US 7,681,122 B1 · File conversion system and method

Abstract

A flexible and scalable file format conversion system is capable of supporting a number of contemporaneous conversion requests. For each file, a conversion request entry and one or more related conversion task entries are maintained in FIFO queues under the control of a distribution manager program. Conversion operations are handled by application programs under the control of associated graphical processor programs. Conversion tasks are assigned to graphical processors by the distribution manager based on the conversion capabilities of the associated application program. The uploaded files received from clients for conversion are stored in a shared folder pending access by the assigned graphical processor. The graphical processors have a uniform interface with the queues and the memory. The results of the processing are stored in the shared folder where they are subsequently accessed by the web server and transmitted back to the client.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A system for managing contemporaneous conversions of a plurality of files uploaded to the system by a plurality of users from a plurality of user computers, the system comprising:

a memory,
a web server adapted to receive a file uploaded by a user over a computer network store the received file in the memory, receive a converted version of the file from the memory, and transmit the converted version to the user computer for displaying to the user,
a conversion task distribution manager having a request queue containing a request entry for each received file for which conversion has not been completed and a task queue containing at least one conversion task entry for each request entry in the request queue,
a plurality of file format conversion applications, and
a plurality of graphical processors, each graphical processor being operatively connected to the distribution manager, the memory, and a conversion application and adapted to receive a conversion task from the distribution manager, retrieve the file associated with the conversion task from the memory, control a conversion application to create a converted version of the file, and store the converted version in the memory.

2 more elements

A computer-implemented method for performing contemporaneous conversions of electronic files uploaded by a plurality of users from a plurality of user computers, each file being in one of a plurality of supported formats, the method comprising:

receiving a file from a user over a computer network,
storing the file in a memory,
determining one or more format conversion tasks to be performed to create at least a display version of the file for displaying to the user,
creating a conversion request entry for the file, the request entry having at least an identifier of the user computer that supplied the file,
creating at least one conversion task entry for the file, each conversion task entry being associated with the conversion request entry for the file and having at least an identifier of a conversion task to be performed,
maintaining a plurality of graphical processors, each graphical processor being adapted to control a conversion application to perform at least one type of conversion operation,
maintaining a conversion request queue containing a request entry for each received file for which conversion has not been completed,
maintaining a conversion task queue containing at least one conversion task entry for each request entry in the request queue,
selecting a conversion task entry from the task queue,
assigning the conversion task associated with the selected entry to a graphical processor, the graphical processor controlling a conversion application to create a converted version of the file and storing the converted version in the memory, and
retrieving from the memory a converted version that is a display version of the received file and transmitting the retrieved converted version to the user computer for displaying to the user.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

File conversion system and method

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File conversion system and method

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Abstract

Claims25