US Patent:
20120167074, Jun 28, 2012
Inventors:
Dattatraya Rajpure - Redmond WA, US
Tahsin Erdogan - Redmond WA, US
Thomas Bouldin - San Francisco CA, US
Assignee:
MICROSOFT CORPORATION - Redmond WA
International Classification:
G06F 9/445
G06F 17/30
G06F 15/16
US Classification:
717178, 709217, 707822, 707E1701
Abstract:
Files, or other data, may be stored in a package, and the contents of the package may be retrieved incrementally and/or on-demand. In one example, files are packaged into a ZIP file or similar type of package. Additionally, metadata is added to the package that describes the contents of the package at the sub-file level, thereby allowing portions of files to be retrieved by appropriately-configured software. When the package is to be used on a local machine, placeholder files may be created on that machine, which are to be populated by the package's contents at a later time. When a request for data in the package is made, if the data does not reside locally, then a request for the specific data (possibly at the sub-file level) is made, and the placeholder files are populated with the actual package data.