EP2286375A1

EP2286375A1 - Method and device for resource management, and recording medium for said method

Info

Publication number: EP2286375A1
Application number: EP09761899A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Guillaume Dorbes; Cyril Hue; Claire Bazin
Original assignee: Alcatel Lucent SAS
Current assignee: Alcatel Lucent SAS
Priority date: 2008-05-15
Filing date: 2009-05-14
Publication date: 2011-02-23
Also published as: CN102027493B; JP5631303B2; CN102027493A; KR20100134121A; JP2011521341A; FR2931267A1; WO2009150348A1; US20110313970A1; KR101247472B1; FR2931267B1

Abstract

The resource management method of the present invention includes : - storing (90) an instantiable model of a card intended to contain a resource description, said card model, during the instantiation thereof to create a new card, forcing the acquisition of: - a card identifier; - at least one access path containing an address; and - a reference domain for each access path, the reference domain specifying, if the resource is an address, which computer application to execute from among a plurality of applications capable of being specified by the reference domain to contact the person corresponding to said address or to access the information corresponding to said address.

Description

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT METHOD AND DEVICE AND RECORDING MEDIUM FOR THIS METHOD

The invention relates to a method and a device for managing resources and a recording medium for implementing this method.

The resources here are executable files stored in a memory of an electronic calculator or addresses allowing a computer application to contact a person or to access information. The term "management method" denotes a method that makes it possible to classify and sort these resources according to predetermined criteria in order to enable a user to easily find one of these resources. For example, resource management methods include ordering and filtering resources based on predetermined criteria. There are methods of managing people addresses. These methods are also called address book management methods. For example, such a method exists in the Outlook application of Microsoft ®. The cards in this address book are designed to contain the different possible addresses of a contact such as their phone numbers, e-mail addresses and postal addresses. This map is saved in a format specific to the application that will exploit it. For example, when a user wants to send an E-mail to a contact that he has selected in his address book, only the Outlook application can use the contents of the card to perform this task.

There are also many other methods of managing other resources. For example, Internet browsers can manage addresses to Web pages or HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). These methods are better known as Favorites Management. Other applications allow you to manage image, audio or video files. However, these different management methods are incompatible with each other. For example, a method of managing an address book can not additionally handle shortcuts to web pages or images or audio or video files.

However, it is desirable to have a resource management method for managing different types of resources and this regardless of the computer application to run to exploit these resources. The invention aims to satisfy this wish. It therefore relates to a resource management method comprising storing, in a memory of an electronic calculator, an instantiable model of a card intended to contain a description of a resource, this imposing card model, when its instantiation to create a new map, the acquisition of: • an identifier of the map to identify this map among all the maps already created, At least one path containing the address in the case where the resource is an address and a path in the case where the resource is an executable file, and

A reference domain for each path, the reference domain specifying, in the case where the resource is an address, which is the computer application to be executed among several applications that may be specified by the reference domain for contact the person corresponding to this address or to access the information corresponding to this address. The map template used here defines what application is to be executed in response to a user's selection of that map. Thus, this resource management method makes it possible to manage, with the same card model, addresses that can only be used by different computer applications. It thus becomes possible to use the same resource manager to manage addresses as diverse as shortcuts to web pages, paths to video or audio files, e-mail addresses or postal addresses of a person, phone numbers of people, etc.

Embodiments of this method may include one or more of the following features: - the reference domain specifies, in the case where the resource is an executable file, that the resource described is an executable located in the location indicated by the access path ;

the method comprises creating a first and a second new map by instantiating the map model to describe, respectively, first and second addresses, the respective reference domains of said first and second addresses specifying, respectively, a first and a second computer applications, the first computer application being unable to contact the person or to access the information corresponding to the second address; the instantiable model also makes it possible, during instantiation to create a new map, to freely define a name and a value of at least one label;

the instantiable model also makes it possible, when instantiating it to create a new card, to create a field intended to contain a link of the card created to another card to incorporate by reference the contents of this other card in the card created when the card is created. it is presented to a user; the instantiable model also allows, when instantiated to create a new map, the definition of a default reference domain when the map created contains several reference domains, the default reference domain specifying the computer application to be executed by defect in response to the selection of this card by a user; when creating a new map by instantiation of the model, the reference domain may specify a computer application to run selected from the group consisting of an application to make a phone call, an application to send an E-mail, an application for play an audio or video file, an application to display an Html page, and an application to display an RSS feed. These embodiments of the management method also have the following advantages:

- having a card model which also makes it possible to describe executable files of a computer application makes it possible to easily adapt the management method to all types of resources,

- have an instantiable model that allows the user to freely define the name and value of a label, and this regardless of the resource described by the map then allows to define common search criteria to select different types of resources exploitable by incompatible computer applications,

- having an instantiable model that allows to incorporate by reference the content of other cards avoids duplicating the information, which ultimately limits the size of the storage space needed to store the cards created,

- having an instantiable model that makes it possible to define a default reference domain makes it possible to simplify the use of these cards.

The invention also relates to an information recording medium containing instructions for executing the resource management method above when these instructions are executed by an electronic computer.

Finally, the subject of the invention is also a resource management device comprising an electronic memory containing an instantiable model of a card intended to contain a description of a resource, this imposing card model, during its instantiation to create a new map, the acquisition:

An identifier of the card making it possible to identify this card among all the cards already created,

At least one path containing the address in the case where the resource is an address and a path in the case where the resource is an executable file, and A reference domain for each path, the reference domain specifying, in the case where the resource is an address, which is the computer application to be executed among several applications that may be specified by the reference domain for contact the person corresponding to this address or to access the information corresponding to this address.

The invention will be better understood on reading the following description given solely by way of nonlimiting example and with reference to the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a telecommunication system incorporating a resource management device,

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an instantiable model of a card used in the resource management device of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is an illustration of several cards created by instantiation of the model of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of another map created by instantiation of the model of FIG. 2, and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a resource management method using the device of FIG. 1. FIG. 1 represents a telecommunication system 2 enabling users to contact other users or to access informations. For this purpose, these users use communication terminals.

To simplify FIG. 1, only a communication terminal 4 has been shown. The main characteristics of the other communication terminals can be deduced from the description that will be made of the terminal 4.

The terminal 4 makes it possible to contact other persons via an information transmission network 6. For example, this network 6 comprises the Internet network.

Here, the terminal 4 is able to establish a telephone call with a telephone 8 or send an e-mail to a computer station 10.

The terminal 4 is also able to access various information such as audio files recorded on a remote server 12 of audio files and Html pages recorded on a remote Internet server 14.

The terminal 4 is made using an electronic computer capable of executing instructions recorded on an information recording medium for implementing the method of FIG. 5. In the particular case described here, the terminal 4 is a computer equipped with a central unit 20 connected to an electronic memory 22. The central unit 20 is also connected to a man-machine interface comprising a screen 24 and a keyboard 26. For example, the central unit 20 comprises an electronic calculator 28 able to execute the instructions of computer applications recorded in the memory 22.

Here, the memory 22 comprises executable files corresponding to the following computer applications: a telephone application 30 having a module for calling the telephone 8 and a module for sending an SMS message (Short Message Service) via the network 6,

an application 32 capable of sending e-mails or e-mails to a recipient, an Internet browser capable of accessing information stored on Internet servers such as the server 14,

a computer application 36 having a module capable of playing music files, a module for playing video files and a module for displaying images stored in a local memory or on a remote file server such as the server 12.

The memory 22 also comprises instructions 38 necessary for the execution of the method of FIG. 5. Thus, the combination of these instructions 38 and the computer 28 forms a resource management device implemented in the terminal 4.

Finally, the memory 22 also comprises the various pieces of information necessary for carrying out the method of FIG. 5. In particular, the memory 22 comprises:

an instantiable model 40 of a map,

a list of 42 label names,

a list 46 of reference domain names, a list 48 of default reference domain names, and a zone 50 for storing information relating to the terminal 4 and the users of the terminal 4.

Figure 2 shows an example of an instantiable card template 40. This model includes: - a WCARD-ID field intended to contain a unique identifier making it possible to identify the card created among all the other cards already created,

- a WCARD-NAME field intended to contain the name of the card,

an ADDRESS section intended to contain the access path to the resource as well as the reference domain associated with this resource; a WC ARD-DOM AIN field intended to indicate which is the reference domain by default when the card created comprises multiple paths, and

a TAG section intended to contain one or more labels. Typically, the content of the WCARD-ID field is filled automatically when instantiating this template. The WCARD-NAME field can either be filled manually by the user when creating a new map by instantiating this model or automatically from the contents of other fields in the model.

The ADDRESS section is intended to contain one or more paths. The path is an address of a person to contact or information to access when the resource is an address. In the case where the resource is an executable file, the path corresponds to the path to this executable file. The value of the path is saved in an ADDRESS-V ALUE field. Each path is associated with a reference domain 60. Here, the reference domain 60 is defined using the fields ADDRESS-DOMAIN-NAME and ADDRESS-DOMAIN-SERVICE-LIST. The ADDRESS-DOMAIN-NAME field is designed to contain the name of the reference domain. When instantiating the model 40, this name can only be chosen from the list 46. For example, here, the list 46 has the following names: - "TELECOM-PHONE" to indicate that the access path is here a phone number,

- "INTERNET-E-MAIL" to indicate that the content of the path is an e-mail address,

- "INTERNET- WEB" to indicate that the path is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of an Html page,

- "INTERNET-RSS" to indicate that the path corresponds to an RSS feed ("Reach Site Summary" or "RDF Site Summary" or "Really Simple Syndication"),

- "FILE-MUSIC" to indicate that the path is a path to an audio file,

- "FILE-PICTURE" to indicate that the path is a path to a file containing an image, and

- "FILE-APPLICATION" to indicate that the path is a path to an executable file of a computer application. The ADDRESS-DOMAIN-SERVICE-LIST field contains a list of computer applications that can exploit the contents of the ADDRESS- VALUE field. Here, the contents of the ADDRESS-DOMAIN-SERVICE-LIST field depend on the contents of the ADDRESS-DOMAIN-NAME field. For example, the contents of the ADDRESS-DOMAIN-SERVICE-LIST field are defined using the following table:

Thus, the reference domain 60 defines what is the computer application or applications that must be executed to exploit the content of the field

ADDRESS-VALUE. When several applications are possible, a message is displayed so that the user chooses himself between the various applications that may be executed.

Here the "PLAYER-PHONE" and "PLAYER-SMS-SEND" applications correspond, respectively, to the modules able to make a telephone call and to send an SMS of the application 30. The application "PLAYER-E-MAIL- SEND "corresponds to the application 32. The application" PLAYER-WEB "corresponds to the application 34. The application" PLAYER-RSS "corresponds to a particular module of the application 34 to subscribe and read RSS feeds. Applications

"PLAYER-MUSIC", "PLAYER-PICTURE" and "PLAYER-VIDEO" correspond to respective modules of the application 36. Each path is also associated with a field ADDRESS-PLA YER-

STATUS. The content of this field makes it possible to discriminate between a path to an executable file and a path corresponding to an address. For example, this path includes the data "Y" when the path is a path to an executable file and the value "N" otherwise. When the path is a path to an executable file, two additional ADDRESS-PLAYER-DEVICE and ADDRESS-PLAYER-SYNTAX fields must be completed. The ADDRESS-PLAYER-DEVICE field indicates which operating system (s) on which the executable file can be run. The ADDRESS-PLAYER-SYNTAX field describes the format of one or more parameters that must be passed to this application when it is executed. Typically, the parameter or parameters in question are contained in the ADRESS-VALUE field of a card.

The ADDRESS section can contain the description of one or more paths. In the case where the ADDRESS section contains the description of several paths, the WC ARD-DOMAIN field is used to define the path access to use by default when the map created by instantiation of the model 40 is selected by a user. Here, the content of this WCARD-DOMAIN field is for example chosen from a list 48. To simplify, here, this list 48 is identical to the list 46 except that it also includes the value "PERSON" which indicates that the card describes the address of a person. Here, the value "PERSON" indicates that the default application to use to reach this person is "PLAYER-PHONE".

The TAG section makes it possible to define one or more labels during an instantiation of the model 40. For example, these labels are intended to serve as search criteria for one or more created maps.

Here, each label is defined using the following fields:

a TAG-TYPE field indicating which type of label is defined,

a TAG-NAME field intended to contain the name of the label, and

a TAG-VALUE field intended to contain the value of the label. Here, the model 40 is designed to require that the content of the TAG-TYPE field be chosen from a predetermined list. For example, this predetermined list contains the following three values "DOMAIN", "SYSTEM", and "USER". When the value of the TAG-TYPE field is "DOMAIN", then the value of the TAG-NAME field can only be chosen from the list 42. Here, the list 42 associates possible values for the TAG-NAME field according to the value contained in the WCARD-DOMAIN field. For example, if the value of the WCARD-DOMAIN field is "PERSON", then the value of the TAG-NAME field should be chosen from the following list {"NAME", "FIRST NAME", "DATE OF BIRTH", ...} .

In the case where the WCARD-DOMAIN field contains the value "FILE-MUSIC", then the contents of the TAG-NAME field must be chosen from the following list {"ENCODING TYPE", "FILE TYPE", ... }.

If the content of the TAG-TYPE field is "SYSTEM", then it is a label whose name and value are automatically determined by the resource management device. For example, it may be a label to indicate which is the last revision date of the contents of the created map.

Finally, if the content of the TAG-TYPE field is "USER", then the contents of the TAG-NAME and TAG-VALUE fields can be freely chosen by the user during the creation of a card by instantiation of the model 40.

The card model 40 therefore imposes the acquisition, during the creation of a card by instantiation of this model, of a certain number of fields.

FIG. 3 represents four examples of cards 70 to 73 created by instantiation of the model 40. The card 70 describes a company whose name is "ATT". The identifier of the card 70 is "WCARDl". The card 70 is devoid of an ADDRESS section. However, the WCARD-DOMAIN field has been filled with the value "PERSON". The card 70 has a label 76 used to define the mailing address of the company ATT. In the particular case shown in Figure 3, a label of the type "DOMAIN" was used to define the mailing address of this company.

The card 71 describes an image. This card has a WCARD2 identifier and a name "ATT logo" as well as a path to the file containing the image to display. The path is contained in the ADDRESS-V ALUE field. This path is associated with a reference domain defined by the value of the ADDRESS-DOMAIN-NAME and ADDRESS-SERVICE-LIST fields. Here, this reference domain indicates that the application to be executed to display this image is the "PLAYER-PICTURE" application. The card 72 describes an audio file recorded on a remote server such as the server 12. This card here has the identifier "WCARD3" and the name "RING-MUSIC". This card also contains the path to the audio file on the server 12 as well as a reference domain. Here, the reference domain specifies that the application to be executed to listen to this audio file is the "PLA YER-MUSIC" application. In addition, the user has freely defined a label whose name is "CLASS" and whose value is "C2". This label is a kind of annotation of the user to enable him to easily find the label 72.

The label 73 describes a person named "Tom". Some people can be contacted by phone or e-mail. The card 73 therefore contains a first access path containing a telephone number and a second access path containing the e-mail address of this person. Each of these paths is associated with a reference domain specifying which application to execute to contact that person either by phone or by e-mail. Specifically, when the path contains a phone number, the reference domain specifies that the applications to be run are "PLAYER-PHONE" and "PLAYER-SMS-SEND". Since two applications are likely to be executed, when the user tries to reach this person by using his phone number, a screen is displayed asking to choose between these two applications that may be executed to reach this person to using his phone number. In the case of the E-mail address, the reference domain specifies that the application to be executed is "PLAYER-E-MAIL-SEND".

Finally, the card 73 also has five labels. Two of these labels are used to define the last name and mailing address of this person. Note that the value of the label defining the mailing address is the identifier "WCARDl" of the card 70. Thus, in this case, the mailing address of this person is defined by reference to another card. In this case, when displaying information about this person, his address will be obtained from the contents of the card 70.

The other labels defined are freely defined tags by the user. Here, the user has defined a label whose name is "LOGO" and whose value includes a reference to the card 71 so that the description of the logo contained in the card 71 does not need to be included in the card 73.

Another label bears the name "RING" and the value of this tag includes a reference to the tag 72 so as not to have to incorporate into the card 73 the complete description of the audio file already included in the card 72.

Finally, the last label defined by the user has the name "CLASS" that is to say a name identical to that already used in the label 72. In addition, the value of this label is also "C2" as in the label 72. Thus, if the user searches for cards containing a label whose name is "CLASS" and whose value is "C2", it will find at least the labels 72 and 73. Thus, the user arrives to select and manage maps describing resources of totally different types.

FIG. 4 represents an example of a map 80 created by instantiation of the model 40. This map 80 describes an executable application that can be located in a memory using the path contained in the ADDRESS-VALUE field. In this case, the reference domain indicates that it is an executable file. For this purpose, the ADDRESS-DOMAIN-NAME field contains the value "FILE- APPLICATION". In addition, the value of the ADDRESS-PLAYER-STATUT field is equal to "Y". Here, the ADDRESS-PLAYER-DEVICE field indicates that the operating system on which this application is to be executed is the operating system "Windows-XP" ® and that no particular syntax of the parameter is required.

Here, the name of this card is "PLA YER-PHONE". Thus, this card describes the application "PLA YER-PHONE" to be executed when the path of a card contains a telephone number. As an illustration, a label freely defined by the user has been added to the contents of the card 80. This label has the name "CLASS" and has the value "C3".

The operation of the system 2 will now be described in more detail with regard to the method of FIG.

Initially, during a step 90, the model 40 is stored in the memory 22 as well as the various applications and information necessary for the management of the cards. Then, during a step 92, the user creates cards by instantiation of the model 40. Each time a card is created, the template 40 defines the information and the format of the information that must be entered by the user.

Once several cards have been created, during a step 94, the user can select one of these cards. In response to selecting a card describing an address to contact a person or to access information, the application specified by the reference domain is executed. The content of the ADDRESS-

VALUE is passed as a parameter to this specific application to automatically launch the execution of a call or send an SMS message to the person to contact or to launch the presentation of the information to access. In case the selected card describes an executable file, the execution of this executable file is automatically launched in response to the section of this card.

In parallel with the steps of creation and selection of cards, the user can proceed, for example, to the following steps: a step 96 of modifying and / or deleting a card, and

a step 98 of searching for one or more cards.

In step 98, the cards are searched using criteria specified by the user such as the names and / or values of certain labels.

It is therefore understood that thanks to the model 40, it is possible to manage any resources using the same application.

Many other embodiments are possible. For example, the terminal 4 may be a mobile phone or a personal assistant such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or any other communication terminal.

The resources that can be described using model 40 are not limited to the examples given in the preceding description. For example, video files, documents or the like can also be described by a map obtained by instantiating the model 40.

Similarly, the different lists 42, 46 and 48 can be completed or modified as desired.

Claims

A method for managing resources, these resources being executable files stored in an electronic memory or addresses enabling a computer application to contact a person or to access information, characterized in that this method comprises:

storing (90), in a memory of an electronic calculator, an instantiable model of a card intended to contain a description of a resource, this imposing card model, during its instantiation to create a new card , the acquisition:

At least one path (ADDRES S-VALUE) containing the address in the case where the resource is an address and a path in the case where the resource is an executable file, and

A reference domain (60) for each access path, the reference domain specifying, in the case where the resource is an address, which is the computer application to be executed among several applications that may be specified by the domain to contact the person corresponding to this address or to access the information corresponding to this address.

The method of claim 1, wherein the reference domain (60) specifies, in the case where the resource is an executable file, that the resource described is an executable located in the location indicated by the path. .

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the method comprises creating (92) first and second new cards by instantiating the card template to describe, respectively, a first and a second addresses. , the respective reference domains of these first and second addresses specifying, respectively, a first and a second computer applications, the first computer application being unable to contact the person or to access the information corresponding to the second address.

4. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the instantiable model also allows, during instantiation to create a new card, to freely define a name and a value of at least one tag (TAG).

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the instantiable model also allows, upon instantiation to create a new map, to create a field for holding a link from the created map to another map to incorporate by reference the content of this other card in the card created when it is presented to a user.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the instantiable model also makes it possible, when it is instantiated to create a new card, to define a default reference domain (WCARD-DOMAIN) when the card created contains several reference domains, the default reference domain specifying the computer application to run by default in response to the selection of this card by a user.

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein when creating a new map by instantiation of the model, the reference domain may specify a computer application to be executed selected from the group comprising an application for placing a call. telephone, an application for sending an E-mail, an application for playing an audio or video file, an application for displaying an Html page, and an application for displaying an RSS feed.

8. Support (22) for recording information, characterized in that it comprises instructions for the execution of a management method according to any one of the preceding claims, when these instructions are executed by a calculator electronic.

9. Resource management device, these resources being executable files stored in an electronic memory or an address enabling a computer application to contact a person or to access information, characterized in that this device comprises an electronic memory ( 22) containing an instantiable model of a card intended to contain a description of a resource, this imposing card model, during its instantiation to create a new card, the acquisition:

An identifier of the card making it possible to identify this card among all the cards already created; at least one access path (ADDRES S-VALUE) containing the address in the case where the resource is an address and a path in the case where the resource is an executable file, and

A reference domain (60) for each access path, the reference domain specifying, in the case where the resource is an address, which is the computer application to be executed among several applications may be specified by the reference domain to contact the person corresponding to that address or to access the information corresponding to that address.