SYSTEM TO VIEW AND MANIPULATE ARTIFACTS AT A TEMPORAL REFERENCE POINT

• US 20130212473A1
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Diament, Judah M., Martino, Jacquelyn A., Thomas, John C. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,311,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

One or more artifact drafts may be associated with each of a plurality of artifacts, each of the artifact drafts representing a state of the associated artifact at a point in time and one or more commands in a command stack that transformed the artifact draft'"'"'s parent into the artifact draft. Multiple traceability links and traceability vertices represent connections between the artifact drafts of the artifacts. A traceability link includes an edge between an artifact draft of an artifact and an artifact draft of another artifact. A module is operable to navigate through said one or more artifacts of the plurality of artifacts from a reference temporal point via the plurality of traceability links.

Claims

1. A system to view and manipulate artifacts at a temporal reference point, comprising:

one or more artifact drafts associated with each of a plurality of artifacts, each of said one or more artifact drafts representing a state of the associated artifact at a point in time and one or more commands in a command stack that transformed said each artifact draft'"'"'s parent into said each artifact draft;

a plurality of traceability links and traceability vertices representing connections between said one or more artifact drafts of the plurality of artifacts, wherein a traceability link includes an edge between an artifact draft of an artifact in the plurality of artifacts and an artifact draft of another artifact in the plurality of artifacts, said artifact draft of an artifact in the plurality of artifacts and the artifact draft of another artifact in the plurality of artifacts forming the traceability vertices;

a processor; and

a module operable to execute on the processor and navigate through said one or more artifacts of the plurality of artifacts from a reference temporal point via the plurality of traceability links.

2. The system of claim 1, further including a server that stores said one or more artifact drafts and said plurality of traceability links and traceability vertices.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the module is further operable to create said one or more artifact drafts and said plurality of traceability links and traceability vertices.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said traceability links and traceability vertices are created automatically in response to an action being performed on said artifact draft of an artifact in the plurality of artifacts that accesses said artifact draft of another artifact in the plurality of artifacts.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the module includes a user interface that enables a user to select said temporal reference point and present views of said artifact drafts.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the module further presents said artifact drafts navigated starting from said temporal reference point via the user interface.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the module is further operable to modify said one or more artifact drafts based on received commands.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the module further includes an application interface via which one or more commands are received for manipulating said one or more artifact drafts.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the module is further operable to create a new branch of artifact draft by creating a new artifact draft from an artifact draft that is not a most recent draft, wherein a starting state of the new branch of an artifact draft is an artifact'"'"'s state in a draft from which the new branch is created.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method to view and manipulate artifacts at a temporal reference point, comprising:

receiving a command that edits a first artifact;

adding a time stamp to the command;

storing the command in a command stack;

storing a current state of the first artifact and the command stack as an artifact draft; and

in response to detecting that the command is an action that accesses a second artifact, creating a traceability link between said artifact draft and a second artifact draft associated with said second artifact.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, further including assigning the current state of the first artifact as a new artifact draft.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the steps are repeated for a plurality of artifacts, and wherein a plurality of artifact drafts and associated plurality of traceability links are generated for each of said plurality of artifacts.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, further including:

receiving a selected artifact draft, the selected artifact draft representing a temporal reference point;

searching the traceability link and traceability vertices to find other one or more other artifact drafts linked to the selected artifact draft; and

presenting the selected artifact draft and one or more other artifact drafts as of the same temporal reference point, if said one or more other artifact drafts exist.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, further including:

if said one or more other artifact drafts do not have time stamps corresponding to said temporal reference point,

selecting a command point from a command stack associated with said one or more other artifact drafts, that has a time stamp that is closest to the temporal reference point;

rewinding or replaying one or more commands in the command stack from said command point to generate a state of said one or more other artifacts; and

presenting the generated state of said one or more other artifacts.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, further including:

receiving a point in the command stack between two artifact drafts, the point in the command stack representing a temporal reference point;

choosing an artifact draft from the two artifact drafts that is closest temporally to the point in the command stack;

searching the traceability link and traceability vertices to find other one or more other artifact drafts linked to the chosen artifact draft;

if said other one or more other artifact drafts have time stamp corresponding to said temporal reference point, presenting said other one or more other artifact drafts; and

if said other one or more other artifact drafts do not have time stamp corresponding to said temporal reference point,

selecting a command point from a command stack associated with said one or more other artifact drafts, that has a time stamp that is closest to the temporal reference point;

rewinding or replaying one or more commands in the command stack from said command point to generate a state of said one or more other artifacts that is related to said point in the command stack between two artifact drafts; and

presenting the generated state of said one or more other artifacts.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, further including:

editing an artifact draft that is not a most recent artifact draft associated with an artifact; and

creating a new branch of artifact draft starting from the edited artifact draft.