structure;

wherein the file logging processor, the image conversion processors, and the second server processor are parallel processors such that the data files are parallel-processed in a data file logging stage, an image conversion stage, and an image file output stage; and

wherein each of the image conversion processors is capable of converting the data files having the same file type into the corresponding image files.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the image files are stored in the database to be viewed.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the image files converted from the data files are in a tiff format.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data files include email data files and user data flies.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the email data files are in a variety of formats including Microsoft Mail, Outlook, GroupWise, Lotus Notes, and the user data files have a variety of formats including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the email data files include attachment data and email files.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the attachment data and email files are associated with the email data files such tat the image data files for the email data files and the corresponding attachment data and email files can be viewed together.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data files having the same file type are converted into the image files together.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the file logging processor identifies the file type of the data files based on information embedded in of each of the data files.

10. A data management method, comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of received data files, the data files being capable of being different file types;

organizing/categorizing the received data files, based on a predetermined list, into a source directory structure including at least one source directory, and a corresponding destination directory structure including at least one destination directory;

logging the received data files into a database formed by the source directory structure and identifying a file type of the received data files;

de-duplicating duplicates in the received data files by calculating a value of the received data files to determine whether the received data files have duplicates and flagging the duplicated data files in the database;

converting the remaining data files into image files, respectively, using a plurality of image conversion processors, each of the image conversion processors being capable of converting the data files having the same file type into the corresponding image files;

exporting the image files to the destination directory structure; and

parallel processing the steps of logging, converting, and exporting such that the data files are parallel-processed in a data file logging stage, an image conversion stage, and an image file output stage.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of viewing the image files stored in the database.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the converting of the data files includes tiffing the data files into the corresponding image files.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the identifying of the data files includes identifying email data files and user data files, the email data files are in a variety of formats including Microsoft Mail, Outlook, GroupWise, Lotus Notes, the user data files have a variety of formats including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, and the email data files include attachment data and email files.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising the step of associating the email data files with the corresponding attachment data and email files such that the image data files for the email data files and the corresponding attachment data and email files can be viewed together.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the converting of the data files includes converting the data files having the same file type into the image files together.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the identifying of the file type of the data files is based on information embedded in each of the data files.

Assignments (24)