System and method utilizing metadata to provide virtual folders of related objects which are really in different physical locations

摘要

A system and method for utilizing virtual folders are disclosed. The virtual folders expose regular files and folders to users in different views based on their metadata instead of the actual physical underlying file system structure on the disk. The system includes a folder processor that obtains queries from a user (302) and a relational database (304) for storing information about the items. The folder processor first obtains a query from a user (302) and passes the query to the relational database (304). The relational database provides results back to the folder processor (306), and based on the results from the relational database, the folder processor provides the results to the user as virtual folders (308). A system and method for manipulating virtual folders are also disclosed where direct manipulation actions of the virtual folders are provided. The direct manipulation can include clicking and dragging of a virtual folder. The clicking and dragging a virtual folder to another virtual folder performs the function of copying the items of the first virtual folder to the second virtual folder. The virtual folders (308) contain collections of items and items are contained within a virtual folder on the basis of having a selected metadata property that is the basis for the virtual folder, and the action of copying the items from a first virtual folder to a second virtual folder is implemented at least in part by adding the metadata property of the second virtual folder to each of the items from the first virtual folder.