Patent ID: 6542884
Filing Date: 2003-04-01
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
In a database wherein directories and files within the database are related to one another in a parent-child hierarchical inheritance tree, such that properties of a parent are inherited by its descendants unless otherwise specified, and such that a child and its progenitors form an ancestral line, an improved method of digitally processing the database in order to update the inheritance tree, each time a computing system adds a new file that has a property and a property value associated with it, the improved method of digitally processing the database comprising the following:an act of determining whether an existing property value in the hierarchical tree that would be applied to the new file is consistent with the property value of the new file; and if not, an act of writing the property value of the new file to the inheritance tree, somewhere in the ancestral line of the new file so that the property value of the new file will then be reflected in the hierarchical tree in a manner so that the property value of the new file is inherited by the new file so as to reduce memory usage increases; and if so, an act of writing the new file to the inheritance tree without writing the property value of the new file in the hierarchical tree.