System and method for managing dynamic document references
View Patent ↗Document fragments are managed by the use of fragment objects. Fragment objects contain a reference to a portion of a source document. Referencing documents contain a reference to a fragment object which delivers the content of the fragment of the source document to the referencing document. The source document can be directly updated through updating the fragment of the source document contained in the referencing document via the use of the fragment object. Source document deletion is controlled by storing the references to the source document by fragment objects so that no fragment object has a reference to a non-existent source document. A process for organizing document fragments within a document management system wherein source documents comprise duplicates of the document fragments includes replacing a duplicate fragment with a reference to a single fragment object the fragment object including a reference to a fragment of a source document and an object class method for deletion of the fragment object including instructions to remove the reference to the fragment object from the metadata of the source document to which the fragment object refers.
1. A method for generating a document, comprising:
(a) accessing a referencing document, the referencing document including a reference to an encrypted fragment object;
(b) decrypting the encrypted fragment object using a first decryption key associated with a user accessing the referencing document;
(c) invoking the decrypted fragment object referenced by the referencing document, the decrypted fragment object including a first set of data referencing an encrypted document fragment of a source document, the decrypted fragment object including a second decryption key for decrypting the encrypted document fragment of the source document;
(d) decrypting, using the second decryption key, the encrypted document fragment of the source document; and
(e) incorporating the decrypted document fragment into the referencing document.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fragment object includes a third set of data corresponding to a transformation of the document fragment of the source document, further comprising:
(f) transforming the decrypted document fragment of the source document based on the third set of data; and
(g) incorporating the transformed decrypted document fragment into the referencing document.
3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the transformation of the decrypted document fragment of the source document is a translation of an original language of the decrypted document fragment of the source document into a language corresponding to a language of the referencing document, the original language of the decrypted document fragment of the source document being different from the language of the referencing document.
4. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the transformation of the decrypted document fragment of the source document is a summarization of the decrypted document fragment of the source document.
5. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the transformation of the decrypted document fragment of the source document is a changing a visual characteristic of the decrypted document fragment of the source document.
6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the changed visual characteristic of the decrypted document fragment is a font.
7. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the changed visual characteristic of the decrypted document fragment is size.
8. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the changed visual characteristic of the decrypted document fragment is color.
9. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the changed visual characteristic of the decrypted document fragment is a three-dimensional effect.
10. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the transformation of the decrypted document fragment of the source document is a conversion of the decrypted document fragment of the source document into Extensible Markup Language format.
11. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the first set of data includes a criterion corresponding to a location of the encrypted document fragment of the source document within a repository.
12. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the first set of data includes an address corresponding to a location of the encrypted document fragment of the source document.