AUTO-SAVE OPERATION FOR COLLABORATIVE EDITING OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

• US 20170199789A1
• Filed: 01/13/2016
• Published: 07/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Milvaney, Douglas, Cohen, Barak
• Granted Patent: US 10,599,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols

Abstract

To manage complexity related to automatically saving an electronic document while the electronic document is collaboratively edited, an end user application running on a local client computer, while participating in collaborative editing of a shared electronic document, is configured to automatically save the electronic document based on both local user activity and external user activity received from a collaboration system on a server computer. The collaboration system implements a save protocol that maintains consistency of the electronic document among the shared storage, remote client computers and the local client computer. The local client computer determines a save interval based on information about external user activity through the server computer, the activity of a user of the end user application on the local client computer. The performance specifications for local and shared storage and the computer network also can be considered.

Claims

1. A computer, configured as a local client computer, for use in a computer system comprising a server computer comprising shared storage for electronic documents, and a remote client computer, the local client computer and the remote client computer connected to the server computer over a computer network, the remote client computer configured to support collaborative editing of an electronic document stored in the shared storage, the server computer configured to manage the collaborative editing of the electronic document by an application on the local client computer and the remote client computer by implementing a save protocol with the server computer, the local client computer comprising:

a save component in the application that, when executed by the local client computer, configures the local client computer to, periodically, during collaborative editing of the electronic document though the application;

receive data indicative of local user activity from the local client computer indicative of user interaction with the application with respect to the electronic document;

receive data indicative of external user activity with respect to external user interaction with respect to the electronic document, based on at least operation of the save protocol with the server computer;

determine an interval based on at least the data indicative of the local user activity and the data indicative of the external user activity; and

based on at least the determined interval, automatically save the electronic document.

2. The computer of claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the local user activity includes data indicative of idle time with respect to the electronic document in the application.

3. The computer of claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the local user activity includes data indicative an amount of changes to the electronic document during a period of time.

4. The computer of claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the external user activity comprises data based on changes to the electronic document from a remote client computer.

5. The computer of claim 1, wherein to determine the interval, the save component computes a decreased interval in response to frequent changes to the electronic document from remote client computers during a period of idle time with respect to the electronic document on the local client computer.

6. The computer of claim 1, wherein to determine the interval, the save component computes an initial interval according to performance specifications of the local client computer.

7. The computer of claim 1, wherein to determine the interval, the save component updates the initial interval according to information about changes to the electronic document from the remote client computer and local user activity with respect to the electronic document.

8. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer storage medium;

computer program instructions for an application stored on the computer storage medium which, when executed by a computer, instruct the computer to, periodically, during collaborative editing of an electronic document though the application;

receive data indicative of local user activity from the computer indicative of user interaction with the application with respect to the electronic document;

receive data indicative of external user activity with respect to external user interaction with respect to the electronic document, based on at least activity information received through a save protocol executed by the computer in conjunction with a server computer;

determine an interval based on at least the data indicative of the local user activity and the data indicative of the external user activity; and

based on at least the determined interval, automatically save the electronic document.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein data indicative of the local user activity includes data indicative of idle time with respect to the electronic document in the application.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein data indicative of the local user activity includes data indicative an amount of changes to the electronic document during a period of time.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the data indicative of external user activity comprises data based on changes to the electronic document from a remote client computer.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein to determine the interval, the save component computes a decreased interval in response to frequent changes to the electronic document from remote client computers during a period of idle time with respect to the electronic document on the local client computer.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein to determine the interval, the save component computes an initial interval according to performance specifications of the local client computer.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein to determine the interval, the save component updates the initial interval according to information about changes to the electronic document from the remote client computer and data indicating local user activity with respect to the electronic document.

15. A computer-implemented process performed by a local client computer, to automatically save an electronic document during collaborative editing of the electronic document using an end user application, comprising, periodically during collaborative editing of the electronic document though the application:

receiving data indicative of local user activity from the local client computer indicative of user interaction with the application with respect to the electronic document;

receiving data indicative of external user activity with respect to external user interaction with respect to the electronic document, based on at least operation of a save protocol with a server computer;

determining an interval based on at least the data indicative of the local user activity and the data indicative of the external user activity; and

based on at least the determined interval, automatically saving the electronic document.

16. The computer-implemented process of claim 15, wherein data indicative of the local user activity includes data indicative an amount of changes to the electronic document during a period of time.

17. The computer-implemented process of claim 15, wherein the data indicative of the external user activity comprises instructions to update a collaboratively edited document based on changes to the electronic document from a remote client computer.

18. The computer-implemented process of claim 15, wherein to determine the interval, the save component computes a decreased interval in response to frequent changes to the electronic document from remote client computers during a period of idle time with respect to the electronic document on the local client computer.

19. The computer-implemented process of claim 15, wherein to determine the interval, the save component computes an initial interval according to performance specifications of the local client computer.

20. The computer-implemented process of claim 15, wherein to determine the interval, the save component updates the initial interval according to information about changes to the electronic document from the remote client computer and local user activity with respect to the electronic document.