Document Merge

• US 20090150394A1
• Filed: 12/06/2007
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bernstein, Ethan Joseph, Antos, Christopher James, Bailor, Jonathan Beckett, Knight, Mark Rolland
• Granted Patent: US 8,028,229 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

Methods and systems of merging a first document with at least a second document to generate a third document. Each of the first and second documents includes at least one data unit. Each data unit is associated with a unit identifier and an edit identifier. The unit identifiers of each of the documents are compared to the unit identifiers of the other document to determine whether each unit identifier is a matching or non-matching unit identifier. Edit identifiers of the data units associated with the matching unit identifiers are compared to each other. Data units associated with the non-matching unit identifiers are inserted directly into the third document. Data units associated with the matching unit identifiers and the matching edit identifiers are inserted directly into the third document. Data units associated with the matching unit identifiers and the non-matching edit identifiers are merged into the third document.

Claims

1. A method of merging a first document with at least a second document to generate a third document, each of the first and second documents including one or more data units, each data unit being associated with a unit identifier and an edit identifier, the method comprising:

obtaining the unit identifiers of the data units of the first document;

obtaining the unit identifiers of the data units of the second document;

comparing the unit identifiers of each of the first and second documents to the unit identifiers of the other of the first and second documents to determine whether each of the unit identifiers is a matching unit identifier or a non-matching unit identifier, wherein each of the matching unit identifiers indicates corresponding data units of the first and second documents, and wherein each of the non-matching unit identifiers indicates a data unit of one of the first and second documents that does not correspond with any data unit of the other of the first and second documents;

comparing edit identifiers of the data units associated with the matching unit identifiers to ascertain matching edit identifiers, each of the matching edit identifiers indicating the data unit of one of the first and second documents matches the corresponding data unit of the other of the first and second documents;

inserting directly into the third document data units of the first and second documents that are associated with non-matching unit identifiers;

inserting directly into the third document data units of the first and second documents that are associated with matching unit identifiers and matching edit identifiers; and

merging into the third document data units of the first and second documents that are associated with matching unit identifiers and non-matching edit identifiers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a unit identifier to each data unit of the first document; and

storing the unit identifiers within the first document.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning an edit identifier to each data unit of the first document; and

storing the edit identifiers within the first document.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein storing the edit identifiers comprises storing the edit identifiers when a user saves the first document.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein assigning the edit identifier comprises generating a random identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the unit identifiers of the data units of the first document comprises obtaining paragraph identifiers of paragraphs of the first document.

7. A document processing system comprising:

a document processing application configured to merge together at least two documents to generate a third document; and

a first document configured to be processed by the document processing application, the first document storing content and metadata, the content of the first document including at least one data unit, the metadata of the first document including a unit identifier and an edit identifier associated with each data unit, the unit identifier of each data unit being generated when the data unit is created, the edit identifier of each data unit being generated when a modification to the data unit is saved.

8. The document processing system of claim 7, wherein the document processing application is configured to generate the unit identifier of each data unit when the data unit is created.

9. The document processing system of claim 7, wherein the document processing application is configured to generate the edit identifier of each data unit when the modification is stored within the first document.

10. The document processing system of claim 7, further comprising:

a metadata file stored separately from the first document, the metadata file including a metadata pertaining to the content of the first document, the metadata of the metadata file including a unit identifier indicating to which data unit the metadata pertains.

11. The document processing system of claim 10, wherein the metadata stored in the metadata file is associated with the data unit indicated by the unit identifier included in the metadata.

12. The document processing system of claim 7, wherein the document processing application is configured to compare the unit identifiers of the first document to unit identifiers of a second document to determine whether each of the unit identifiers is a matching unit identifier or a non-matching unit identifier, wherein each of the matching unit identifiers indicates corresponding data units of the first and second documents, and wherein each of the non-matching unit identifiers indicates a data unit of one of the first and second documents that does not correspond with any data unit of the other of the first and second documents.

13. The document processing system of claim 12, wherein the document processing application is configured to compare edit identifiers of the data units associated with the matching unit identifiers to ascertain matching edit identifiers, each of the matching edit identifiers indicating the data unit of one of the first and second documents matches the corresponding data unit of the other of the first and second documents.

14. The document processing system of claim 7, wherein the document is a text document.

15. The document processing system of claim 7, wherein the data unit is a paragraph.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method of generating a merged document from a first document and a second document, the method comprising:

determining whether the first document has a first document identifier, the first document identifying the first document;

obtaining the first document identifier if the first document has a first document identifier;

determining whether the second document has a second document identifier, the second document identifier identifying the second document;

obtaining the second document identifier if the second document has a second document identifier;

comparing the first document identifier of the first document with the second document identifier of the second document;

performing a conventional merge of the first and second documents to generate the merged document if any of the first and second documents does not have a document identifier;

performing a conventional merge of the first and second documents to generate the merged document if the first document identifier of the first document differs from the second document identifier of the second document; and

performing an accelerated merge of the first and second documents to generate the merged document if the first document identifier of the first document matches the second document identifier of the second document.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein performing the accelerated merge comprises:

identifying which data units of the first document match data units of the second document by comparing unique, persistent identifiers of each data unit of the first document to unique, persistent identifiers of each data unit of the second document;

inserting the identified data units into the merged document directly to create data units of the merged document; and

merging each data unit of one of the first and second documents that does not match any data unit of the other of the first and second documents using a conventional merge to further create the data units of the merged document.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

adding unique, persistent identifiers to each of the data units of the merged document if any of the first and second documents does not have a document identifier; and

adding unique, persistent identifiers to each of the data units of the merged document if the document identifier of the first document differs from the document identifier of the second document.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein adding the unique, persistent identifiers to each of the data units of the merged document comprises storing the unique, persistent identifiers within the merged document.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein comparing the unique, persistent identifiers of each data unit of the first document to the unique, persistent identifiers of each data unit of the second document comprises:

comparing a unit identifier and an edit identifier of each data unit of the first document to a unit identifier and an edit identifier of each data unit of the second document.