Interaction of static and dynamic data sets

Abstract

A data organization system that utilizes associations, pointers and/or links in connection with novel container types is provided. A “list” is a container of items, like a folder, but is different in that a file or other data component can be accessed via multiple lists (whereas an item must appear in exactly one folder). Additionally, lists can be arranged in an arbitrarily complex graph of relationships. The items in a list can be chosen arbitrarily by the user (or by a software program) and need not have any properties in common. A “dynamic list” is a collection of file identifiers that can be built and maintained automatically by the system. The backbone of a dynamic list is a query. In operation, the system can execute a query against the file store or other data store to create or modify the list. Accordingly, associations that reference the resulting files are added to or modified in the dynamic list.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.