Relations between collaboration workspaces

• US 20060026235A1
• Filed: 11/16/2004
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Mueller, Stefan, Schwarz, Marcus R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,634,539 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A collaborative system includes information about an organization. The organization can be a group of users or a collection of groups. Each user in the organization has access to at least one workspace, a graphical portal to the organization'"'"'s information. Each workspace displays at least a subset of the information. A relation is defined for selected pairs of workspaces based on workspace type, user access controls, personal preferences, or any number of other factors. The relation enables navigation from one workspace to another workspace in the pair, automatic document transfer from one workspace to another, analysis and reporting on the organization, and other collaborative functions.

Claims

1. A collaboration system, comprising:

at least two workspaces, each workspace having a user interface for providing information to one or more related users; and

a relation defined for at least one pair of workspaces, the relation including a link from one workspace to another workspace in the pair of workspaces.

2. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the relation is based on a semantic associated with the pair of workspaces.

3. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the relation is graphically represented in the user interface of at least one of the pair of workspaces.

4. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the relation is defined according to one of a number of relation types.

5. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a workspace content directory having one or more templates, each template defining a workspace type.

6. The system in accordance with claim 5, wherein the workspace content directory includes a plurality of workspace components.

7. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a security mechanism applied to the relation that controls which user of related users can modify the relation.

8. A method of linking information in a collaborative system, comprising:

providing a plurality of workspaces, each workspace having a user interface for providing a subset of the information to one or more related users; and

defining a relation for at least one pair of workspaces, the relation including a link from one workspace to another workspace in the pair of workspaces.

9. The method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the relation includes one or more filters according to which information is to be transported from one workspace to another workspace.

10. The method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the relation is defined based on a workspace type applied to each workspace in the pair of workspaces.

11. The method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the link includes one or more rules that define how information is to be transported from one workspace to another workspace.

12. The method in accordance with claim 8, further comprising defining a workspace type for each workspace in the pair of workspaces.

13. The method in accordance with claim 12, wherein the relation is defined based on the workspace type of each workspace in the pair of workspaces.

14. The method in accordance with claim 12, further comprising defining a set of users that can access each workspace based on the workspace type.

15. The method in accordance with claim 12, wherein a subset of users of the set of users can be selected for having access to the relation.

16. The method in accordance with claim 12, further comprising:

receiving an input from a user selecting the relation from one workspace of the pair of workspaces; and

accessing the other workspace in the pair of workspaces via the relation.

17. The method in accordance with claim 16, further comprising generating for the user a list of all other relations linked to the one workspace.

18. The method in accordance with claim 16, further comprising generating for the user a list of all other workspaces that are linked to the one workspace via relations.

19. A collaboration system for an organization having a number of users, the system comprising:

a database storing information about the organization;

a plurality of workspaces provided for the users, wherein each user can access at least one workspace, and wherein each workspace includes a user interface for providing a subset of the information; and

a plurality of relations defined between pairs of workspaces, each relation being configured to provide navigation from one workspace to another workspace in each pair of workspaces.

20. The system in accordance with claim 19, wherein at least one relation is configured to automatically transfer documents from one workspace to another workspace in a pair of workspaces according to routing rules defined for the relation.