Repository content analysis and management

1. A repository content analysis and management system, comprising:

a computing system having:

a processor;

memory under control of the processor; and

instructions that, when loaded into the memory, are adapted to enable the processor to carry out predetermined operations;

wherein the predetermined operations comprise:

searching a data repository for data content including files;

analyzing the data content to select ones of the files for transformation, each of the selected files having a respective pre-transformation file content;

transforming the selected files so as to produce transformed files; and

storing the transformed files in the data repository; and

wherein: the respective pre-transformation file content of the selected files is preserved after the production of the transformed files; and

the transforming of a given one of the selected files is carried out by:

determining a content type of the given selected file;

when the content type is not a portable document format (PDF) type, generating a file having a PDF type and corresponding to the given selected file, and then carrying out a transformation with respect to the corresponding file having the PDF type;

when the content type is a PDF type, carrying out a character recognition process (OCR) with respect to the respective pre-transformation file content of the given selected file, and adding to the given selected file a hidden layer of text corresponding to an OCR result from the OCR process, to produce a corresponding transformed file, the hidden layer of text being added to the given selected file without modifying any existing content of the given selected file, thereby preserving the pre-transformation file content.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the searching operation is automatically periodically conducted.

3. The system as set forth in claim 2 , wherein the selecting of a given one of the files for transformation is carried out based on one or more of:

a respective file type of the given file;

a page by page analysis of a respective number of characters on one or more pages of the given file; and

an extraction of one or more respective attachments of the given file.

4. The system as set forth in claim 3 , wherein the page by page analysis is based on an averaged value of the respective number of characters for a plurality of the one or more pages of the given file.

5. The system as set forth in claim 3 , wherein the extraction is carried out recursively so as to include attachments within attachments.

6. The system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein:

the searching operation is carried out by a periodic searching device;

the analyzing operation is carried out by a content analysis engine;

the transforming operation is carried out by a content transformation engine; and

the storing operation is carried out by a file management device.

7. A system for repository content analysis and management comprising:

a computing device having a processor, a memory under control of the processor, a storage, and software instructions stored on storage device and executed in the memory by the processor, the software instructions defining operations including;

searching repository content, previously stored in a repository, and returning an indication of one or more found documents;

analyzing the found documents to obtain an indication of ones of the found documents requiring a transformation;

applying, to the documents requiring the transformation action, transforming actions to the repository content based on the analysis to provide transformed repository content; and

applying file management actions on the transformed repository content, in accordance with a repository storage instruction;

wherein the transforming actions comprise:

stripping all PDF annotations from a copy of a given document of the documents requiring transformation;

carrying out optical character recognition (OCR) processing on the stripped copy;

extracting text from the OCR processing, on a page by page basis with respect to the given document; and

adding a hidden text layer, with the extracted text, to the given document on the page by page basis so that the text extracted from the stripped copy is added in the hidden layer to the corresponding page in the given document;

whereby the original given document page includes the hidden text layer as well as any previously existing PDF annotations.

8. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the repository includes one or more of a Document Management System (DMS), a Content Management System (CMS), an Enterprise Content Management System (ECM), a SharePoint system, a file system, and a Webdav-enabled repository.

9. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the searching of the repository content is carried out on a periodic basis, using repository content dates, after an initial comprehensive search operation.

10. The system as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the searching of the repository content is carried out so that content is not retrieved for processing more than once.

11. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the searching of the repository content is carried out so that selected content includes only files that have a respective type that is one of a PDF type, an image type, and an email type.

12. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the analyzing of the found documents comprises:

for a page in a given document of the found documents, determining a number of text searchable characters defining a page character count; and

using the character count and a predetermined threshold value to arrive at a transformation determination as to whether the given document requires transformation.

13. The system as set forth in claim 12 , wherein:

the page character count is determined for each of the pages in the given document; and

the transformation determination is based on an average of the respective page character count for all of the pages in the given document.

14. The system as set forth in claim 12 , wherein:

the page character count is determined for each of the pages in the given document; and

the transformation determination is carried out on a page by page basis so that only the pages having respective page character counts that fall below the predetermined threshold value are indicated as requiring the transformation.

15. The system as set forth in claim 12 , wherein:

the predetermined threshold value represents a target average page character count;

a number of pages in the given document is determined;

the page character count is added to a respective running character count value for the given document, and the page character count is carried out on one or more successive pages of the given document until a product, of the predetermined threshold value and the number of pages in the given one of the found documents, is exceeded by the running character count value;

when the product is not exceeded by the running character count value even after accumulating the respective page character count values of all the pages in the given document, the given document is indicated as requiring the transformation; and

when the product is exceed by the running character count value, the page character count for the successive pages of the given document is not determined, and the given document is indicated as not requiring the transformation.

16. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the carrying out of the OCR processing on the stripped copy includes, prior to the OCR processing, one or more of a de-speckling operation and a de-skewing operation and other OCR preparation stages.

17. The system as set forth in claim 7 , further comprising stripping metadata from the stripped copy while preserving the metadata in the given document to which the hidden text layer is added.

18. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the analyzing of the found documents includes a recursive analysis of attachments of email message attachments to obtain the indication of ones of the found documents requiring the transformation.

19. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the file management actions comprise one or more of;

replacing the original repository content in the repository;

creating new content in the same repository as the original;

creating the new content in the same repository, with a relation between the new content and the original;

creating the new content in a different repository from the original; and

creating the new content in the different repository from original, with the relation between the new content and the original.

20. The system as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the file management actions comprise one or more of:

saving the transformed repository content over the original;

saving the transformed repository content as a new version of the original;

saving the transformed repository content as an attachment to the original;

saving the transformed repository content as a rendition of the original; and

saving the transformed repository content as a new content in the repository.