Abstract document management systems and methods

A computer system adapted to operate with more than one document specification, comprising:

• a abstract document management layer (ADML) service module operating as a neutral document management service integrating more than one document management repository with different document definitions, wherein the ADML can be implemented in a programming language including at least one of:
• JAVA, C, and CORBA;
• a normalized document definition table comprising common properties of a document;
• a mapping mechanism configured to map document definitions to the ADML service module normalized document definition obtained from the normalized document definition table;
• and
• a network interface adapted to enable a user to access, manage and manipulate documents comprised of more than one document format with the computer system, wherein the documents are retrieved and transmittable from/to a remote source using any known data exchange protocol.

A abstract document management layer (ADML) service module operating as a neutral document management service integrating more than one document management repository with different document definitions, wherein the ADML service module can be implemented in a programming language including at least one of:

• JAVA, C, and CORBA, the ADML service module comprising:
• access by ADML service module to normalized document definitions listed in a normalized document definition table comprising common properties of a document;
• access by ADML service module to a mapping mechanism to map a particular document definition to the ADML service module normalized document definition;
• and
• access to the ADML service module a network-enabled interface adapted to enable users to the single service to access, manage and manipulate documents comprised of more than one document format with the ADML system and wherein the documents are retrieved and transmitted from/to a remote source using any known data exchange protocol;
• wherein the ADML service module is adapted for operation within a software and system architecture that enables document management implementation plug-ins through the network-enabled interface.