System and method for convergent document collaboration

• US 10,325,014 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2018
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Workiva Inc.
• Original Assignee: Workiva Inc.
• Inventors: Nelson, Grant, Thiesen, Michael J., Hall, Aaron, Woods, Nathan, Marne, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Serrao, Ranodhi
• Application Number:
  US16/191,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20190102370A1
• Time in Patent Office: 215 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

In various implementations, a computing device: displays the document outline on the user interface; maintains, in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, a causal graph data structure representing the document outline, wherein the causal graph data structure includes a plurality of structure nodes, each structure node representing a level of the document outline; receives, via the user interface, an insertion of a new level to the document outline; in response to the insertion, defines a structure node that represents the inserted level; inserts a transition node in the causal graph data structure, wherein the transition node represents a relationship between the structure node and at least one other node of the causal graph data structure; inserts the structure node into the causal graph data structure as a child of the transition node; and updating the user interface to display the inserted level.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining a document outline on a user interface, the method comprising:

displaying the document outline on the user interface;

maintaining, in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, a causal graph data structure representing the document outline, wherein the causal graph data structure includes a plurality of structure nodes, each structure node representing a level of the document outline;

receiving, via the user interface, an insertion of a new level to the document outline;

in response to the insertion, defining a structure node that represents the inserted level;

inserting a transition node in the causal graph data structure, wherein the transition node represents a relationship between the structure node and at least one other node of the causal graph data structure;

inserting the structure node into the causal graph data structure as a child of the transition node;

updating the user interface to display the inserted level within the document outline;

receiving, via the user interface, an input of an undo instruction;

in response to the undo instruction, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a deletion node as a child of the structure node; and

updating the user interface to remove the level represented by the structure node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting a transition node comprises inserting the transition node as a child of a second transition node, wherein the second transition node is a child of the structure node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting a transition node comprises inserting the transition node as a child of the structure node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein text to be displayed as a title for the inserted level is contained in an attribute node linked to the structure node.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserted structure node includes at least one identifier of a parent node.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserted structure node includes at least one identifier of a child node.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the user interface, a deletion of a level of the plurality of levels;

in response to the deletion, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a deletion node as a child of a structure node representing the level for which the deletion was received, wherein the deletion node refers to the level that is to be deleted; and

updating the user interface to remove the level for which the deletion was received.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the user interface, a formatting of a level of the plurality of levels;

in response to the formatting, inserting an attribute node as a child of a structure node representing the level for which the formatting was received, wherein the attribute node indicates the type of formatting that is to be applied;

applying the formatting to a section of the document within the level being formatted; and

updating the user interface to display the updated formatting of the section.

9. A method for maintaining a document outline on a user interface, the method comprising:

displaying the document outline on the user interface, wherein the document outline includes a plurality of levels;

maintaining, in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, a causal graph data structure representing the document outline, wherein the causal graph data structure includes a plurality of structure nodes, each structure node representing a different level of the plurality of levels;

receiving, via the user interface, a deletion of a level of the plurality of levels;

in response to the user deletion, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a deletion node as a child of the structure node representing the level for which the deletion was received, wherein the deletion node refers to the level that is to be deleted;

updating the user interface to delete the level for which the deletion was received;

receiving, via the user interface, an undo of the deletion of the level;

in response to the received undo, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a second deletion node as a child of the deletion node; and

updating the user interface to re-display the level for which the deletion was received.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second deletion node includes an identifier of the deletion node.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the deletion node includes an identifier of the structure node to be deleted.

12. A method for maintaining a document outline on a user interface, the method comprising:

displaying the document outline on the user interface, the document outline comprising a plurality of levels, each of the plurality of levels representing a different section of a document;

maintaining, in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, a causal graph data structure representing the document outline, wherein the causal graph data structure includes a plurality of structure nodes, each structure node representing a different level of the plurality of levels;

receiving, via the user interface, a formatting of a level of the plurality of levels;

in response to the formatting, inserting an attribute node as a child of the structure node representing the level for which the formatting was received, wherein the attribute node indicates the type of formatting that is to be applied;

applying the indicated type of formatting to a section of the document within the level for which the formatting was received;

updating the user interface to display the section as being formatted according to the indicated type;

receiving, via the user interface, an undo command;

in response to the undo command, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a deletion node as a child of the attribute node; and

updating the user interface to undo the formatting.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, via the user interface, additional formatting of the section;

in response to receiving the additional formatting, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a second attribute node as a child of the attribute node, wherein the second attribute node indicates the type of additional formatting to be applied;

applying the additional formatting to the section of the document; and

updating the user interface to display the section as being formatted according to the indicated type of additional formatting.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the attribute node includes one or more key-value pairs, wherein each key-value pair includes a key that corresponds to a format property and a value that corresponds to the value of the format property.

15. A method for maintaining a document outline on a user interface, the method comprising:

displaying the document outline on the user interface;

maintaining, in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, a causal graph data structure representing the document outline, wherein the causal graph data structure includes a plurality of structure nodes, each structure node representing a level of the document outline;

receiving, via the user interface, a gesture indicating a move of a level of the plurality of levels from a first position to a second position;

in response to the gesture,

inserting a transition node into the causal graph data structure, wherein the transition node has a parent node representing the second position; and

updating a structure node representing the level being moved so that its parent node is the transition node;

updating the user interface to display the level within the document outline as having been moved;

receiving, via the user interface, an input of an undo instruction;

in response to the undo instruction, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a deletion node as a child of the transition node; and

updating the user interface to display the level as being in a location where it was prior to having been moved.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving, via the user interface, a second undo command;

in response to the second undo command, inserting, in the causal graph data structure, a second deletion node as a child of the deletion node; and

updating the user interface to display the level within the document outline as having been moved.