Sending a subset of component documents of a modular document to an electronic device

• US 8,972,843 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2009
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Workday Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Rees, Robert Thomas Owen, Gimson, Roger Brian, Balinsky, Helen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Velez-Lopez, Mario M
• Application Number:
  US12/511,507
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029851A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,043 Days
• Field of Search: 715/209, 715/234, 715/255, 715/200, 709/204, 709/205
• US Class Current: 715/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems

Abstract

To communicate a modular document from a first electronic device to a second electronic device, the first electronic device determines which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device. The modular document is composed of plural component documents. The first electronic device sends to the second electronic device a subset of the plural component documents of the modular document, where the subset of the plural component documents is other than the one or more component documents already available at the second electronic device.

Claims

1. A method of communicating a modular document from a first electronic device to a second electronic device, comprising:

determining, by the first electronic device, which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device, wherein the modular document is composed of plural component documents; and

creating, by the first electronic device, a package that includes the modular document and a subset of the plural component documents of the modular document, wherein the subset of the plural component documents is other than the one or more component documents already available at the second electronic device, wherein the modular document in the package includes references to the plural component documents, and wherein the first electronic device does not include in the package the one or more component documents determined by the first electronic device to be already available at the second electronic device; and

sending, by the first electronic device to the second electronic device, the package.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device comprises querying the second electronic device to identify which one or more component documents of the modular document are available at the second electronic device, the method further comprising identifying the subset to include in the package based on a response to the querying, the response received by the first electronic device from the second electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the modular document is a first modular document, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device comprises:

determining whether a second modular document has been sent to the second electronic device;

determining which one or more component documents of the first modular document are shared with the second modular document; and

identify the shared one or more component documents as the one or more component documents of the first modular document already available at the second electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device comprises:

maintaining historical information of communications with the second electronic device; and

accessing the historical information to determine which one or more component documents of the first modular document are already available at the second electronic device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining which one or more component documents of the modular document are already available at the second electronic device is further based on accessing a document retention policy of the second electronic device, wherein the document retention policy specifies discarding of documents older than a specified age.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modular document includes a primary document that has inclusion references to the plural component documents, the inclusion references to the plural component documents including reference to the one or more component documents determined not included in the package.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plural component documents is a second modular document composed of plural additional component documents, wherein the subset includes one or more of the additional component documents.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying references in the modular document to included documents and at least one reference to a non-included document, wherein the subset includes one or more of the included documents but not the non-included document.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying references in the modular document to included documents and at least one reference to an opportunistically included document, wherein the subset includes one or more of the included documents; and

deciding whether or not to add the opportunistically included document into the subset based on a policy at the first electronic device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the references to the plural component documents include one or more references to the one or more component documents not included in the package.

11. A source electronic device comprising:

a storage media to store a modular document, wherein the modular document comprises plural component documents; and

a processor to;

receive a request to send the modular document to a destination electronic device;

in response to the request, determine which of the plural component documents is already available at the destination electronic device; and

prepare a package to send to the destination electronic device, wherein the package includes the modular document and a subset of the plural component documents not already available at the destination electronic device, the modular document in the package including references to the plural component documents, and wherein the processor is to not include in the package one or more component documents determined to be already available at the destination electronic device.

12. The source electronic device of claim 11, wherein the plural component documents are combined to allow for proper presentation of the modular document.

13. The source electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is to determine which of the plural component documents is already available at the destination electronic device by sending a list of the plural component documents to the destination electronic device and receiving a response from the destination electronic device regarding which one or more component documents are already available at the destination electronic device, and wherein the processor is to identify the subset to include in the package based on the response.

14. The source electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is to determine which of the plural component documents is already available at the destination electronic device by maintaining historical information of document communications with the destination electronic device.

15. The source electronic device of claim 11, wherein the modular document includes a primary document that has inclusion references to the plural component documents, and at least one non-inclusion reference to a non-included document, wherein the package does not include the non-included document.

16. The source electronic device of claim 11, wherein each of the modular document and the plural component documents is identified by a corresponding unique identifier.

17. The source electronic device of claim 11,

wherein the processor is to further send the package to the destination electronic device in response to the request.

18. The source electronic device of claim 11, wherein the references to the plural component documents include one or more references to the one or more component documents not included in the package.

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

receive, from a source electronic device, a package that includes a modular document and one or more component documents, wherein the modular document includes references to plural component documents, and wherein the package includes less than the plural component documents;

identify which of the plural component documents are missing from the package; and

locally access the missing component documents to reconstruct the modular document at the destination electronic device.

20. The article of claim 19, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the destination electronic device to further present the modular document based on the plural component documents.

21. The article of claim 19, wherein the package is without the missing component documents that were identified by the source electronic device to already be available at the destination electronic device.