Annotating documents in a collaborative application with data in disparate information systems

• US 7,424,670 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2005
• Issued: 09/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tennisberg, Targo, Burke, Jonah S., Crow, Howard M., Kapadia, Arshish C., Kauffman, Jonathan A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis; Cheryl
• Application Number:
  US11/223,505
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/3, 715/500, 715/512, 715/200, 715/230, 715/233
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Systems and methods for annotating documents in provided in a collaborative application with data from disparate information systems are provided. The collaborative application enables the annotation of a document with data provided by another application. Particularly, the collaborative application enables a user to pick an item from a data store associated with another application. An association is established between the document and the picked item and retrieves data associated with the picked item from the data store. The document is annotated with the retrieved data. Because of the association, the collaborative application can determine that the picked item in the data store has been modified by the other application. The collaborative application may retrieve modified data associated with the picked item from the data store and update the annotation data associated with the document with the modified data.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions that when executed cause a computer to:

identify a document in a collaborative application;

associate at least one data field native to the collaborative application with the document;

select an item in a data store associated with an application separate from the collaborative application;

associate the selected item with the document;

in response to receiving a request for the document in the collaborative application;

retrieve data associated with the selected item and data associated with the data field; and

displaying the retrieved data on a user interface as an annotation without displaying the contents of the documents;

wherein the item comprises a plurality of data fields;

wherein the instructions to select an item further comprise instructions to;

identify a plurality of fields associated with the selected item;

receive a selection of at least one of the plurality of fields; and

wherein the instructions to associate the selected item further comprises instructions to;

associate the at least one of the plurality of fields with the documents.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions to:

store the retrieved data associated with the selected item.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2 further comprising instructions to:

retrieve modified data associated with the selected item form the data store; and

update the user interface with the modified data.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein each annotation is represented as a separate field associated with the document.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the collaborative application is a portal application.

6. A computer implemented method for a collaborative application to interact with a user, comprising:

providing a user interface associated with the collaborative application;

accessing a data store associated with a second application;

receiving a selection of an item from the data store;

retrieving at least a portion of data associated with the selected item from the data store; and

displaying in the user interface data associated with a document as at least one annotation separate from the document, the data provided by the collaborative application, and displaying the data associated with the selected item as a separate annotation to the document in the user interface;

displaying the annotation data associated with the document in a plurality of columns in the user interface, each column of the plurality of columns associated with a separate annotation;

enabling additional annotation data to be added to the document;

receiving a selection to add additional annotation data;

in response to the selection to add additional annotation data;

adding at least one new column to the plurality of columns; and

displaying the additional annotation data in the at least one new column.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

identifying a plurality of fields associated with the selected item;

enabling a selection of a set of fields from the plurality of fields;

adding a new column to the plurality of columns for each field within the set of fields; and

displaying data associated with each field in the new columns.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

determining if the selected item has been modified by the second application;

retrieving modified data associated with the selected item from the data store; and

displaying the modified data in the separate annotation to the document in the user interface.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the collaborative application is a portal application.

10. A computer implemented system for annotating a document comprising:

a collaborative application configured to provide resources and/or services that are accessible by multiple users;

a collaborative application data store, the data store containing at least one document that is to be shared by the collaborative application;

a picker configured to select items that are associated with at least one data store on an application separate from the collaborative application;

a data association module configured to associate items selected by the picker with a document in the collaborative application data store;

a document annotation user interface configured to show data associated with the at least one document in the collaborative application data store, and data associated with the items selected by the picker;

a user interface configured to display items that can be selected by the picker from the data store associated with the application separate from the collaborative application.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the document annotation user interface displays data in a plurality of columns, each column is associated with a separate data entry of data associated with the document.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the item comprises a plurality of data types, and wherein the picker is further configured to select at least a portion of the plurality of data types.