Patent ID: 6363400
Filing Date: 2002-03-26
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of representing data as files in a data processing system, the data processing system comprising:an operating system having a default view component for providing default file attributes of files in a file system in a default view, the default view component of the operating system being accessible to applications programs; one or more mass storage devices, each mass storage device comprising one or more logical disks, each logical disk storing a file system, the file systems comprising files, the file systems including names, attributes and locations of the respective files stored in the respective file systems; one or more file system drivers, each file system driver comprising function routines and file management structures for providing file access services to the operating system with respect to at least one of the file systems, wherein the file system drivers each provide a single representation of the respective file systems; and a view application for providing configurable views of the files in the file systems, the configurable views including custom file attributes which are not available in the default views provided by the default view component of the operating system; the method comprising:(a) requesting by one of the applications programs a first view of a first defined part of one of the file systems; (b) the default view component of the operating system providing a default view of the first defined part; (c) requesting by one of the applications programs a second view of a second defined part of one of the file systems; (d) substituting the view application for the default view component of the operating system with respect to the second defined part; (e) the view application providing a non-default view of the second defined part.