Method for automatic file conversion when a file is written to a managed directory. (01-Oct-2009)

Method for automatic file conversion when a file is written to a managed directory .

When a file is created the file manager process will examine the type of the new file to see if that file can be converted to a target type for the repository. If the repository is a directory in a file system then the file manager is the file system where that directory resides. In this case the file system would be enhanced to check the type of the new file and convert it to a target type as it is being written. If the file system supports the Data Management API (DMAPI) then the file system can be enhanced to use DMAPI interfaces to intercept write calls.

Alternatively the file could be stored in it's original format with a named data stream being the target format of the repository.

As an example of this, let one suppose that a developer works primarily in an Operating System A. For OS A, the primary documentation program is Microsoft WORD*. Thus when a file is created and saved, it defaults to the .doc formatting of MS WORD. However, the user is part of a larger project that has agreed to save their work in HTML format. Thus, the user must always remember to create an HTML version of the same WORD document whenever the user adds new or updated documents to the common repository.

With this disclosure, the user no longer has to create an HTML version of the same WORD document. When the user moves or copies the WORD document into the sha...