Archiving tool for managing electronic data

A method for storing electronic data in a network including a server and at least two client machines. Electronic data may be archived in a predetermined location of a client machine. A local archiving list may be generated on the client machine and may include descriptive properties of the electronic data, as well as the predetermined location. The local archiving list may be transmitted from the client machine to the server to generate a global archiving list, which may then be transmitted to any other client machines in communication with the server. In this manner, each client machine in the network may store the location and descriptive properties of the archived electronic data to facilitate electronic data recovery.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Related Applications

This application claims priority to European Patent No. 07118026, filed on Oct. 8, 2007, and entitled “Method and System for Improving Archiving of Electronic Documents.”

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

A main server in a company is often used to transmit emails from or to electronic devices, such as personal computers of users. As soon as a user needs to archive specific emails, one or more servers can store and archive these emails.

Despite the fact that storage capability is increasing, however, it is still possible to reach a maximum storage capacity. In such a case, users may have to store emails on their own personal computers or laptops for archival purposes. Users, however, often have more than one personal computer, or a personal computer and a laptop, or other electronic devices. As a result, users may have emails archived at different physical locations, and may encounter problems when looking for a specific archived email without knowing the correct archive location.

Further, users may need to retrieve a specific email relating to a specific subject. Presently, users are required to search among all archived emails relating to several subjects to locate the particular email.

In view of the foregoing, what are needed are tools for archiving electronic data that facilitate locating previously archived electronic files and other electronic data. Beneficially, such tools would facilitate identifying particular archived electronic files and data based on their particular properties and characteristics. Such tools are described and claimed herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention have been developed to provide improved tools for archiving electronic data that create a global archiving list and communicate the list to other machines.

Consistent with the foregoing, this disclosure is directed to a method for archiving electronic data in a network comprising a server communicating with at least two client machines. The method may include archiving the electronic data in a predetermined location of a client machine, and generating a local archiving list on the client machine. The local archiving list may include descriptive properties of the electronic data, as well as the predetermined location.

The local archiving list may be transmitted from the client machine to the server to generate a global archiving list on the server. The global archiving list may then be transmitted to other client machines in communication with the server. In this manner, each client machine in the network may store the location and descriptive properties of the archived electronic data to facilitate electronic data recovery.

A corresponding system and computer program product for implementing the above-stated method are also disclosed and claimed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It will be readily understood that components of embodiments of the invention, as generally described and illustrated in the Figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, as represented in the Figures, is not intended to limit the scope, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that embodiments of the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of embodiments of the invention.

The illustrated embodiments of the invention will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout. The following description is intended only by way of example, and simply illustrates certain selected embodiments of apparatus, methods, and computer program products.

FIG. 1describes a network comprising at least one server100and several client machines102,104and106. Different users may share these client machines102,104,106under private sessions. This will be described below with respect to an embodiment relating to one user working on different client machines102,104and106.

The server100may generally be a workstation. The client machines102,104,106may be a personal computer, a laptop or any other device able to connect to a network (not shown). The server100may communicate with each client machine102,104,106through connection lines108,110and112. The server100may also communicate with other networks (not shown) in order to transmit and receive electronic data from other servers via the Internet, for example. Electronic data may include electronic documents and files such as electronic mail messages (“emails”). Each email may include descriptive properties, for example, date of the email, subject of the email, sender, recipient or recipients, etc.

Each client machine102,104,106may include an archiving module to process the archiving, as will be described below. Each client machine102,104,106may comprise a hard disk with a specific dedicated location, such as a local archiving folder114,116and118, respectively, for archiving emails on each client machine102,104,106.

Each client machine102,104,106may also comprise a local archiving list in order to classify the content of the local archiving folder114,116,118. The content may include emails archived in the archiving folder114,116,118of a corresponding client machine102,104,106.

In some embodiments, the local archiving list comprises three kinds of descriptive properties. A first descriptive property may relate to the archiving folder114,116,118, such as the path of the folder, size of the folder, etc. A second descriptive property may relate to a date of creation when storing a first email, a date of update when electronic data is subsequently added for archiving in the local archiving folder, a date range of the updates, or a last update date, for example. A third descriptive property may include one or more descriptive properties relating to the email, such as the sender, the recipient, or the subject of the email.

The server100may comprise a global archiving list, which includes a replication of each local archiving list, as will be described in more detail below. The global archiving list may enable classification of each archived email on each client machine102,104,106. A process in accordance with one embodiment of the invention may include a number of steps, which will now be described in detail.

As shown inFIG. 2, in an embodiment, a particular client machine102may include a first electronic file, or email, to archive. As soon as the client machine102launches the archiving of the electronic file, the archiving module102may create a specific folder114in a step200in order to store the email. Then in a step202, the archiving module may create a local archiving list in order to store information relating to the archived email, such as the descriptive properties mentioned above. Each archiving module of each client machine102,104,106may create a local archiving list the first time an electronic file or email is archived on the corresponding client machine102,104,106.

In a step204, the archiving module may register, for example, first, second and third descriptive properties of the archived email in the local archiving list. In some embodiments, as mentioned above, the first descriptive property may refer to the path for the storage location of the email. The second descriptive property may refer to the date of creation of the archiving folder114,116,118, and to the date of archiving the first email. The third descriptive property may refer to the sender, the recipient and the subject of the email.

In a step206, the archiving module of the client machine102may launch a replication of the local archiving list to the server100. The server100may replicate the local archiving list of the client machine102,104,106and keep the replication of the local archiving list in a global archiving list. As a result, the global archiving list may include the same details as the local archiving list of the client machine102.

After this replication, in a step208, the server100may replicate the global archiving list on the local archiving list of other client machines104,106. This replication on other client machines104,106may allow each client machine102,104,106to have the same information as the local archiving list of the original client machine102. This may enable the other client machines104,106to locate the first email stored on the original client machine102.

Each time an archiving module generates an archiving folder114,116,118and an archiving list in a client machine102,104,106when storing an email, the archiving module may launch a replication to the server100in order to create the same list in the global archiving list of the server100. Thus, the server100may also store each descriptive property relating to the archived email. When each client machine102,104,106archives emails, therefore, the server100may have a global list with sub-lists comprising local archiving lists of client machines102,104and106, for example. In addition, each time a client machine102,104,106archives an email, the server100may inform other client machines102,104,106in order to update their local archiving list.

As shown inFIG. 3, in an embodiment, a particular client machine102may receive a second email to archive. As soon as the archiving module of client machine102archives the second email in a step300, the archiving module may update the local archiving list in a step302. Thus, the client machine102may add second and third descriptive properties of the second email to the local archiving list. The update of the local archiving list for client machine102may automatically generate a reporting log in a step304. The reporting log may contain only the second and third descriptive properties.

To inform the server100of such update, the client machine102may replicate the reporting log on the server100in a step306. Then, the server100may replicate the reporting log and update the global list. When the server100replicates the reporting log from client machine102, the server100may update the replication of the local list from client machine102in the global list. The server100may then create a temporary reporting log only available on the server100. The temporary reporting log may only contain the second and third descriptive properties of the second email archived in client machine102.

As soon as a replication of the reporting log is available on the server100, the server100may automatically replicate the reporting log in all client machines104,106other than the original client machine102in a step308. This local replication of the reporting log on each client machine104,106other than the client machine102may update local archiving lists of each client machine104,106. As soon as the replication is done on all other client machines104,106, the server100may remove the temporary reporting log in a step310. Thus, the whole global archiving list may not be replicated, and only the relevant part of the global archiving list, i.e. the reporting log, may be transmitted to other client machines104,106.

In operation, a user may only need to read the local archiving list on the current client machine102to retrieve an email stored on any machine102,104,106in communication with the server100. As the local archiving list of each client machine102,104,106may comprise replication of the local archiving lists of other client machines102,104,106, the user may be able to exactly determine the location of the searched email, i.e. on the current client machine102of the user, or on another remote client machine104,106of that user.

In order to facilitate access to emails stored on distant client machines104,106, the method may include additional steps to consolidate emails which refer to the same criteria, such as the same object, the same recipient or the same sender at a same location. Thus, at a defined period, which could be each month, each half-year or each year, for example, an automatic process may gather and consolidate all emails according to a predetermined consolidation profile.

In one embodiment, for example, the predetermined profile may indicate that all emails relating to the same recipient may be consolidated every month at a specific date in a particular client machine102, referred to as the main client machine102. Therefore, each month a replication may occur from the other client machines104,106storing emails matching the criteria of the consolidation profile to the main client machine102. As soon as all emails are replicated in the specific location or folder114of the main client machine102, the replicated emails may be deleted from their original locations in the other client machines104,106. Thus, when a user searches for a specific email having the criteria defined in the consolidation profile, the user may search for the email from a single physical location on one client machine102. The search is therefore more convenient than searching on different client machines104,106.

An embodiment may enable a client machine102to be informed of the content of different archives located remotely from that client machine102. The location and the above-mentioned descriptive properties may not be specifically defined and may vary according to the preferences of a user. In an embodiment, the server100may be able to direct the user to the exact location of an archived email.

Embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to an email archiving tool. Other embodiments, however, may equally relate to other media, such as voice, video or any other type of information-carrying media which may need to be accessed and searched within an archive.

Embodiments may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. An embodiment that is implemented in software may include, but is not limited to, firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.

Furthermore, embodiments may take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium may include any apparatus that may contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.