Document exchange system

• US 20030014384A1
• Filed: 02/22/2001
• Published: 01/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Rogue Wave Software Incorporated (Perforce Software Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Rogue Wave Software Incorporated (Perforce Software Incorporated)
• Inventors: Cooper, Tom, Weyman, Peter J., Tallman, Owen, Ewald, Alan
• Application Number:
  US09/790,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20030014384A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

A document exchange system including a write dispatcher which receives semi-structured documents and access control information from a first party relating to authorized viewers of the document. A capsule creator merges the semi-structured document and the access control information from the write dispatcher into a second semi-structured document to form a capsule. A capsule database then stores the capsules. An indexer creates an index entry for the capsule and an index database stores these index entries. A read dispatcher receives inquiries and identification information from a second party. A query processor then searches the index database and a storage server retrieves all relevant capsules that the second party is authorized to access. A capsule extractor then extracts the posted documents to be forwarded to the second party.

Claims

1. A document exchange system comprising:

a write dispatcher configured to receive a semi-structured document to be posted by a first party and configured to receive access control information from the first party relating to authorized reviewers of the document to be posted;

a capsule creator, responsive to the write dispatcher, configured to merge the semi-structured document and the access control information into a capsule in the form of a second semi-structured document with the document to be posted annotated with a first annotation and the access control information annotated with a second annotation;

a capsule database for storing the capsule;

an indexer configured to create an index entry for the capsule;

an index database for storing the index entry;

a read dispatcher for receiving a query from a second party and configured to receive identification information from the second party;

a query creator configured to create an annotated query in the form of the second party query annotated with the first annotation and the identification information annotated with the second annotation;

a query processor for searching the index database to find all index entries which match the annotated query;

a storage server for retrieving from the capsule database all capsules which correspond to matched index entries; and

a capsule extractor configured to extract from all retrieved capsules the posted documents to be forwarded to the second party.

2. The system of claim 1 further including a first party interface program which provides, to the first party, a selection of screens which prompt the first party to enter the documents to be posted in a semi-structured form and to enter the access control information.

3. The system of claim 1 further including a second party interface program which provides, to the second party, a selection of screens which prompt the second party to enter a query and which automatically retrieves identification information from the second party.

4. The system of claim 1 in which the semi-structured document to be posted is in XML form.

5. The system of claim 1 further including a database of authorized users and a security manager for confirming that each first and second party is an authorized user.

6. The system of claim 1 in which the capsule creator is further configured to merge first party authorization information into the capsule with a third annotation associated with the authorization information.

7. The system of claim 1 further including a database of accounting data and an account manager for accessing the accounting database to keep track of postings by first parties and queries by second parties.

8. The system of claim 1 further including a lease manager responsive to any document posting expiration information from the first party and wherein the capsule creator is further configured to merge expiration information into the capsule with a fourth annotation associated with expiration information.

9. The system of claim 1 in which the query processor is a search engine.

10. A method to efficiently and securely exchange documents between a first and a second party, the method comprising:

receiving a semi-structured document to be posted by a first party and access control information from the first party relating to the document;

merging the semi-structured document and the access control information into a capsule in the form of second semi-structured document;

storing the capsule in a capsule database;

receiving, from a second party, a query and identification information;

searching the capsule database to find all capsules which match the query and in which the identification information matches the access control information;

for each capsule found, extracting therefrom the document; and

providing all such documents found to the second party.

11. A document exchange system comprising:

a capsule creator configured to merge a semi-structured document to be posted and access control information for that document into a capsule in the form of a second semi-structured document;

a query processor for searching all capsules in response to a query with identification information; and

a capsule extractor configured to extract from any retrieved capsule the posted document.

12. The system of claim 11 in which the capsule creator is further configured to annotate the capsule such that the posted document has a first annotation and the access control information has a second annotation.

13. The system of claim 12 further including a query creator configured to combine the query and identification information into a single annotated query wherein each query is annotated with the first annotation and the identification information is annotated with the second annotation.