EXTENDED SYSTEM FOR ACCESSING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS WITH REVISION HISTORY IN NON-COMPATIBLE REPOSITORIES

• US 20100023562A1
• Filed: 07/28/2008
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: KREUCH, ROBERT M., Seaman, Michael, Smith, Grace, Edeen, Eric L., Bacalzo, Roger G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,359 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles for creating a document revision history for a document imported into a first Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) from a second EDMS. Metadata and content from the second EDMS is “mirrored” within the first EDMS to create an artificial or mirrored revision history of a document within the first EDMS. Doing so allows users of the first EDMS to access any version of a document and its history, as though the document had always existed on the first EDMS. Content may be stored onto the first EDMS or a reference to the content may be stored instead. Rules may be developed to resolve conflicts between different document versions in the first and second EDMS.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of generating a document revision history for versions of a document managed by a first electronic document management system (EDMS), comprising:

exporting, from the first EDMS, metadata describing a first document revision history for the versions of the document, wherein the first document revision history is in a format used by the first EDMS and describes an actual history of that document in the first EDMS;

generating, from the first document revision history, a second document revision history in a format used by a second EMDS, wherein the second document revision history provides a mirrored revision history mirroring the actual revision history;

importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS; and

importing the versions of the document into the repository managed by the second EDMS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein importing the versions of the document comprises storing a copy of each version of the document into the repository managed by the second EDMS.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein importing the versions of the document into the second EDMS comprises storing a unique identifier used to identify each version of the document in the first EDMS.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has not been modified by users of the second EDMS after previously being imported from the first EDMS.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has been modified by users of the first EMDS and second EDMS after previously being imported; and

when importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS, overwriting at least a portion of an existing revision history associated with the one or more versions of the document stored in the second EDMS.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has been modified by users of the first EMDS and second EDMS after previously being imported; and

when importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS, overwriting at least a portion of second revision history with an existing revision history associated with the one or more versions of the document stored in the second EDMS.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the second document revision history in a format used by a second EMDS comprises mapping one or more attributes of the first document revision history to corresponding attributes of the second revision history.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the attributes identifies at least one of a document author, a document type, a document creation date, a document version, and a document modification date.

9. A computer-readable storage medium containing a program, which, when executed by a processor performs an operation to generate a document revision history for versions of a document managed by a first electronic document management system (EDMS), the operation comprising:

exporting, from the first EDMS, metadata describing a first document revision history for the versions of the document, wherein the first document revision history is in a format used by the first EDMS and describes an actual history of that document in the first EDMS;

generating, from the first document revision history, a second document revision history in a format used by a second EMDS, wherein the second document revision history provides a mirrored revision history mirroring the actual revision history;

importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS; and

importing the versions of the document into the repository managed by the second EDMS.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein importing the versions of the document comprises storing a copy of each version of the document into the repository managed by the second EDMS.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein importing the versions of the document into the second EDMS comprises storing a unique identifier used to identify each version of the document in the first EDMS.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the operation further comprises:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has not been modified by users of the second EDMS after previously being imported from the first EDMS.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the operation further comprises:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has been modified by users of the first EMDS and second EDMS after previously being imported; and

when importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS, overwriting at least a portion of an existing revision history associated with the one or more versions of the document stored in the second EDMS.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the operation further comprises:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has been modified by users of the first EMDS and second EDMS after previously being imported; and

when importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS, overwriting at least a portion of second revision history with an existing revision history associated with the one or more versions of the document stored in the second EDMS.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein generating the second document revision history in the format used by a second EMDS comprises mapping one or more attributes of the first document revision history to corresponding attributes of the second revision history.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein at least one of the attributes identifies at least one of a document author, a document type, a document creation date, a document version, and a document modification date.

17. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory containing a second electronic document management system (EDMS) application configured to generate a document revision history for versions of a document managed by a first electronic document management system by performing the steps of;

exporting, from the first EDMS, metadata describing a first document revision history for the versions of the document, wherein the first document revision history is in a format used by the first EDMS and describes an actual history of that document in the first EDMS,

generating, from the first document revision history, a second document revision history in a format used by a second EMDS, wherein the second document revision history provides a mirrored revision history mirroring the actual revision history,

importing the second document revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS, and

importing the versions of the document into the repository managed by the second EDMS.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the repository comprises:

a relational database used to store the second document revision history; and

a file system used to store the versions of the document.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein importing the versions of the document comprises storing a copy of each version of the document into the repository managed by the second EDMS.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein importing the versions of the document into the second EDMS comprises storing a unique identifier used to identify each version of the document in the first EDMS.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the steps further comprise:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has not been modified by users of the second EDMS after previously being imported from the first EDMS.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the steps further comprise:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has been modified by users of the first EMDS and second EDMS after previously being imported; and

when importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS, overwriting at least a portion of an existing revision history associated with the one or more versions of the document stored in the second EDMS.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the steps further comprise:

prior to generating the second document revision history, determining that one or more of the versions of the document is stored in the second EDMS and determining that the document has been modified by users of the first EMDS and second EDMS after previously being imported; and

when importing the second revision history into a repository managed by the second EDMS, overwriting at least a portion of second revision history with an existing revision history associated with the one or more versions of the document stored in the second EDMS.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein generating the second document revision history in a format used by a second EMDS comprises mapping one or more attributes of the first document revision history to corresponding attributes of the second revision history.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein at least one of the attributes identifies at least one of a document author, a document type, a document creation date, a document version, and a document modification date.