Patent ID: 7937469

Claim:
A data management server that is connectable to a plurality of content servers that store content data and metadata associated with the content data, the metadata having different structures and including content data attribute information, and to a client device that acquires the content data based on the metadata, the data management server comprising: a storage device associated with the data management server; a communication device for communicating with the client and the plurality of content servers; a memory storing: data collection instructions for causing the data management server to collect the metadata from the plurality of the content servers, the metadata including first thumbnail storage location information identifying storage locations on the plurality of content servers of thumbnail data associated with the content data; thumbnail collection instructions for causing the data management server to collect the thumbnail data associated with the content data based on the first thumbnail storage location information, and to store the collected thumbnail data in the storage device; data processing instructions for causing the data management sever to convert the different structures of the stored metadata to a consistent hierarchical structure, based on the attribute information, to store the converted metadata in the storage device, and to replace the first thumbnail storage location information of the stored metadata with second thumbnail storage location information identifying storage locations of the thumbnail data in the storage device; transmission instructions for causing the data management server, in response to a request from the client device, to transmit to the client device via the communication device the stored metadata including the second thumbnail storage location information; and a processor configured to execute the instructions stored in memory.