Associating version information with a component document of a modular document

• US 8,301,722 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2009
• Issued: 10/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gimson, Roger Brian, Rees, Robert Thomas Owen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Imad
• Application Number:
  US12/511,523
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029634A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A modular document composed of plural component documents that are combined to allow presentation of the modular document is provided. The modular document contains references to the component documents. Version information is associated with at least one of the references to identify one of plural versions of a corresponding particular one of the component documents.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, by a first electronic device, a modular document composed of plural component documents that are combined to allow presentation of the modular document, wherein the modular document contains references to the component documents;

determining whether plural different versions of a particular one of the component documents is referenced in the modular document; and

in response to determining that plural different versions of the particular component document is referenced, associating plural version information with corresponding ones of the references to identify the corresponding plural different versions of the particular component document.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a representation of the modular document including the plural version information from the first electronic device over a network to a second electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a global unique identifier with each of the references associated with the particular component document, wherein the global unique identifier identifies the particular component document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the plural version information comprises associating the plural version information that include corresponding timestamps.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a package including the modular document and at least a subset of the plural component documents; and

sending the package from the first electronic device to a second electronic device over a network.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

including in the subset just the component documents that are not available at the second electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a given one of the plural component documents has plural parts, and wherein at least one of the parts is associated with multiple versions, the method further comprising:

providing, in the modular document, a reference to one of the multiple versions of the at least one part.

8. A method comprising:

providing, by a first electronic device, a modular document composed of plural component documents that are combined to allow presentation of the modular document, wherein the modular document contains references to the component documents;

associating version information with at least one of the references to identify one of plural versions of a corresponding particular one of the component documents;

creating a package including the modular document and at least a subset of the plural component documents;

sending the package from the first electronic device to a second electronic device over a network;

determining whether references in component documents of the modular document refer to multiple versions of a given component document; and

in response to determining that the references in the component documents of the modular document refer to multiple versions of the given document, including the multiple versions of the given document in the package.

9. A first electronic device comprising:

a network interface to receive, from a second electronic device, a modular document composed of plural component documents that are combined to allow presentation of the modular document, wherein at least a given one of the plural component documents is associated with version information; and

a processor to;

according to the version information, select one of multiple versions of the given component document to be used;

construct the modular document using the plural component documents including the selected version of the given component document; and

a storage media to locally store one of the versions of the given component document, wherein selection of one of the multiple versions comprises selection between the version of the given component document received from the second electronic device and the version of the given component document stored locally at the first electronic device.

10. The first electronic device of claim 9, wherein the storage media is to further store policy information, and wherein the processor is configured to select one of the multiple versions of the given component document by using the policy information.

11. The first electronic device of claim 10, wherein the policy information specifies that a latest version of the given component document is to be used.

12. The first electronic device of claim 10, wherein the policy information specifies that different versions of the given component document are to be used for different applications.

13. The first electronic device of claim 10, wherein the policy information specifies that different versions of the given component document are to be used for different types of modular documents.

14. The first electronic device of claim 9, wherein the received modular document includes a package that includes a representation of the modular document and a subset of at least some of the plural component documents.

15. An article comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that upon execution by a processor cause a first electronic device to:

receive a request to send a particular modular document to a second electronic device, wherein the particular modular document is composed of plural component documents that are combined to allow presentation of the particular modular document, wherein the plural component documents include further modular documents, and wherein the further modular documents contain respective references to different versions of a given component document;

create a package that includes the particular modular document and a subset of at least some of the plural component documents, wherein version information is associated with at least a particular one of the component documents;

include the different versions of the given component document in the package;

associate different version information for the given component document with corresponding references in the further modular documents; and

send the package to the second electronic device.

16. The article of claim 15, wherein the particular modular document contains references to corresponding ones of the plural component documents, wherein the version information associated with the particular component document is associated with the reference to the particular component document.