Technology
Virtual folders provide a means for making it easier for users to find files that are content-related, such as by project. The user needs to specify criteria and all files matching the criteria are dynamically aggregated into the virtual folder. Files in a virtual folder are not limited to any single physical location on the hard drive, as is the case with traditional folders, but can be in any location. In fact, files in a virtual folder do not even need to be stored as files on the hard drive. They may be on a network share or in a custom application datastore such as e-mail inbox or even a database.
Documents cannot be "stored" in a virtual folder, since physically a virtual folder is just a file storing a search query. Any attempt to store a file in a virtual folder, depending on the implementation, is redirected to some physical store.
Most implementations speed up searching by pre-indexing the hard drive, or the locations where the search has to be performed. So when searching is to be done, the index, which is a representation of the entire data suitable for fast searching, is used. Since the entire folder hierarchy is not accessed, the search is completed much faster.
Read more about this topic: Virtual Folder
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)
“Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power ... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)