System and method for website development

• US 6,505,212 B2
• Filed: 02/03/1999
• Issued: 01/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Interwoven Incorporated (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Yee, Terrence T. W., Park, Britt H., Barr, Sanford L., Jia, Jack S., Hegde, Gajanana, Cochrane, Kevin, Nakano, Russell T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Homere, Jean R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Debbie M.
• Application Number:
  US09/244,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20020049697A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,434 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/8, 707/10, 707/200, 707/203, 707/511, 345/751, 709/203, 709/219
• US Class Current: 707/691
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A system and method for file management is comprised of hierarchical files systems, referred to as “areas.” There are three types of areas: work areas, staging areas, and edition areas. A work area is a modifiable file system, and, in a work area a user can create, edit, and delete files and directories. A staging area is a read-only file system that supports select versioning operations. Various users of work areas can integrate their work by submitting the contents of their work area to the staging area. In the staging area, developers can compare their work and see how their changes fit together. An edition is a read-only file system, and the contents of a staging area are virtually copied into an edition to create a frozen, read-only snapshot of the contents of the staging area. One use of the system and method for file management is as a website development tool.

Claims

1. A system for file management for files containing website content comprising:

a work area configured to allow a user to create and maintain web content to be displayed on a website, the work area being a file system having read and write operations to enable a user to edit virtual representations of files having web content that is located in the work area; and

a staging area adapted to receive and integrate the web content submitted from the work area when the web content of the work area does not conflict with other web content submitted to the staging area and configured to retain versions of web content submitted from the work area.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of work areas configured to allow different users to create and maintain web content to be displayed on a website, wherein the staging area is adapted to receive web content changes of files modified in the work areas and is configured to check for conflicts in web content received from two or more work areas.

3. In a system having a plurality of file systems containing web content, for use in a system for developing virtual copies of web content to be displayed on a website, a method for maintaining the history and ancestry of the web content of an item in each of the file systems in which the item is included, the method comprising:

associating a history object with a first item containing information related to the revision history of the item web content;

associating information related to the ancestry of the item web content; and

maintaining an entry in the history object for each file system in which the item is included that identifies the web content associated with the first item in that file system so that conflicts with other items and their associated web content may be ascertained.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

associating new web content in one of the plurality of file systems with the item;

modifying an entry in the history object corresponding to that file system to indicate that the item is associated with the new web content; and

adding a reference to the previous web content in the new web content.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining whether a second item is in conflict with the first item by determining whether web content in the second item are previous web content of the first item.

6. A method for developing a website by resolving potential conflicts in web content submitted to a web content staging area by a work area where virtual copies of web content are developed, comprising:

modifying data associated with a selected object in a work area that is related to web content to be published on a website;

determining whether other web content is in conflict with web content developed by the work area;

resolving the any conflicts among the different web content; and

submitting web Content from the work area to the staging area where web content is staged before being published on a website.

7. A system for developing a website comprising:

a work area defined within a memory location and configured to enable a user to edit virtual copies of web content by editing files containing web content within the work area and to submit web content to be staged for publication on a website; and

a staging area defined within a memory location and configured to receive web content submitted by a work area, to determine whether conflicts exist between web content submitted by any one work area and other content to be staged in the staging area, and to integrate web content submitted from a work area when the web content of the work area does not conflict with other content submitted to the staging area and to maintain versions of web content sent from a work area.

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein the work area may be characterized as a file system stored within memory and having read and write operations to enable a user to edit files containing web content in the work area;

and

wherein the staging area may be characterized as a file system for staging web content developed in a plurality of work areas and stored within memory and capable of receiving web content from a work area, the staging area including a versioning mechanism configured to maintain versions of web content received from a work area and an integration mechanism configured to integrate web content received from a plurality of work areas when the web content does not have conflicts.

9. A method for modifying website content, wherein the method is configured for use in a web content modification system having at least one. work area for modifying virtual copies of web content and a staging area for integrating web content submitted by one or more work areas, the method comprising:

modifying virtual copies of web content of a selected object in a work area;

analyzing the web content of the work area to determine whether it is in conflict with other web content submitted to the sting area; and

in response to said other web content not being in conflict with the web content of the work area, submitting the web content modified in the work area to the staging area; and

in response to said other web content being in conflict with the web content submitted by the work area, not submitting the web content to the staging area.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising, in response to said other web content submitted to the staging area being in conflict with the web content of the work area, rejecting the web content from being submitted to the staging area.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising, in response to the other web content submitted to the staging area being in conflict with the web content submitted to the staging area by the work area, refraining from submitting the web content of the working area to the staging area for integration with other web content.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein analyzing the web content of the work area to determine whether it is in conflict with other web content submitted to the staging area further includes analyzing the web content of the work area to determine whether the web content of the work area shares a common ancestry with other web content submitted to the staging area by a work area, wherein if the web content of the work area shares a common ancestry with the other web content, no conflict exists, and wherein if the web content of the work area does not share a common ancestry with the other web content, a conflict exists.

13. The method of claim wherein analyzing the content of the work area to determine whether it is in conflict with other content submitted to the staging area further includes:

analyzing the content of the work area to determine whether it is the same content as and whether the content of the work area shares a common ancestry with other content submitted to the staging area;

if the web content of the work area is not the same as the other web content submitted to the staging area, a conflict exists and the web content from the work area may not be submitted to the staging area;

if the web content of the work area is the same as the other web content submitted to the staging area, a conflict does not exist and the web content from the work area may be submitted to the staging area;

if web the content of the work area does not share a common ancestry with other web content submitted to the staging area, a conflict exists and the web content from the work area may not be submitted to the staging area; and

if the web content of the work area shares a common ancestry with other web content submitted to the staging area, a conflict does not exist and the web content from the work area may be submitted to the staging area.