Patent ID: 7447703

Claim:
A collection information manager process for associating a collection instance with corresponding collection type definition information, to be performed on or with the aid of a programmable device, comprising the following steps: (a) obtaining collection specifier information for a collection instance, (b) deriving a collection type indicator from said collection specifier information, (c) using said collection type indicator to obtain corresponding collection type definition information for said collection instance, wherein collections are data structures comprised of a collection specifier and collection content containing zero or more collection content files, and wherein collection specifiers contain information about collection instances, and wherein collection type definitions are user-defined sets of attributes that are useful to application programs for understanding and processing collections, thereby associating said collection instance with corresponding collection type definition information, and thereby providing a solution to the collection information management problem, and thereby enabling software programs to process collection instances more knowledgeably, in the presence of detailed, corresponding collection type definition information.