Patent ID: 7035842
Filing Date: 2006-04-25
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method for querying instances of asset classes in a digital library coupled to a graphical user interface, comprising: providing at least one asset class having at least one attribute, wherein each attribute is defined to have an attribute object comprising an external data object and attribute object type identifying a type of the attribute object, wherein the attribute object type indicates one of a plurality of different data structure formats searchable through separate application programs, wherein the data structure formats include a multimedia file, a database object accessed through a database application program, and a text object accessed through a text search engine application program; providing an asset object for each instance of one asset class and information on a file location of attribute objects providing the attributes for the asset object instance, wherein the asset object includes information for the attributes in the instance of the asset class; presenting the graphical use interface including fields for receiving user input from a window having predefined scrollable items for generating a query indicating an asset name, search predicate, at least one attribute operator, and attribute value, wherein the attribute operator is associated with at least one attribute included in the asset object having the indicated asset name; and processing the query by: