Abstract: A system and method for file management is comprised of hierarchical files systems, referred to as “areas.” There are three types of areas: work areas, staging areas, and edition areas. A work area is a modifiable file system, and, in a work area a user can create, edit, and delete files and directories. A staging area is a read-only file system that supports select versioning operations. Various users of work areas can integrate their work by submitting the contents of their work area to the staging area. In the staging area, developers can compare their work and see how their changes fit together. An edition is a read-only file system, and the contents of a staging area are virtually copied into an edition to create a frozen, read-only snapshot of the contents of the staging area. One use of the system and method for file management is as a website development tool.

Abstract: A method of and an apparatus for storing changes to file attributes without having to store an additional copy of the file contents. In a system for maintaining and making changes to content for a website, extranet site or intranet site, memory may be allocated as a backing store. Preferably, the contents of the backing store are saved despite a shutdown or power failure. Information may be stored by the backing store in the form of files, each file including contents and attributes. The content of a file includes the information stored within the file, while the attributes of the file include information relating to the file. When a change is made to the file contents, both the changed version and the version prior to the changes may be stored in the backing store. For each version of the file contents, associated attributes are also stored.