SENDING A SUBSET OF COMPONENT DOCUMENTS OF A MODULAR DOCUMENT TO AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20110029851A1
• Filed: 07/29/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Workday Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Rees, Robert Thomas Owen, Balinsky, Helen, Gimson, Roger Brian
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,843 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems

Abstract

To communicate a modular document from a first electronic device to a second electronic device, the first electronic device determines which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device. The modular document is composed of plural component documents. The first electronic device sends to the second electronic device a subset of the plural component documents of the modular document, where the subset of the plural component documents is other than the one or more component documents already available at the second electronic device.

Claims

1. A method of communicating a modular document from a first electronic device to a second electronic device, comprising:

determining, by the first electronic device, which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device, wherein the modular document is composed of plural component documents; and

sending, by the first electronic device to the second electronic device, a subset of the plural component documents of the modular document, wherein the subset of the plural component documents is other than the one or more component documents already available at the second electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device comprises querying the second electronic device to identify which one or more component documents of the modular document are available at the second electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the modular document is a first modular document, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device comprises:

determining whether a second modular document has been sent to the second electronic device;

determining which one or more component documents of the first modular document are shared with the second modular document; and

identify the shared one or more component documents as the one or more component documents of the first modular document already available at the second electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device comprises:

maintaining historical information of communications with the second electronic device; and

accessing the historical information to determine which one or more component documents of the first modular document are already available at the second electronic device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device is further based on accessing a document retention policy of the second electronic device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modular document includes a primary document that has inclusion references to the plural component documents.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plural component documents is a second modular document composed of plural additional component documents, wherein the subset includes one or more of the additional component documents.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying references in the modular document to included documents and at least one reference to a non-included document, wherein the subset includes one or more of the included documents but not the non-included document.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying references in the modular document to included documents and at least one reference to an opportunistically included document, wherein the subset includes one or more of the included documents; and

deciding whether or not to add the opportunistically included document into the subset based on a policy at the first electronic device.

10. A source electronic device comprising:

a storage media to store a modular document, wherein the modular document comprises plural component documents; and

a processor to;

receive a request to send the modular document to a destination electronic device;

in response to the request, determine which of the plural component documents is already available at the destination electronic device; and

prepare a package representing the modular document to send to the destination electronic device, wherein the package includes a subset of the plural component documents not already available at the destination electronic device.

11. The source electronic device of claim 10, wherein the component documents are combined to allow for proper presentation of the modular document.

12. The source electronic device of claim 10, wherein the processor is to determine which of the plural component documents is already available at the destination electronic device by sending a list of the plural component documents to the destination electronic device and receiving a response from the destination electronic device regarding which one or more component documents are already available at the destination electronic device.

13. The source electronic device of claim 10, wherein the processor is to determine which of the plural component documents is already available at the destination electronic device by maintaining historical information of document communications with the destination electronic device.

14. The source electronic device of claim 10, wherein the modular document includes a primary document that has inclusion references to the plural component documents, and at least one non-inclusion references to a non-included document, wherein the package does not include the non-included document.

15. The source electronic device of claim 10, wherein each of the modular document and the plural component documents is identified by a corresponding unique identifier.

16. An article comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that upon execution cause a destination electronic device to:

receive, from a source electronic device, a package that include a modular document and one or more component documents, wherein the modular document refers to plural component documents, and wherein the package includes less than the plural component documents;

identify which of the plural component documents are missing from the package; and

locally access the missing component documents to reconstruct the modular document at the destination electronic device.

17. The article of claim 16, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the destination electronic device to further present the modular document based on the plural component documents.