Application and data agnostic collaboration services

• US 9,178,957 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Pegg, Nigel
• Primary Examiner(s): STRANGE, AARON N
• Application Number:
  US11/863,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089379A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,959 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Various embodiments herein include one or more of systems, methods, software, and data structures to create collaboration enabled client applications. In some embodiments, web services are provided on one or more servers that may be called by processes within client applications to facilitate collaboration within a workspace, such as directly within a computer application. Some such web services are application and data agnostic meaning that such web services are not aware of or do not care where application collaboration service calls come from, what their destination application is, or what data is being communicated. These web services, in some such embodiments, just must be properly called by an authorized user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory device;

a server process stored in the at least one memory device including a set of collaboration service modules executable by the at least one processor to provide services of the collaboration service modules over a network interface that receives and transmits collaboration data in a format that is not understood by the server process, the set of collaboration service modules operable to provide;

one or more of user identity, role and permission, and presence services;

one or more services to share client application data between applications of two or more clients authorized to utilize the user identity, role and permission, and presence services; and

at least one collaboration service module in the set of collaboration service modules operable to receive free-form collaboration data from a first user and serve the free-form collaboration data to at least a second user over the network interface without regard to the type of free-form collaboration data, an application of the first user from which the free-form collaboration data is received, or an application of the at least second user to which the free-form collaboration data is served.

2. The system of claim 1, the collaboration service modules are further operable to provide one or more of:

audio and video sharing services;

text-based messaging services between two or more users;

shared whiteboard services;

room management services operable to allow a meeting organizer to create andadminister settings of a network-based conference;

roster services that provide a listing to one or more users of users connected to the server; and

file transfer services to facilitate transfer of an electronic data file from one user to one or more other users connected to the server.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the room management services allow a meeting organizer to authorize users to connect to the network-based conference and designate permissions of the authorized users.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein permissions of authorized users are set on a service-based level to allow or prevent utilization of services of the collaboration service modules.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the audio and video sharing services include a Voice Over Internet Protocol (“

VoIP”

) service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a user is a human user of a client application.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the collaboration service modules are further operable to provide a peer-to-peer facilitation service to exchange network connectivity data between two users to establish a peer-to-peer communication connection between the two users over a network.

8. A system comprising at least one processor, at least one memory device, and a local application including instructions stored in the at least one memory device and executable by the at least one processor to establish and maintain a network connection with one or more remote applications for exchanging free-form collaboration data in a format that is not understood by one or move collaboration servers, via calls of one or more services offered by the one or more collaboration servers without regard to the type or content of exchanged free-form collaboration data and local applications or remote applications that communicate with the one or more collaboration servers and exchange the free-form collaboration data when the calls are properly invoked by the local applications or the remote applications while ignoring the identity of the local application or the remote applications.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the local application and the one or more remote applications are separate instances of the same application.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the local application and the one or more remote applications each include one or more collaboration tools.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more collaboration tools include a collaborative whiteboard module.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more collaboration tools include a roster module operable to display user presence data of the local and one or more remote applications.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the calls of the one or more services offered by the one or more collaboration servers includes calls to one or more of:

an audio and video sharing service;

a text-based messaging service; and

a room management service operable to allow a meeting organizer to create and administer settings of a network-based conference.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the calls of the one or more services offered by the one or more collaboration servers includes a call to exchange connectivity data between two users to establish a peer-to-peer communication connection between the two users over a network.

15. A method comprising:

establishing a network connection;

maintaining the network connection with one or more remote applications for exchanging free-form collaboration data in a format that is not understood by one or more collaboration servers, via calls of one or more services offered by the one or more collaboration servers without regard to the type or content of exchanged free-form collaboration data, and the local application or the one or more remote applications;

communicating with the one or more collaboration servers over the network connection; and

exchanging the free-form collaboration data when the calls are properly invoked by the local application or the one or more remote applications while ignoring the identity of the local application or the one or more remote applications.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a call from the local application or the one or more remote applications that includes user identity data; and

determining whether the user of the local application or the one or more remote applications is authorized to access the one or more collaboration servers.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

exchanging free-form collaboration data such that the one or more collaboration servers are unable to understand the free-form collaboration but the local application or remote applications are able to understand the free-form collaboration data.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

establishing whether the free-form collaboration data is retained, logged, or discarded based on a policies set of the one or more collaborations servers.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a call from the local application or the one or more remote applications that includes user identity data;

determining whether the user of the local application or the one or more remote applications is authorized to access the one or more collaboration servers;

if the user is authorized, exchanging the free-form collaboration data; and

if the user is unauthorized, preventing the exchange of the free-form collaboration data.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a call from the local application or the one or more remote applications that designates permissions based on the user identity data.