Document management system user interfaces

• US 8,738,672 B1
• Filed: 02/21/2012
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Original Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Inventors: Ahmed, Muqtadar, Eshkenazi, Nikolay B
• Primary Examiner(s): Chbouki, Tarek
• Application Number:
  US13/401,577
• Time in Patent Office: 826 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/168 Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIs query results presentation G06F16/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software to provide document management system user interfaces to clients. Some embodiments include an intermediary server to provide document management system indexing data to a client in a form that is displayable within an existing client file browsing user interface, such as Windows Explorer.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving, via a computer including a processing unit, Server Message Block data through a Java SMB intermediary server from a document indexing database copy derived from a document management system index database stored within a document management system coupled to the computer, wherein the Server Message Block data comprises client data stored in a hierarchical fashion that includes a client atop of the client data hierarchy with client account types under the client, wherein included under the client account are documents, associated with the client account and account types associated with the client account, which are retrievable from a single layer of the hierarchal database;

displaying the Server Message Block data within an operating system user interface of the computer in an expandable and contractible tree-view display of data that provides access to files stored in a networked environment coupled to the computer; and

wherein the data provides a handle to a document stored by the document management system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for the Server Message Block data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving a request for the Server Message Block data includes receiving one or more user data access credentials, further wherein receiving the Server Message Block data includes receiving only data to which the user data access credentials provides access to.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving only data to which the data access credentials provides access to includes data representative of documents to which the user data access credential provide read-only access to.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the request for the Server Message Block data includes a request for a single hierarchy layer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the networked environment is a local area network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the Sever Message Block data within the operating system user interface includes:

wherein the tree-view display is representative of document indexing within the document management system.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, with instructions thereon which when processed, result in a machine:

receiving Server Message Block data through a Java SMB intermediary server from a document indexing database copy derived from a document indexing database derived from a document management system index database stored within a document management system, wherein the Server Message Block data comprises client data stored in a hierarchical fashion that includes a client atop of the client data hierarchy with client account types under the client, wherein included under the client account are documents, associated with the client account and account types associated with the client account, which are retrievable from a single layer of the hierarchal database;

displaying the Server Message Block data within an operating system user interface in an expandable and contractible tree-view display of data that provides access to files stored in a networked environment; and

wherein the data provides a handle to a document stored by the document management system.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions when processed, further result in the machine

receiving a request for the Server Message Block data.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein receiving the request for the Server Message Block data includes receiving one or more user data access credentials, further wherein receiving the Server Message Block data includes receiving only data to which the user data access credentials provides access to.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein receiving only data to which the data access credentials provides access to includes data representative of documents to which the user data access credential provide read-only access to.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein receiving the request for Server Message Block data includes receiving a request for a single hierarchy layer.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the networked environment is a local area network.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein displaying the Sever Message Block data within an operating system user interface includes:

displaying the Server Message Block data in an expandable and contractible tree-view display of data, wherein the tree-view display is representative of document indexing within the document management system.

15. A system comprising:

a computer including a processing unit;

a data reception module to receive Server Message Block data through a Java SMB intermediary server from a document indexing database copy derived from a document management system index database stored within a document management system coupled to the computer, wherein the Server Message Block data comprises client data stored in a hierarchical fashion in a relational database that includes a client atop of the client data hierarchy with client account types under the client, wherein included under the client account are documents, associated with the client account and account types associated with the client account, which are retrievable from a single layer of the relational database;

a data display module to display the Server Message Block data within an operating system user interface in an expandable and contractible tree-view display of data that provides access to files stored in a networked environment coupled to the computer; and

wherein the data provides a handle to a document stored by the document management system.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a data request module to receiving a request for the Server Message Block data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the Server Message Block data request received by the data request module includes one or more user data access credentials, further wherein the data reception module receives only the Server Message Block data to which the user data access credentials provides access to.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein receiving the request by the data request module for Server Message Block data includes a request for a single hierarchy layer.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the networked environment is a local area network.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the tree-view display is representative of document indexing within the document management system.