Shared edit access of electronic content

• US 7,949,633 B1
• Filed: 05/12/2008
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Kleppner, Paul, Shaver, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Uyen T.
• Application Number:
  US12/119,335
• Time in Patent Office: 1,107 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/620
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2147 Locking files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

In various embodiments, a computerized method includes presenting an electronic document to one user out of multiple users that have edit access to the electronic document as part of a collaborative editing of the electronic document. The computerized method may include receiving an input from the user to edit the electronic document, as well as invoking a lock to prevent edit access by the other users responsive to receiving the input from the user to edit the electronic document.

Claims

1. A computerized method comprising:

presenting an electronic document to a user of multiple users that have edit access to the electronic document as part of a collaborative editing of the electronic document;

receiving an input from the user to edit the electronic document;

invoking a lock to prevent edit access by other users of the multiple users of the electronic document in response to receiving the input from the user to edit the electronic document; and

allowing the other users to add a comment to the electronic document despite the lock to prevent edit access.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising releasing the lock in response to a different user attempting to edit the electronic document and if a time period has expired since there has been activity by the user within the electronic document.

3. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein invoking the lock comprises transmitting a lock command to a server to lock edit access by the other users.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple users edit the electronic document from a different client device.

5. The computerized method of claim 3, wherein the server comprises a non-volatile machine-readable medium to store the electronic document, and wherein the computerized method comprises receiving the electronic document from the server.

6. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising releasing the lock to prevent edit access after the edit to the electronic document has been saved.

7. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising releasing the lock after the electronic document has been saved.

8. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein the electronic document is saved in response to an input from the user.

9. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein the electronic document is saved in response to expiration of a time period since the edit of the electronic document.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

presenting, at a client device, an electronic document to a user of multiple users that have edit access to the electronic document;

receiving, at the client device, a lock command to prevent edit access to the electronic document by the user, wherein the lock command is received in response to editing of the electronic document by a different user of the multiple users at a different client device;

locking, at the client device, the electronic document to prevent edit access by the user after receiving the lock command;

notifying the user that a comment may be added to the electronic document despite the locking to prevent edit access; and

receiving a comment from the user to be included in the electronic document; and

adding the comment to the electronic document.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving an input from the user to edit the electronic document;

transmitting a notification of the input to the server;

receiving an unlock command to enable edit access to the electronic document in response to the transmitting of the notification and if a time period has expired since there has been activity by the different user within the electronic document; and

unlocking the electronic document to enable edit access to the electronic document.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the electronic document is saved on the non-volatile machine-readable medium in the server, in response to saving the electronic document on the client device or the different client device.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, comprising releasing the locking of the electronic document to enable edit access by the user, after the editing of the electronic document at the different client device has been saved on the non-volatile machine-readable medium in the server.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the electronic document is saved in response to an input from the different user.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the electronic document is saved in response to expiration of a time period since the edit of the electronic document.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the lock command is received from a server that comprises a non-volatile machine-readable medium to store the electronic document.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable of claim 16, wherein presenting the electronic document comprises presenting user identification of the user and the different user, wherein the user identification of the different user includes notification that the different user has made an edit to the electronic document that has not been saved in the non-volatile machine-readable medium in the server.

18. A server comprising:

a non-volatile machine-readable medium to store an electronic document that is edit accessible by multiple users from client devices communicatively coupled to the server; and

a control module to receive a lock command from a client device of the client devices, in response to an edit of the electronic document by a user of the multiple users, wherein the control module is to lock the electronic document to prevent edit access by other users of the multiple users after receipt of the lock command, the control module allowing the other users to add a comment to the electronic document despite the lock to prevent edit access, the control module to release the lock to enable edit access by a different user of the multiple users in response to the different user attempting to edit the electronic document and a time period having expired since an activity by the user in the electronic document.

19. The server of claim 18, further comprising saving the edit of the electronic document by the user in the non-volatile machine-readable medium prior to releasing the lock.

20. The server of claim 18, wherein the control module is configured to transmit the lock command to a different client device, and wherein the lock command is to prevent edit access by one of the other users that is to access the electronic document through the different client device.

21. The server of claim 18, wherein the control module is configured to release the lock of the electronic document to enable edit access by the other users, after loss of communication with the client device for a specified period of time.

22. The server of claim 18, wherein the control module is configured to release the lock of the electronic document to enable edit access by the other users, after the electronic document has been saved on the non-volatile machine-readable medium in the server.

23. The server of claim 22, wherein the electronic document is saved in response to an input from the user.

24. The server of claim 22, wherein the electronic document is saved in response to expiration of a time period since the edit of the electronic document.