WO1998044434A1

WO1998044434A1 - Data processing system and method

Info

Publication number: WO1998044434A1
Application number: PCT/GB1998/000804
Authority: WO
Inventors: Martin Russ; Ben Willis
Original assignee: British Telecommunications Plc
Priority date: 1997-03-27
Filing date: 1998-03-27
Publication date: 1998-10-08
Also published as: GB9706429D0; AU6842398A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a data processing system and method, as well as to a computer program product, for processing data objects stored within a computer. Data stored on or accessible via the Internet is typically managed or interrogated using a data base system and associated language, such as SQL, to manage the interface between the data accessible via the Internet. The data base interfaces are only operable if the accessible data is in a known format which is typically HTML documents and such a system is limited insofar as concerns the types of data object which can be manipulated or rendered. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for processing data objects stored within or accessible from a data processing system comprising memory for storing a data structure having a plurality of data object storage locations for storing data objects, means for accessing and manipulating the data objects stored within said data structure, and means for producing an HTML document, the method comprising the steps of establishing, within said memory, the data structure for storing the data objects; populating said data structure with data objects; creating directly from said data structure an access document comprising entries relating to the data objects populating said data structure.

Description

DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD

The present invention relates to a data processing system and method, and to a computer program product for implementing said method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method processing data objects stored within or accessible from the data processing system.

Currently data stored on or retrieved from the Internet typically comprises HTML documents which can be accessed and rendered using one of the many available Web Browsers. Conventionally, data bases and associated data base query languages are used to manipulate data retrieved from the Internet and to provide more user friendly interface to the data. "Networked Biomedical Image Hyperbase" presented at the WWW '94 Conference workshop, "Teaching and Learning with the Web" at the First International Conference on the WWW discloses an image data base, based on the WWW system, which uses the HTML "forms" facility to access the data stored within the data base. Often, knowledge of a data base language, such as SQL, is required in order to be able to access the data stored within a data base. This can be a serious disadvantage if the user of the data base does not have any knowledge of the appropriate query language. The data base systems are tailored to the particular type of information stored within the data base. It is often the case that a data base can only manipulate data provided in a particular format and if the format or type of the data changes, corresponding modifications to the data base will have to be effected in order to render the new format or type of data accessible to the user.

Further, information published on the Internet is typically unstructured and constantly evolving. The task of maintaining information relating to a particular topic is enormous. For example, the efforts of the Digital

Audio-Visual Council (DAVIC) , representing an association of over 200 companies, are directed towards unifying standards for networked multimedia services, applications and products. The DAVIC produces a significant volume of documentation covering a wide range of topics ranging from telecommunications to media content and computer networking. All of the documentation is available from an FTP site on a server currently located in Italy.

The documentation produced by the DAVIC comprises many different formats and forms. The documentation typically comprises one of the following Microsoft Word Documents, Rich Text Format Documents, HTML pages and

Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for processing data objects stored within or accessible from a data processing system comprising memory for storing a data structure having a plurality of data object storage locations for storing data objects, means for accessing and manipulating the data objects stored within said data structure, the method comprising the steps of establishing, within said memory, the data structure for storing the data objects; populating said data structure with data objects; creating directly from said data structure an access document for allowing access to said data objects.

Advantageously, the present invention removes the requirement for a data base interface to the data of interest, together with the concomitant knowledge of an appropriate query language. The contents of the data structure can be displayed or rendered using a simple HTML or Web Browser. Further, the data objects can take a plurality of forms and have a plurality of data types.

Preferably, the access document comprises an HTML document having entries therein relating to the data objects population said data structure. In a preferred embodiment, the entries represent or are hyperlinks to the data objects. Alternatively, an entry may represent a plurality of documents which are identical in content but each have different formats . Still more preferably, when the access document is viewed, or rendered in the case of an HTML document, the structure of that document or the rendered document reflects the structure of the data structure storing the data objects.

Advantageously, the present invention allows the creation of a single access document which allows or provides access to data objects which are have diverse and different formats, representations or structures. In the case where the access document comprises HTML, the single document can be readily viewed or rendered by any one of a number of browsers as are well known within the art .

When the data structure is initially created, or when new data objects have been added to the data structure, it will be necessary to ensure that all data objects are represented in any output produced by the present invention.

Suitably, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for processing data objects wherein the step of creating the access document comprises the steps of traversing the data structure to access directly the data objects stored therein; collating data associated with or derived from the data objects stored in the data structure; and including in the access document an HTML instruction for presenting the collated data when said access document is rendered.

The access document produced should preferably contain an or at least one entry for all of the data objects stored within the data structure.

It will be appreciated that the data structure may comprise data objects having any one of a plurality of possible formats and that only data in one of those formats may be of interest to a user.

Appropriately, an aspect of the present invention provides a method for processing data objects wherein the step of collating comprises the steps of specifying at least one type of a selectable plurality of types of data object to be collated; specifying a search key to be used in collating data objects having the at least one type; searching through all data objects of the at least one type to identify those data objects containing a match with said search key; and collating the identified data objects .

Therefore, a user can select documents or data objects according to the means at their disposal for examining or reading the content of those documents .

Further, data objects which relate to similar or identical subject-matter can be grouped within the same storage location, that is, the collated data objects are preferably stored within the same storage location of the data structure.

Producing and subsequently displaying a summary of the data objects stored within a data structure can be a time consuming task, especially if the step of producing is performed in real-time.

Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention provides a method for processing data objects wherein the step of populating the data structure comprises, for a data object, the steps of creating information data objects containing information associated with respective data objects; storing each information data object and respective data objects in the same storage location of the data structure .

Preferably, an information data object comprises data relating to the attributes of a respective data object such as at least one of either an indication, such as a file name, of a respective data object, the date of creation of a respective data object, an indication the author or creator of the respective data object, a title associated with said data object, or an indication of the location of an associated data object. An embodiment of the present invention also provides a data processing system for processing data objects stored therein or accessible therefrom comprising memory for storing a data structure having a plurality of data object storage locations for storing data objects, means for accessing and manipulating the data objects stored within the data structure, the system comprising means for establishing, within said memory, the data structure for storing the data objects; means for populating the data structure with data objects; and means for creating directly from the data structure an access document comprising entries relating to the data objects populating said data structure.

It will be appreciated that software for use in implementing an embodiment of the present invention can be distributed via any suitable medium such as CD-ROM, floppy-disc or distributed electronically via a communication network.

Suitably, a still further aspect of the present invention provides a computer program product for processing data objects stored within or accessible from a data processing system comprising memory for storing a data structure having a plurality of data object storage locations for storing data objects, means for accessing and manipulating the data objects stored within said data structure, the product or data processing system comprising computer readable program code means for establishing, within said memory, the data structure for storing the data objects; computer readable program code means for populating said data structure with data objects; and computer readable program code means for creating directly from said data structure an access document comprising entries relating to the data objects populating said data structure.

Other aspects and features of the present invention are defined in the following claims.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

figure 1 illustrates schematically a computer system suitable for implementing embodiments of the present invention,

figure 2 depicts a hierarchical data structure for storing documents of interest, and

figure 3 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to figure 1, there is shown schematically a computer system 100, such as a Pentium Pro, suitable for implementing an embodiment of the present invention comprising a microprocessor 102 for executing instructions of an executable application, connected to address 104 and data 106 buses to allow the manipulation of data stored within a memory 108. A hard disc 110 is also accessible via a hard disc controller 112. The hard disc 110 is utilised to store data and programs for use by the microprocessor 102. Access to memory is typically controlled via a memory controller 114 and utilisation of the buses 104 and 106 is managed by respective bus controller 116. The computer system 100 is operable in a client -server arrangement for accessing and retrieving information from the Internet using a Web Browser as is conventional. It will be appreciated that the computer system will typically contain other elements, such as a CD-ROM drive and associated controller, which are not depicted.

With reference to figure 2, there is shown a hierarchical data structure 200 in the form of a tree representative of, for example, a directory 202, such as the root directory, of the hard disc 110, together with a plurality of sub-directories 204 to 210 some of which also have respective sub-directories 212 to 216.

Each level of the data structure 200 comprises a plurality of data objects. For example, the first level of the data structure comprises data objects 218 and 220, the first level of the sub-directories comprises data objects 222 and 224 and the second level of subdirectories comprises data objects 226 to 236. Each subdirectory of the data structure represents a storage location for data objects, that is, a part of the data structure in which a plurality of data objects can be stored.

The data objects are grouped at each storage location or level within the data structure 200. The grouping of the data objects can be according to any predeterminable association such that all data objects within a particular sub-directory may relate to a particular aspect of the DAVIC standardisation discussions. For example, all data objects in a subdirectory 212 may be or relate to all published documents concerning the A10 application programming interface (A10 API) such as the documents Ilb03rl0.doc 226 and Ilb03rl0.rtf 228.

It will be appreciated that the documents Ilb03rl0.doc 226 and Ilb03rl0.rtf represent the same document in different formats. The first document 226 is a Microsoft Word document. The second document 228 is a Rich Text Format Document. Similarly, for the documents or data objects 230 to 236 in the other second level subdirectories 214 and 216. In the present embodiment the file extension "doc" will be taken to represent a Microsoft Word document and the file extension "rtf " will be taken to represent a Rich Text Format Document . Data objects can be grouped notwithstanding that they have different formats.

The data objects which can be accommodated by the present embodiment are not limited to Microsoft Word or Rich text Format Documents. Other data object types can equally well be accommodated such as HTML documents or JPEG files, as are well known within the art. The data objects stored within the data structure can be of any type and in any format .

Referring still to figure 2, each level of the data structure 200 preferably comprises, in addition to the data objects, a plurality of information data objects 238 to 254. The information data objects comprise data relating to attributes of a respective data object.

Those attributes may relate to at least one of the following: an indication,, of a respective data object, the date of creation of a respective data object such as a DOS file name, an indication the author or creator of the respective data object, a title associated with the data object, or an indication of the location of an associated data object. The information data objects provide further information about a respective data object than can be identified readily from the data object per se . Although figure 2 shows a one to one correspondence between the data objects and the information data objects, the present invention is not limited thereto.

Preferably, a sub-directory will contain a single information data object which describes all or some of the data objects, in general terms, stored within that sub-directory. The one to many relationship between the information data object and the associated data objects arises from the fact that the data objects are, or can be, grouped according to any predeterminable association.

Any suitable format can be used to represent the information data objects. For example, the information data objects may be represented using a DOS file comprising simple ASCII characters or, alternatively, an HTML document, which, when rendered, outputs in a formatted manner the attributes of an associated data object .

An information data object is created for each data object stored within the data structure 200. Optionally, a single information data object can be formed which comprises attribute data for all data objects within the data structure 200 or within a particular sub-directory of the data structure 200.

The information data objects are stored preferably within the same sub-directory as the associated data objects. The information data objects can be created upon the addition of a new data object to the data structure. Alternatively, the data structure can be periodically traversed by a search engine to ensure that all data objects have corresponding information data objects. In the event that a data object is located which does not have a corresponding information data object a user can be prompted to create such an information data object. The newly created information data object can then be incorporated into the data structure at the appropriate location.

The information data objects associated with data objects Ilb03rl0.doc 226 and Ilb03rl0.rtf 228 are Ilb03rl0.ini 244 and Ilb03rl0.in2 246 respectively.

The first of these information data objects may have a format as depicted in Table 1 below.

Name:llb03rl0

Title :A10 API

Description: Content-related data, navigation tools, etc .

Author/Date: Sub-System TC, 4-8 Mar 96 Comments :DAVIC 1.1 Baseline document, output from

Seoul Meeting.

TABLE 1 Upon first establishing the data structure and population thereof, a search engine is used to traverse the data structure in, for example, a depth first manner to determine or identify the data objects contained therein. The search engine can either examine and extract data directly from the data objects per se, rather the corresponding FAT table entries, in the event that the data objects are stored on the hard disc, or, ignore the data objects and utilise only the information data objects, if present. Alternatively, the entries in the sub-directories can be obtained from the FAT table of the hard disc. The implementation of such a search engine which is able to traverse such a data structure is well known within the art and will not be described in further detail. The search engine also notes for each data object the location thereof within the data structure .

The search engine, after collating information either directly from the data objects or extracting the information from the information data objects, creates an access document, typically an HTML document, for presenting the collated or extracted information to a user. The collated information is included within the HTML document using, for example, a "table" instruction, as is well known within the art. The location information is utilised to provide access to the documents in the form of, preferably, hypertext links to the data objects. The data objects can then viewed by invoking an appropriate application via a suitably coded applet .

The HTML document can then be rendered using an standard Web Browser, or if applets are utilised, a Java enabled Web Browser, to produce a table of the contents of or an orderly means for accessing the hierarchical data structure and the data objects stored in the hierarchial data structure. The location information contained within the rendered table can then be used in the conventional manner to create a hyperlinks to the data objects associated therewith. The hyperlink is invoked in the conventional manner by "clicking" on the hyperlink.

A data object may also represent a HyperText Clipping which is a simple text file containing a name, typically the DOS file name of the file, and a URL pointing to an HTML document on the Internet. The HyperText Clipping may have an extension of HTC . The search engine can be instructed to collate information relating only to the hyperlinks stored within the data structure. The hyperlinks contained within the HyperText Clipping data objects can be used to access data or HTML documents accessible from the Internet. Again, the data objects representing hyperlinks can be grouped within a sub-directory according to predeterminable criteria such as all hyperlinks pointing to DAVIC documents relating to the same or very similar aspects of a multimedia standard.

The search engine is adapted to be able to effect searches for matches with selectable search parameters or a given search key without having to have regard to the types of the data objects stored within the data structure 200. It is likely, in the event that various data objects in the same sub-directory merely represent the same basic information, although in different formats, that the search engine will locate a plurality matches for the given search key or search parameters. The search engine should have preferably the ability to search through all of the various types of documents stored within the data structure. Preferably, the search engine should search at least HTML documents, Microsoft Word documents, *.doc, and Rich Text Format documents, *.rtf documents.

The access document or HTML document subsequently produced is arranged so that, when rendered, documents or data objects located as a result of a search which are merely different types of the same basic underlying document are grouped and displayed together. Referring to Table 2 there is shown an example of a table 300 produced as a consequence of rendering an HTML document produced from a data structure. The table 300 comprises five columns headed "Name", "Title", "Description", "Author/Date" and "Comments". Each of these headings has a corresponding entry in an information data object associated with a respective data object. The "Name" column represents the file name of a data object within a sub-directory, the "Title" field represents the title of that document, the "Description" column comprises a meaningful description of the content of the associated data objects, the "Author/Date" column comprises the name of the author of the data object and the date of creation of the data object and "Comments" column represents an opportunity to display any further comments in relation to the data objects.

It can be seen from, for example, the second row 302 that the documents or data objects listed correspond to those in the second level sub-directory 212 depicted in figure 2. The information displayed was extracted from one of the * . in? files associated with the data objects stored within the second level sub-directory 212. The information listed in the first column in parenthesis can be derived from the FAT table of the hard disc supporting the data structure or via a suitable program arranged to measure the number of bytes constituting a data object. Referring to Table 2 there is shown schematically the results of rendering an access document, such as an HTML document, produced according to the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates a flow chart of the processing performed by an embodiment . The embodiment assumes that a data structure, such as a disk file structure of a hard disk, exists and is already populated with data objects and associated information data objects. The data processing system gains access to or provides a data structure containing, in a number of storage locations or levels, a number of data objets at step 302. The data structure may be stored locally on the hard disk or within the memory of the data processing system. Alternatively, the data structure may be stored remotely on, for example, a file sever which may be accessed via a communication network, such as the Internet or WWW. Data relating to the stored data objects is collated at step 304. The data may be used to identify and provide access to the data objects or may be used to invoke an application for providing access to or opening the data objects. The data structure may be traversed using any one of a plurality of known techniques. The technique selected should be appropriate to the structure of the data structure. An access document for providing access to or identifying the available data objects within the data structure is created at step 306. The access document is output for further processing or for display to an interested user at step 308.

If the data structure has been newly created, an embodiment of the present invention would include the steps of establishing a data structure within an appropriate memory or on a suitable storage medium of a local or remotely accessible data processing system. Any newly created data structure would then require to be populated with data objects. Therefore, an embodiment preferably comprises the step of populating the data structure or allowing the data structure to be populated with data objects.

It will be appreciated that the data objects stored within the data structure can be accessed directly via the hyperlinks associated therewith which identify the location of the data objects within the data structure. The present invention therefore obviates the need for a data base interface in order to be able to manipulate or view the documents relating to subject. Furthermore, as an HTML document is produced from which the table is rendered, the data objects can be viewed or accessed using a simple HTML Web Browser.

Although the above description uses the term data object storage location, it will be appreciated that a storage location may comprise multiple data objects. For example, the storage location of a hierarchical disc or network file structure can be a directory or a subdirectory of that structure. Each directory or subdirectory comprises several files which represent various types of documents, application etc. An advantage of using the disc or network file structure as the data structure of an embodiment is that the need to encapsulate the data objects is avoided. Encapsulation represents or requires a significant investment in terms of defining the various class structures required to encapsulate the data objects. Therefore embodiments of the present invention advantageously reduce the time and expense required to produce a system for providing access to heterogenous documents which is typically incurred with prior art systems which rely upon encapsulation.

Furthermore, a data object may represent, for example, a file having a particular format or a collation of, for example, files having different formats but relating to the same or similar subject-matter, that is, a data object may represent a folder which contains several other data objects.

The access document or rendered access document may selectably comprise data relating to at least one of the information data objects or the data objects. CONTENTS/AlO DOCUMENTS

Claims

1. A method for processing data objects stored within or accessible from a data processing system comprising memory for storing a data structure having a plurality of data object storage locations for storing data objects, means for accessing and manipulating the data objects stored within said data structure, the method comprising the steps of

establishing, within said memory, the data structure for storing the data objects;

populating said data structure with data objects;

creating directly from said data structure an access document comprising entries allowing access to the data objects populating said data structure.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data processing system further comprises means for generating an HTML document, and the step of creating the access document comprises producing an HTML document.

3. A method for processing data as claimed in either of claims 1 or 2 , wherein the step of creating the access document comprises the steps of traversing said data structure to access directly the data objects stored therein;

collating data associated with or derived from the data objects stored in the data structure; and

including in the access document an HTML instruction for presenting said collated data when said access document is rendered.

4. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the step of collating comprises the steps of

specifying at least one type of a selectable plurality of types of data object to be collated;

specifying a search key to be used in collating data objects having said at least one type;

searching through all data objects of said at least one type to identify those data objects containing a match with said search key; and

collating said identified data objects.

5. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the step of populating the data structure comprises the step of storing data objects having a predeterminable association within the same data object storage location.

6. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the predeterminable association is governed by at least one of either the subject-matter of the content of a data object or the type of a data object.

7. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the step of populating the data structure comprises the steps of creating information data objects containing information associated with respective data objects; storing each information data object in the same storage location of the data structure as the respective data object associated therewith.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein an information data object comprises data relating to attributes of a respective data object.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein said attributes comprise at least one of either an indication, such as a file name, of a respective data object, the date of creation of a respective data object, an indication the author or creator of the respective data object, a title associated with said data object, or an indication of the location of an associated data object.

10. A method as claimed in any of claims 7 to 9, wherein said entries reflect the content of the information data objects or a pointer a data object, such as an HTML document, stored outside of the data structure.

11. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the step of creating is responsive to at least one of either a change to the structure of the data structure or a change to a data object stored within the data structure.

12. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the data objects comprise different data types, such as different types of image file, text file, word processor file, or rich text format file or any combination thereof .

13. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the data objects comprise a pointer, such as a URL, to an HTML document or page, and the method further comprises the step of incorporating the pointer of such an HTML document or page into said access document .

14. A data processing system for processing data objects stored therein or accessible therefrom comprising memory for storing a data structure having a plurality of data object storage locations for storing data objects, means for accessing and manipulating the data objects stored within said data structure, the system comprising means for establishing, within said memory, the data structure for storing the data objects;

means for populating said data structure with data objects;

means for creating directly from said data structure an access document comprising entries relating to the data objects populating said data structure.

15. A system as claimed claim 14, further comprising means for producing an HTML document and wherein said means for creating the access document further comprises means for producing an HTML document .

16. A system as claimed in either of claims 14 or 15, wherein the means for creating the access document comprises

means for traversing said data structure to access directly the data objects stored therein;

means for collating data associated with or derived from the data objects stored in the data structure; and

means for including in the access document an HTML instruction for presenting said collated data when said access document is rendered.

17. A system as claimed in any of claims 14 to 16, wherein the means for collating comprises

means for specifying at least one type of a selectable plurality of types of data object to be collated;

means for specifying a search key to be used in collating data objects having said at least one type;

means for searching through all data objects of said at least one type to identify those data objects containing a match with said search key; and

means for collating said identified data objects.

18. A system as claimed in any of claims 14 to 17, wherein the means for populating the data structure comprises

means for storing data objects having a predeterminable association within the same data object storage location.

19. A system as claimed in of claims 14 to 18, wherein the predeterminable association is governed by at least one of either the subject-matter of the content of a data object or the type of a data object.

20. A system as claimed in any of claims 14 to 19, wherein the means for populating the data structure comprises

means for creating information data objects containing information associated with respective data objects;

means for storing each information data object in the same storage location of the data structure as the respective data object associated therewith.

21. A system as claimed in claim 20, wherein an information data object comprises data relating to attributes of a respective data object.

22. A system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said attributes comprise at least one of either an indication, such as a file name, of a respective data object, the date of creation of a respective data object, an indication the author or creator of the respective data object, a title associated with said data object, or an indication of the location of an associated data object.

23. A system as claimed in any of claims 19 to 22, wherein said entries reflect the content of the information data objects or a pointer a data object, such as an HTML document, stored outside of the data structure .

24. A system as claimed in any of claims 14 to 23, wherein the means for creating is responsive to at least one of either a change to the structure of the data structure or a change to a data object stored within the data structure.

25. A system as claimed in any of claims 14 to 24, wherein the data objects comprise different data types, such as different types of image file, text file, word processor file, or rich text format file or any combination thereof.

26. A system as claimed in any of claims 14 to 25, wherein the data objects comprise a pointer, such as a URL, to an HTML document or page, and the method further comprises the step of incorporating the pointer of such an HTML document or page into said access document .

27. A computer program product for processing data objects stored within or accessible from a data processing system comprising memory for storing a data structure having a plurality of data object storage locations for storing data objects, means for accessing and manipulating the data objects stored within said data structure, the product comprising computer readable program code means for establishing, within said memory, the data structure for storing the data objects;

computer readable program code means for populating said data structure with data objects; and

computer readable program code means for creating directly from said data structure an access document comprising entries relating to the data objects populating said data structure.

28. A computer program product for processing data objects, wherein the computer readable program code means for creating said access document comprises computer program code means for generating an HTML document.

29. A computer program product for processing data objects as claimed in either of claims 27 or 28, wherein the computer readable program code means for creating the access document comprises

computer readable program code means for traversing said data structure to access directly the data objects stored therein; computer readable program code means for collating data associated with or derived from the data objects stored in the data structure ; and

computer readable program code means for including in the access document an HTML instruction for presenting said collated data when said access document is rendered.

30. A computer program product as claimed in any of claims 27 to 29, wherein the computer readable program code means for collating comprises

computer readable program code means for specifying at least one type of a selectable plurality of types of data object to be collated;

computer readable program code means for specifying a search key to be used in collating data objects having said at least one type;

computer readable program code means for searching through all data objects of said at least one type to identify those data objects containing a match with said search key; and

computer readable program code means for collating said identified data objects.

31. A computer readable program code means for as claimed in any of claims 27 to 30, wherein the computer readable program code means for populating the data structure comprises

computer readable program code means for storing data objects having a predeterminable association within the same data object storage location.

32. A computer readable program code means for as claimed in any of claims 27 to 31, wherein the computer readable program code means for populating the data structure comprises

computer readable program code means for creating information data objects containing information associated with respective data objects;

computer readable program code means for storing each information data object in the same storage location of the data structure as the respective data object associated therewith.

33. A computer program product as claimed in claim 32, wherein an information data object comprises data relating to attributes of a respective data object.

34. A computer program product as claimed in claim 33, wherein said attributes comprise at least one of either an indication, such as a file name, of a respective data object, the date of creation of a respective data object, an indication the author or creator of the respective data object, a title associated with said data object, or an indication of the location of an associated data object .

35. A computer program product as claimed in any of claims 32 to 34, wherein said entries reflect the content of the information data objects or a pointer a data object, such as an HTML document, stored outside of the data structure .

36. A computer program product as claimed in any of claims 27 to 35, wherein the computer readable program code means for creating is responsive to at least one of either a change to the structure of the data structure or a change to a data object stored within the data structure .

37. A computer program product as claimed in any of claims 27 to 36, wherein the data objects comprise different data types, such as different types of image file, text file, word processor file, or rich text format file or any combination thereof.

38. A computer program product as claimed in any of claims 27 to 37, wherein the data objects comprise a pointer, such as a URL, to an HTML document or page, and the computer program product further comprises computer readable program code means for incorporating the pointer of such an HTML document or page into said access document .

39. A computer program product as claimed in any of claims 27 to 38, wherein the predeterminable association is governed by at least one of either the subject-matter of the content of a data object or the type of a data object .