Shared virtual meeting services among computer applications
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for forming an instance of a virtual meeting and then sharing the instance of a virtual meeting between a plurality of computer applications, comprising:
- providing a first computer application that will be shared by a plurality of meeting participants'"'"' computers during the instance of the virtual meeting, the first computer application having a first user interface;
providing a virtual meeting application for forming and administering the instance of the virtual meeting, the virtual meeting application having a virtual meeting user interface and an application interface;
under the control of the first computer application, invoking the virtual meeting application through the application interface; and
under the control of the virtual meeting application, forming and administering the instance of the virtual meeting.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for controlling the interaction between a primary application and a virtual meeting application and assigning the responsibility between them for providing user interface components is provided. The virtual meeting application provides the functionality for a virtual meeting and provides user interface components related to transient state changes in the virtual meeting. The virtual meeting application is called from the user interface provided by the primary application. In response to state change event notification sent by the virtual meeting application to the primary application, the primary application updates user interface components that supplement the user interface provided by the virtual meeting application. The virtual meeting application is invoked through an application interface that is exposed by the virtual meeting application in a global name space. The application interface may be associated with a predefined mode that specifies which of the user interface components provided by the virtual meeting application will be displayed in a manner that appears to be part of the primary application'"'"'s user interface and which of the virtual meeting user interface components will be suppressed.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for forming an instance of a virtual meeting and then sharing the instance of a virtual meeting between a plurality of computer applications, comprising:
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providing a first computer application that will be shared by a plurality of meeting participants'"'"' computers during the instance of the virtual meeting, the first computer application having a first user interface;
providing a virtual meeting application for forming and administering the instance of the virtual meeting, the virtual meeting application having a virtual meeting user interface and an application interface;
under the control of the first computer application, invoking the virtual meeting application through the application interface; and
under the control of the virtual meeting application, forming and administering the instance of the virtual meeting. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
displaying a supplementary meeting user interface provided by the first computer application;
accepting state change information from the supplementary meeting user interface; and
sending the state change information from the first computer application to the virtual meeting application.
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21. The method of claim 20, further comprising changing the state of the virtual meeting with the virtual meeting application in response to the state change information that was sent by the first computer application from the supplementary meeting user interface.
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22. The method of claim 1, further comprising sharing an electronic document for collaborative editing of an electronic document between a plurality of meeting attendees during the virtual meeting.
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23. The method of claim 22, wherein the virtual meeting application displays a virtual image of the first computer application on a meeting attendee'"'"'s computer, a meeting attendee being able to collaboratively edit the electronic document using the first computer application when the virtual meeting attendee is granted control of the first computer application by the virtual meeting application.
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24. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a click to take control user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application when the virtual meeting application detects that the virtual meeting attendee requests to take control of the first computer application.
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25. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a meeting attendee user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application modal to the first computer application as meeting attendees are added and removed from the virtual meeting by the virtual meeting application.
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26. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a call progress user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application modal to the first computer application as the virtual meeting application establishes the virtual meeting.
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27. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a call failure user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application modal to the first computer application as the virtual meeting application fails to establish the virtual meeting.
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28. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the file containing the electronic document from a meeting host'"'"'s computer on which the first computer application is running to a meeting attendee'"'"'s computer using the virtual meeting application.
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29. The method of claim 28, wherein the transfer of the file containing the electronic document is initiated when a file transfer option is selected from the supplementary meeting user interface.
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30. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the state notification to a plurality of computer applications that have registered for the virtual meeting.
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31. The method of claim 1, further comprising a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for providing the execution of the foregoing method.
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32. A computer-implemented method for accessing a virtual meeting capability of a virtual meeting application from a document editing application, the method comprising:
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displaying a menu as part of a document editing application user interface, the menu including a menu item for initiating a virtual meeting;
receiving in the document editing application a selection of the menu item for initiating a virtual meeting; and
invoking the virtual meeting application from the document editing application, the virtual meeting application being invoked by the document editing application in a mode that displays a set of dialogs in the user interface, the set of dialogs being generated by the virtual meeting application. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
a place call dialog for joining a meeting participant to the virtual meeting, the place call dialog receiving a user selection of at least one meeting attendee;
a call progress dialog that displays state information pertaining to a state of the virtual meeting;
a call success dialog if the virtual meeting application is able to join the virtual meeting attendee to the virtual meeting; and
a call failure dialog if the virtual meeting application is unable to join the virtual meeting attendee to the virtual meeting.
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35. The method of claim 32, further comprising:
sending a handle associated with the document editing application to the virtual meeting application, the virtual meeting application using the handle to enable sharing of the document editing application among selected meeting attendees that are joined to the virtual meeting.
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36. The method of claim 35, wherein the dialogs generated by the virtual meeting application and displayed in the document editing application include:
a click to take control dialog that is displayed in the document editing application when the virtual meeting application has granted control of the document editing application to a meeting attendee.
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37. The method of claim 32, further comprising:
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sending virtual meeting state notifications from the virtual meeting application to the document editing application; and
displaying in the user interface a supplementary virtual meeting dialog, the document editing application generating the supplementary virtual meeting dialog in response to the virtual meeting state notification received from the virtual meeting application.
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38. The method of claim 35, wherein the dialogs generated by the virtual meeting application and displayed in the document editing application include:
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a file transfer capability; and
an incoming file transfer dialog that is displayed when the virtual meeting application detects that a file has been transferred from a meeting host.
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39. The method of claim 32, further comprising:
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specifying an electronic document to be shared during the virtual meeting in a message sent automatically by the document editing application to the virtual meeting application; and
enabling data sharing of the electronic document during the virtual meeting, the data sharing being under the control of the virtual meeting application.
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40. The method of claim 39, further comprising displaying as part of a document editing application user interface a portion of a meeting user interface that provides instructions to a user for how to alter the virtual meeting state.
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41. The method of claim 39, further comprising displaying as part of the document editing application user interface a portion of a meeting user interface that displays information pertaining to the virtual meeting state.
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42. The method of claim 41, further comprising a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for providing the execution of the foregoing method.
Specification