Storage-and transport-independent collaborative document-management system

• US 20060136511A1
• Filed: 12/21/2004
• Published: 06/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Proofpoint Incorporated
• Original Assignee: NextPage, Inc. (Proofpoint Incorporated)
• Inventors: Webb, J. Todd, Ngo, J. Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,908,247 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A document management system enables multiple users to collaboratively contribute to the contents of a document via any suitable medium for transporting and storing documents, including email, shared drives, replicated work spaces and centralized storage systems. A tracking strategy is employed, in lieu of a central repository, that is based upon medium-independent versioning. Each version of a document that is created and saved by a user is given a unique identifier. The versions are submitted to a global service for ratification as the next authoritative version of a document. A submitted version that forms the next step in a linear sequence is ratified as the authoritative version of the document, whereas the version which does not meet this criterion becomes identified as a new document. Support is provided for users who create versions off-line, as well as users who are not subscribers to the system.

Claims

1. A method for managing documents, comprising the following steps:

assigning a unique identifier to a first version of a given document, and attaching the assigned version identifier to a file containing said first version;

ratifying said first version as the authoritative version of the given document;

assigning a second version identifier to an edited variation of said first version;

determining whether any other edited variation of said first version has been ratified; and

ratifying said edited variation having the assigned second version identifier as the authoritative successor to said first version if no other edited variation has been ratified.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

assigning a third version identifier to a different variation of said first version;

detecting that said first version already has an authoritative successor; and

designating said different variation as the first version of a new document related to said given document.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

restricting control of the given document to a defined set of users;

assigning a third version identifier to a variation of said second version;

detecting that the author of said variation of the second version is not among said defined set of users; and

designating said third version as the first version of a new document related to said second version.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said version identifier is attached to the file of its associated version as metadata within said file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said version identifier is contained in a file that is separate from, and accompanies, the file containing the version to which it is assigned.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said version identifier is stored in a separate metadata stream that is associated with said file.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said version identifier is automatically assigned to a version upon saving the version in a non-volatile storage medium.

8. The method of claim 1, further including the step of storing an identification of a user who created the edited version together with said version identifier.

9. The method of claim 8, further including the step of maintaining a record of the sequence of versions of a document, and displaying said sequence along with an identification of the user who created the versions in the sequence.

10. The method of claim 1, further including the steps of:

receiving a version of a document at a user'"'"'s computer that contains another version of the document;

determining whether the received version is a ratified version that is more recent than the version contained on the user'"'"'s computer; and

automatically replacing the version contained on the user'"'"'s computer with the received version if it is a more recent ratified version.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of automatically replacing can be selectively activated by individual users for individual documents

12. The method of claim 1, further including the step of providing an indication to a user if the user is editing a version of the document that is not the latest ratified version.

13. The method of claim 1, further including the step of providing an indication to a user if another user is editing the latest ratified version of the document.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said ratifying step is performed by a global service, and the step of assigning a version identifier is performed by a client service that is remote from said global service.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said global service records an indication of the latest user to save a version of the document, and provides said indication in response to a request from a client service.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said indication is an opaque identifier of the user.

17. The method of claim 13, further including the steps, in response to receiving a version of a document at a user'"'"'s computer on which said client service is executing, of examining the version to determine whether it contains a version identifier, and automatically assigning a version identifier if it does not.

18. The method of claim 1, further including the step of storing a history of the sequence of versions of a document in said file together with said version identifier.

19. The method of claim 18, further including the steps of combining the version histories of at least two files, and graphically displaying said combined histories to indicate the relationship of versions of said files.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said combining step comprises forming the union of said version histories.

21. The method of claim 1, further including the steps of storing a list of users having rights to edit a document together with said version identifier, detecting whether a user who edits the document is identified on the list, and designating the edited version created by the user as a new document if the user is not identified on the list.

22. The method of claim 1, further including the step of displaying at least two related documents, to enable said related documents to be merged.

23. The method of claim 22, further including the step of displaying an identification of each user who contributed to the displayed versions of the documents.

24. The method of claim 22, further including the steps of:

detecting a common ancestor version of the related documents; and

displaying the revisions of the related documents relative to their common ancestor version.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein said version identifier includes a value that is unique to that version.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said unique value is globally unique among all versions of all documents managed according to said method.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein said version identifier is accompanied by a sequence value that indicates the position of its associated version within a sequence of versions of the document.

28. The method of claim 27, further including the following steps:

upon creating a new version of the document, generating a unique value and appending a sequence value to said unique value to form said version identifier; and

upon each subsequent save of the document, incrementing said sequence value to generate a new version number for that save.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein said document also has an assigned document identifier that is unique to the document.

30. The method of claim 1 further including the step of enabling a user to obtain exclusive control of the ratification of the next authoritative version of the document.

31. The method of claim 1, further including the step of storing a contributing relationship that identifies a version of another document from which content of the given document was derived.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said contributing relationship is stored with said version identifier.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein said contributing relationship also identifies the version of the given document that received the content from the other document.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein said contributing relationship is stored independently of the given document.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein said contributing relationship is stored at a global service.

36. A system for managing documents, comprising:

a client service that executes on a user'"'"'s computer, which assigns a unique version identifier to a version of a document when the user saves the document; and

a global service that communicates with the client service to receive the version identifier and the document, and ratifies the version of the document as a new authoritative version of the document.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the global service determines whether the author of a version has a right to control the document, and does not ratify a version as a new authoritative version of the document if the author of the version lacks control of the document.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the global service determines whether the author of a version has a right to control the document by detecting whether the author of a version is named on a list of authors who have control of the document.

39. The system of claim 36, wherein said client service stores the identity of the user in connection with the version identifier.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the global service stores the identity of the user who created the authoritative version, and provides said identity to client services in communication therewith.

41. The system of claim 36, wherein said client service examines a document received at the user'"'"'s computer to determine whether it contains a version identifier, and automatically assigns a version identifier if it does not contain one.

42. The system of claim 36, wherein said client service examines a document received at the user'"'"'s computer to determine whether it is a more recent authoritative version of a document stored on the user'"'"'s computer, and automatically replaces the version of the document on the user'"'"'s computer with the received version if the received version is a more recent authoritative version.

43. The system of claim 36, wherein said client service assigns said version identifier regardless of whether it is in communication with said global service.

44. The system of claim 36 wherein said global service communicates the identification of the current authoritative version of the document to the client service, and the client service displays a notice if the user edits a version other than the current authoritative version of the document.

45. The system of claim 36 wherein said global service provides a notification to each client service that is in communication with the global service when a user is editing the authoritative version of a document, and the client services display notices to inform their respective users that another user is editing the current authoritative version of the document.

46. The system of claim 36, wherein documents are furnished to the user'"'"'s computer by means of any one or more of a shared drive, a document management system, an electronic mail message, or a local storage medium.

47. The system of claim 36, wherein the assigned version identifier is stored as metadata in a file containing its associated version of the document.

48. The system of claim 36, wherein said global service executes on a server that is accessible via a public network.

49. The system of claim 36, wherein said global service receives version identifiers from a plurality of client services, and ratifies the first received version that is a linear descendant from the current authoritative version as the new authoritative version.

50. The system of claim 36, wherein said global service stores an identification of the location of the current authoritative version of the document, and wherein a copy of the document on a user'"'"'s computer includes a hyperlink that retrieves the current version of the document from the stored location.

51. A method for managing documents, comprising the following steps:

creating a version of a document at a user'"'"'s computer;

designating said version as a version in a sequence of versions that constitute said document;

submitting said designated version to a global service accessible to multiple users; and

at said global service, ratifying said submitted version at a defined position within said sequence if no other edited variation has been ratified at said defined position.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising the steps of:

detecting at said global service that said sequence of versions already has a ratified version at said defined location; and

designating said submitted version as the first version of a new document.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein said designating step comprises assigning a version identifier to said created version.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein said version identifier is attached to a file containing its associated version as metadata within said file.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein said version identifier is contained in a file that is separate from, and accompanies, the file containing the version to which it is assigned.

56. The method of claim 53, wherein said version identifier is stored in a separate metadata stream that is associated with the file containing its associated version.

57. The method of claim 51, wherein said designating step is automatically performed upon saving the version in a non-volatile storage medium.

58. The method of claim 51, further including the steps of:

receiving a version of a document at a user'"'"'s computer that contains another version of the document;

determining whether the received version is a ratified version that is more recent than the version contained on the user'"'"'s computer; and

automatically replacing the version contained on the user'"'"'s computer with the received version if it is a more recent ratified version.

59. The method of claim 51, further including the steps, in response to receiving a version of a document at a user'"'"'s computer, of examining the received version to determine whether it has been designated as a version within said sequence, and automatically designating the received version as a version in the sequence if it has not been so designated.

60. The method of claim 51, further including the steps of storing a list of users having rights to edit a document together with said version, detecting whether a user who edits the document is identified on the list, and designating the edited version created by the user as a new document if the user is not identified on the list.

61. The method of claim 51, wherein designating step comprises assigning version identifier that includes a value unique to said version.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein said version identifier is accompanied by a sequence value that indicates the position of its associated version within said sequence of versions of the document.

63. The method of claim 51, further including the step of storing a contributing relationship that identifies a version of another document from which content of said created version was derived.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein said contributing relationship is stored at said global service.