Systems and methods for collaborative editing of interactive walkthroughs of content

• US 10,089,286 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2014
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Jemiolo, Daniel Everett, Kucera, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Debrow, James J
• Application Number:
  US14/537,868
• Publication Number:
  US 20150277727A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,422 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

The technology disclosed supports content collaboration between any number of users and systems by constructing WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) outputs of changes proposed by the users to a shared live application or to a document such as code, text, or graphics. The technology disclosed allows authors to update consumer facing content instantaneously based on walkthrough feedback from other contributors or co-authors. Further, the authors, without requiring technical expertise of a developer, can immediately see the consequences of incorporating changes suggested by the contributing authors, based on the WYSIWYG outputs of the changes proposed by the authors.

Claims

1. A method of collaborative editing of a walkthrough, wherein steps in the walkthrough demonstrate interaction with a user interface, the method including:

for each of a plurality of contributing authors, creating an editable version of a publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough of a live application and storing the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version;

wherein the publisher'"'"'s base and the contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions implement a series of activity steps that are configurable to be presented on an instruction layer that visually overlays the live application,

flow of control among the activity steps is implemented by program code that is processed to coordinate presentation of the activity steps on the instruction layer that overlays a display generated by the live application,

whereby performance by a user in accordance with instructions presented in the activity steps on the instruction layer causes interaction with the live application and advancing through the series of activity steps;

receiving and storing edited contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions;

transmitting, towards the publisher, data for display that elicits selection among the plurality of contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions;

receiving the publisher'"'"'s selection of at least one contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version to use in updating the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough;

transmitting modifiable data for display that includes step facsimiles and an editable rendition of the activity steps of the selected contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version; and

receiving publisher'"'"'s acceptance of an edited activity step in the selected contributing author'"'"'s version of the walkthrough and applying at least the publisher accepted activity step to the live application to update the step facsimiles.

2. The method of claim 1, further including applying activity steps subsequent to the edited activity step to update the step facsimiles using and updating the step facsimiles data for display.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the live application is a cloud-based software as a service offering and the interactions with the live application exercise controls on web pages generated by the live application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the live application is a cloud-based software as a service offering and the interactions with the live application exercise controls on app panels of the live application.

5. The method of claim 1, further including transmitting first modifiable data for display applying the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version and second modifiable data for display applying the selected contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version, wherein the first and second data for display both are to be displayed simultaneously within a single user interface.

6. The method of claim 5, further including transmitting controls that implement drag-and-drop updating of a selected activity of the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version with material from the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version.

7. The method of claim 5, further including transmitting controls that implement drag-and-drop inserting of a selected step from the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version between steps of the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein sample data entry values are stored for the steps that implement the running walkthrough without live user data entry.

9. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory including computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer system to implement collaborative editing of a walkthrough:

for each of a plurality of contributing authors, create an editable version of a publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough of a live application and store the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version;

wherein the publisher'"'"'s base and the contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions implement a series of activity steps that are configurable to be presented on an instruction layer that visually overlays the live application,

flow of control among the activity steps is implemented by program code that is processed to coordinate presentation of the activity steps on the instruction layer that overlays a display generated by the live application,

whereby performance by a user in accordance with instructions presented in the activity steps on the instruction layer causes interaction with the live application and advancing through the series of activity steps;

receive and store edited contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions;

transmit, towards the publisher, data for display that elicits selection among the plurality of contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions;

receive the publisher'"'"'s selection of at least one contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version to use in updating the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough;

transmit modifiable data for display that includes step facsimiles and an editable rendition of the activity steps of the selected contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version; and

receive publisher'"'"'s acceptance of an edited activity step in the selected contributing author'"'"'s version of the walkthrough and apply at least the publisher accepted activity step to the live application to update the step facsimiles.

10. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory of claim 9, further includes computer program instructions that, when executed, implement applying activity steps subsequent to the edited activity step to update the step facsimiles using and updating the step facsimiles data for display.

11. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory of claim 9, wherein the live application is a cloud-based software as a service offering and the interactions with the live application exercise controls on web pages generated by the live application.

12. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory of claim 9, wherein the live application is a cloud-based software as a service offering and the interactions with the live application exercise controls on app panels of the live application.

13. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory of claim 9, further includes computer program instructions that, when executed, implement transmitting first modifiable data for display applying the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version and second modifiable data for display applying the selected contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version, wherein the first and second data for display both are to be displayed simultaneously within a single user interface.

14. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory of claim 13, further includes computer program instructions that, when executed, implement transmitting controls that implement drag-and-drop updating of a selected activity of the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version with material from the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version.

15. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory of claim 13, further includes computer program instructions that, when executed, implement transmitting controls that implement drag-and-drop inserting of a selected step from the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version between steps of the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version.

16. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory of claim 9, wherein sample data entry values are stored for the steps that implement the running walkthrough without live user data entry.

17. A computer-implemented system that implements collaborative editing of a walkthrough, including:

a processor and memory, the memory holding code that implements;

for each of a plurality of contributing authors, create an editable version of a publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough of a live application and stores the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version;

wherein the publisher'"'"'s base and the contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions implement a series of activity steps that are configurable to be presented on an instruction layer that visually overlays the live application,

flow of control among the activity steps is implemented by program code that is processed to coordinate presentation of the activity steps on the instruction layer that overlays a display generated by the live application,

whereby performance by a user in accordance with instructions presented in the activity steps on the instruction layer causes interaction with the live application and advancing through the series of activity steps;

receive and store edited contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions;

transmit, towards the publisher, data for display that elicits selection among the plurality of contributing authors'"'"' walkthrough versions;

receive the publisher'"'"'s selection of at least one contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version to use to update the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough;

transmit modifiable data for display that includes step facsimiles and an editable rendition of the activity steps of the selected contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version; and

receive publisher'"'"'s acceptance of an edited activity step in the selected contributing author'"'"'s version of the walkthrough and apply at least the publisher accepted activity step to the live application to update the step facsimiles.

18. The system of claim 17, further includes code that implements applying activity steps subsequent to the edited activity step to update the step facsimiles using and updating the step facsimiles data for display.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the live application is a cloud-based software as a service offering and the interactions with the live application exercise controls on web pages generated by the live application.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the live application is a cloud-based software as a service offering and the interactions with the live application exercise controls on app panels of the live application.

21. The system of claim 17, further includes code that implements transmitting first modifiable data for display applying the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version and second modifiable data for display applying the selected contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version, wherein the first and second data for display both are to be displayed simultaneously within a single user interface.

22. The system of claim 21, further includes code that implements transmitting controls that implement drag-and-drop updating of a selected activity of the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version with material from the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version.

23. The system of claim 21, further includes code that implements transmitting controls that implement drag-and-drop inserting of a selected step from the contributing author'"'"'s walkthrough version between steps of the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough version.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein sample data entry values are stored for the steps that implement the running walkthrough without live user data entry.

25. A method of collaborative editing of a walkthrough, the method including:

creating an editable version of a publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough of a live application,

the walkthrough of the live application implements a series of activity steps that are configurable to be presented on an instruction layer that visually overlays the live application,

flow of control among the activity steps is implemented by program code that is processed to coordinate presentation of the activity steps on the instruction layer that overlays a display generated by the live application,

whereby performance by a user in accordance with instructions presented in the activity steps on the instruction layer causes interaction with the live application and advancing through the series of activity steps;

creating and storing a separate copy of the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough for each of a plurality of contributing authors, the authors editing and storing their respective version of the walkthrough;

presenting to the publisher a user interface that displays a plurality of authors'"'"' respective versions of the walkthrough simultaneously within the same user interface; and

receiving from the publisher, edits to the publisher'"'"'s base walkthrough based on selective acceptance of edits from the authors'"'"' respective versions.