Collaborative document authoring

• US 7,933,952 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Prickril, Greg, Cox, Martin, Parker, Jared
• Primary Examiner(s): Serrao; Ranodhi N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cheema; Umar
• Application Number:
  US11/824,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20090006936A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 715/200
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Embodiments are provided to enable a collaborative authoring of a document or other data structure. In an embodiment, a system includes a number of components configured to structure a collaborative authoring process. The components of the system can be used to define a number of sections, roles, and other collaboration parameters associated with a collaboration effort. A workspace can be provisioned to allow participants to interact with the document based in part on a number of permissions. Components of the system can be used to communicate a customized document to the participants based in part on an associated role and other collaboration parameters. Other embodiments and collaborative functionality are available.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed, collaborate information by:

using a computer-implemented client to define an assembly workspace including associating one or more users as one or more participants of the assembly workspace, wherein the client is configured to interact with other clients as part of a collaborative authoring effort;

associating an assembly document, including using a master assembly document to track and maintain user changes, with the assembly workspace including providing an in-memory manifestation of a state of the assembly document that includes data, metadata, content, and actions, and using an assembly document proxy to build the assembly document using stored information and an assembly document object to create a number of sections and a number of authored section content controls based in part on one or more of a first property associated with a begin editing operation, a second property associated with a completed section operation, a third property associated with a section status, a fourth property associated with an allow to reassign operation, and a fifth property associated with an allow to insert sections operation;

applying a number of constraints to the assembly document, wherein the number of constraints determines which of the one or more participants is permitted to interact with the number of sections of the assembly document, the number of constraints defined in part by an editor role, an author role, and an observer role, wherein the editor role can be used to assign sections to authors including enabling an assigned author to reassign a section to other authors responsible for contributing content to one or more of the number of sections of the assembly document including editing root section metadata as part of assigning sections, updating section status, and restricting sections; and

,

generating a complete copy of the assembly document for each participant as part of a document assembly process using the assembly workspace and the assembly document proxy.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by using an open XML standard as part of the collaborative authoring effort that includes generating the complete copy of the assembly document for each participant as part of the document assembly process using the assembly workspace including aggregating changes made by each participant and using the observer role to allow defined users to be made aware of progress relative to the document assembly process.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by storing the assembly document in a data store associated with the client, wherein the assembly document is stored as a collection of constituent parts, updating the master assembly document when a user makes a change to the assembly document, and communicating changes to respective clients using private copies of the master assembly document.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by launching a word processing application when a user selects the assembly document, wherein one or more of the number of constraints are applied based in part on an identity of the user.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by notifying each participant of a modification to the assembly document when an associated client is in communication with a computing network.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by updating the assembly document with the modification after notifying a participant of the modification.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by notifying a participant of a modification to the assembly document when an associated client is in communication with a peer-to-peer computing network.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by notifying a participant of a modification to the assembly document when an associated client is in communication with a client and server-based computing network.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by presenting the assembly document to a participant based on a workspace identity, workspace role, or an assembly document role, and using a read permission to allow viewing of all document and section properties, non-restricted sections content, and all interstitial content, an edit section content permission to allow modification of content of an assigned section, an update metadata for all root sections permission to allow updates to author, due date, and restricted properties, an update metadata for all sub-sections permission to allow a parent section user to update the author, the due date, and the restricted properties for all sub-sections, and an insert root section property to allow insertion of interstitial content in a main document associated with the assembly document.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by using the metadata to define the number of constraints to determine which of the one or more participants is permitted to interact with one or more of the number of sections of the assembly document, wherein the number of authored section content controls can define when an author may begin editing a corresponding section, when the corresponding section should be completed, a section status of the corresponding section, an allow to reassign operation for the corresponding section, an allow to insert sections operation for the corresponding section, and a complete indication for the corresponding section.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by building the assembly document using information associated with a data store and the assembly document object to create the number of authored section content controls and other document parameters;

and

inserting a new content control including adding a new authored section to the assembly document proxy and associating a new ordinal value indicating a position of the new authored section relative to other authored sections as part of the document assembly process.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by using a schema to identify the assembly workspace associated with the assembly document.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by assigning one or more of the number of sections to one or more authors associated with the assembly document.

14. A computer system configured to provide for the collaboration of information comprising:

a computer-implemented client associated with each user of the system, the client comprising;

an assembly workspace including a sections component and an assembly document representation; and

,

a data store including memory to store information of a number of participants associated with an assembly document, wherein the information is associated with content, state, relationship with other entities, version, locking behavior, and status; and

,

a computer-implemented assembly component to;

assemble the assembly document, including using a master assembly document to track and maintain user changes, after interacting with the assembly document representation;

provide an in-memory manifestation of a state of the assembly document that includes data, metadata, content, and actions;

apply a number of constraints to the assembly document, wherein the number of constraints determine users permitted to interact with a number of sections of the assembly document, the number of constraints defined in part by an editor role, an author role, and an observer role, wherein the editor role can be used to assign sections to authors including enabling an assigned author to reassign a section to other authors responsible for contributing content to one or more of the number of sections of the assembly document including editing root section metadata as part of assigning sections, updating section status, and restricting sections;

use an assembly document proxy to build the assembly document based in part on the information and an assembly document object to create a number of authored section content controls based in part on one or more of a first property associated with a begin editing operation, a second property associated with a completed section operation, a third property associated with a section status, a fourth property associated with an allow to reassign operation, and a fifth property associated with an allow to insert sections operation customized for an end-user user based in part on the information stored in the data store including an associated role and other permission parameters associated with the end-user; and

,

generate a complete copy of the assembly document for each participant as part of a document assembly process using the assembly workspace and the assembly document proxy.

15. The system of claim 14, the assembly document proxy further to provide the manifestation of the assembly document, wherein the assembly document proxy includes the data, metadata, and content to be used to persist the assembly document on the client.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising a number of custom XML parts to uniquely associate the assembly document with the assembly workspace.

17. A method of contributing to a collaborative effort comprising:

using a computer system as part of creating a collaborative document based in part on a template including using a master document to track and maintain user changes, wherein the template includes document XML, one or more authored section content controls, and custom XML parts, and can be used to define a number of participants that can interact with the collaborative document;

specifying a number of sections associated with the collaborative document, wherein an author selected from the number of participants can be associated with one or more of the number of sections;

associating the collaborative document with a workspace for interacting with the collaborative document including providing an in-memory manifestation of a state of the collaborative document that includes data, metadata, content, and actions;

assembling the collaborative document using an assembly document proxy to build the collaborative document using stored information and an assembly document object to create the number of sections and one or more authored section content controls based in part on one or more of a first property associated with a begin editing operation, a second property associated with a completed section operation, a third property associated with a section status, a fourth property associated with an allow to reassign operation, and a fifth property associated with an allow to insert sections operation for the collaborative document;

using the workspace to add content to one or more of the number of sections of the collaborative document;

applying a number of constraints to the collaborative document, wherein the number of constraints determine users permitted to interact with the number of sections of the collaborative document, the number of constraints defined in part by an editor role, an author role, and an observer role, wherein the editor role can be used to assign sections to authors including enabling an assigned author to reassign a section to other authors responsible for contributing content to one or more of the number of sections of the collaborative document including editing root section metadata as part of assigning sections, updating section status, and restricting sections;

notifying one or more of the number of participants of a change to the collaborative document; and

,

generating a complete copy of the collaborative document for each participant as part of an assembly process using the workspace and the assembly document proxy.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising associating a number of permissions to aspects of the collaborative document and associated workspace.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising communicating the collaborative document using a peer-to-peer communication network.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising communicating the collaborative document as part of a client and server-based communication network.