Patent ID: 7953748

Claim:
An information processing apparatus for transmitting content data in response to a content transmission request from a client, the apparatus comprising: a data transmitting and receiving unit executing data transmission and reception processing with the client via a network; a content storage unit storing content; a content management unit managing content stored in the content storage unit; a metadata storage unit storing metadata as content attribute information including a range of acceptable values associated with the stored content, the metadata including increment information indicating an acceptable increment within the range of acceptable values, the range having a maximum value and a minimum value; a property information acquisition unit extracting, from the metadata storage unit, property information including the metadata; a codec setting unit for associating codec information with the stored content, the codec information describing a type of coding used to code the content; and a transmission data generation unit generating data to be transmitted to the client, based on the property information acquired by the property information acquisition unit; wherein the content management unit executes content management by: defining individual content as an object; storing, in a folder, contents defined as objects; defining a class to indicate category classification of the object; defining classes as a hierarchical structure; setting the class indicating the category classification of each of the objects; and managing the objects by using a content directory having the hierarchical structure; the metadata storage unit storing with respect to each of the objects: property information including: identification information of the object; class information indicating the category classification of the object; and information relating to the hierarchical structure of the content directory corresponding to the category classification of the object; the property information acquisition unit extracting the property information of a classified object in response to a property information acquisition request with class designation, the request made by the client and received by the data transmitting and receiving unit; the transmission data generation unit generating transmission data including: the property information extracted by the property information acquisition unit and the codec information; and information of at least one allowable value selected from the range and settable as data of the extracted property information, the at least one allowable value being included to be displayed separate from an input value to indicate that the input value is allowed to be inputted, the input value corresponding to the content data; and the data transmitting and receiving unit transmitting the transmission data generated by the transmission data generation unit to the client.