Method and system for collaborative editing

• US 7,769,810 B1
• Filed: 04/26/2007
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaufman, Marc T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong; Oanh
• Application Number:
  US11/796,037
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-205, 709/246, 709/248, 715751-753
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A system for collaborative editing may include a viewer to open a master copy of an electronic document in a local editor, a first queue to store edit operations requested by the local editor, a second queue to store edit operations requested by the remote editor, an update detector to detect a request from the remote editor to perform an edit operation on a remote copy of the electronic document, an update module to perform the edit operation on the master copy of the electronic document and to update the second queue with the edit operation, and a distributor to propagate the edit operation to the remote copy of the electronic document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor to implement;

a viewer to open a master copy of an electronic document in a local editor for display at a display device;

a first queue associated with the local editor, the first queue being to store edit operations requested by the local editor, the first queue maintained by the local editor;

a second queue associated with a remote editor, the remote editor residing at a remote client computer, the second queue being to store edit operations requested by the remote editor, the second queue maintained by the local editor;

an update detector to detect a network request from the remote editor to perform an edit operation on a remote copy of the electronic document, the remote copy of the electronic document being opened by the remote editor;

an update module to;

in response to the network request from the remote editor to perform the edit operation on the remote copy of the electronic document, perform the edit operation on the master copy of the electronic document; and

update the second queue with the edit operation in response to the performing of the edit operation on the master copy of the electronic document; and

a distributor to propagate, via a network communication, the edit operation to the remote copy of the electronic document, the edit operation requested to be performed on the remote copy of the electronic document and performed on the master copy of the electronic document;

wherein the viewer, the first queue, the second queue, the update detector, the update module, the local editor and the distributor are provided at a local client computer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first queue and the second queue are interleaved by time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the distributor is to provide a copy of the first queue and a copy of the second queue to the remote editor.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the update module is to determine that the requested edit operation does not conflict with any concurrent edit operation on the electronic document being performed by another editor.

5. The system of claim 1 comprising a designator to:

determine that the local editor is a first editor to open a copy of the electronic document; and

designate the local editor as a leader, the leader to maintain the master copy of the electronic document.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the update module is to:

detect a request from the remote editor to perform an undo operation on the electronic document;

perform the undo operation on the master copy of the electronic document;

update the second queue in response to the undo operation; and

cooperate with the distributor to cause propagating of the undo operation to the remote copy of the electronic document.

7. The system of claim 1 comprising a synchronization module to:

detect, at the local editor, a request from a further editor to synchronize a further copy of the electronic document with the master copy of the electronic document;

generate a further queue at the local editor, the further queue associated with the further editor; and

cooperate with the distributor to cause providing synchronization information, including the local queue, the remote queue, and the further queue, to the further editor.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the designator is to:

detecting, at the local editor, a request to close the master copy of the electronic document;

nominate the remote editor as a new leader; and

designate the remote copy of the electronic document as a new master copy of the electronic document.

9. The system of claim 1 comprising a storing module to:

detect, at the local editor, that the master copy of the electronic document is the only copy of the electronic document being opened;

detect a request to close the master copy of the electronic document; and

store the latest version of the electronic document, the latest version of the electronic document including results of operations stored in the local queue and the remote queue.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the document is in a Portable Document Format (PDF).

11. A method comprising:

at a first client computer, opening a master copy of an electronic document in a local editor;

at the first client computer, maintaining a first queue, the first queue associated with the local editor;

at the first client computer, maintaining a second queue, the second queue associated with a remote editor, the remote editor provided at a second client computer;

at the first client computer, detecting a request from the remote editor to perform an edit operation on the electronic document, the remote copy of the electronic document being opened by the remote editor;

at the first client computer, performing the edit operation on the master copy of the electronic document in response to the request from the remote editor to perform the edit operation on the remote copy of the electronic document;

at the first client computer, updating the second queue with the edit operation; and

propagating, by the first client computer, the edit operation to the remote copy of the electronic document.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first queue and the second queue are interleaved by time.

13. The method of claim 11 comprising maintaining a copy of the first queue and a copy of the second queue by the remote editor.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing of the edit operation on the master copy of the electronic document comprises determining that the requested edit operation does not conflict with any concurrent edit operation on the electronic document being performed by another editor.

15. The method of claim 11 comprising:

determining that the local editor is a first editor to open a copy of the electronic document; and

designating the local editor as a leader, the leader to maintain the master copy of the electronic document.

16. The method of claim 11 comprising:

detecting a request from the remote editor to perform an undo operation on the electronic document;

performing the undo operation on the master copy of the electronic document;

updating the second queue in response to the undo operation; and

propagating the undo operation to the remote copy of the electronic document.

17. The method of claim 11 comprising:

detecting, at the local editor, a request from a further editor to synchronize a further copy of the electronic document with the master copy of the electronic document;

maintaining a further queue at the local editor, the further queue associated with the further editor;

providing synchronization information, including the local queue, the remote queue, and the further queue, to the further editor.

18. The method of claim 11 comprising:

detecting, at the remote editor, that the master copy of the electronic document has been closed by the local editor;

designating the remote editor as a new leader; and

designating the remote copy of the electronic document as a new master copy of the electronic document.

19. The method of claim 11 comprising:

detecting, at the local editor, that the master copy of the electronic document is the only copy of the electronic document being opened;

receiving a request to close the master copy of the electronic document; and

storing the latest version of the electronic document, the latest version of the electronic document including results of operations stored in the local queue and the remote queue.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the electronic document is in a Portable Document Format (PDF).

21. A machine-readable storage medium having instruction data to cause a machine to:

open a master copy of an electronic document in a local editor at a local client computer;

maintain a first queue at the local client computer, the first queue associated with the local editor, to store edit operations requested by the local editor, the first queue maintained by the local editor;

maintain a second queue at the local client computer, the second queue associated with a remote editor, to store edit operations requested by the remote editor, the remote editor provided at a remote client computer, the second queue maintained by the local editor;

detect a request from the remote editor to perform an edit operation on a remote copy of the electronic document, the remote copy of the electronic document being opened by the remote editor;

perform the edit operation on the master copy of the electronic document in response to the request from the remote editor to perform the edit operation on the remote copy of the electronic document;

update the second queue with the edit operation; and

propagate the edit operation to the remote copy of the electronic document.