Virtual documents generated via combined documents or portions of documents retrieved from data repositories

A method of generating a virtual document in a document management system comprising:

• issuing a request by an application of the document management system for a document;
• receiving the request by the document;
• sending a request from the document to a bit provider capable of performing read/write operations to retrieve or store content of the document, wherein the content of the document is stored completely separate from the bit provider;
• determining, by the bit provider, addresses of the content, wherein the content addresses are for data which is less than an entire file within a single storage repository;
• retrieving, by the bit provider, via a read operation, the content located in less than an entire file of the storage repository, wherein the file in the storage repository storing the content holds additional data not included as part of the document content;
• presenting the formatted content to a user, wherein the user perceives the content as a single document;
• and
• storing the contents of the document in the more than one storage repository via the bit provider write operation.

A method of generating a document in a document management system of a computer system which includes at least one application for issuing instructions and a plurality of data storage repositories, the method comprising:

• providing a first user of the computer system with access to properties of the document management system;
• attaching by the first user, selected ones of the properties to a document of the document management system;
• storing the attached selected properties;
• storing content of the document, among more than one of the data storage repositories, separate from a location where the selected properties are stored;
• issuing a first request, by the first user, for the document;
• receiving the request by the document;
• issuing a request, from the document, to a bit provider capable of performing read/write operations and attached to the document, to retrieve or store the content of the document, wherein the bit provider is stored completely separate from the content of the document;
• determining, by the bit provider, the content is located in the more than one storage repository, wherein each of the storage repositories storing the content of the document holds sub-portions of the content of the document;
• retrieving, by the bit provider via a read operation, the desired content located in the more than one storage repository, wherein each of said repositories hold a sub-portion of the document content;
• combining the sub-portions of the content;
• presenting the combined sub-portions to the first user, wherein the first user perceives the combined sub-portions as a single document;
• and
• storing the contents of the document in the more than one storage repository via the bit provider write operation.

A document management system of a computer system capable of forming virtual documents including at least one application for issuing instructions and a plurality of data storage repositories, the document management system comprising:

• a plurality of properties of the document management system;
• a document of the document management system to which are attached selected ones of the properties;
• content of the document stored at locations separate from where the selected properties are stored, the content stored among more than one of the data storage repositories;
• a bit provider attached to the document and capable of performing read/write operations, the bit provider configured to retrieve the content of the document via a read operation, and the bit provider being stored completely separate from the content of the document;
• where the bit provider determines the locations of the content in the more than one storage repository, wherein each of the storage repositories storing the content of the first document holds sub-portions of the content of the first document;
• the retrieved sub-portions are presented to the first user, wherein the first user perceives the combined sub-portions as a single document;
• and
• the first user storing contents of the document in the more than one storage repositories via a write operation of the bit provider.