Saving state of a collaborative session in an editable format

• US 9,420,014 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2007
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Pegg, Nigel
• Primary Examiner(s): GOLDBERG, ANDREW C
• Application Number:
  US11/940,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032655A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,197 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference

Abstract

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving an input from a participant of a collaborative session among two or more devices, wherein the input is to cause a capture of at least part of data that is part of the state of the collaborative session at a point in time. The method also includes saving a state of the collaborative session at the point in time, wherein the state is saved into an editable format. The saving includes capturing the at least part of the data that is part of the collaborative session. The saving also includes storing the data in the editable format into a machine-readable medium.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer comprising a processor and a memory, the method comprising:

receiving an input from a participant of participants of a collaborative session among two or more devices, the input being a request by the participant to capture data that is part of a state of the collaborative session in a snapshot of a given instance of time of the collaborative session while the collaborative session is occurring, the collaborative session comprising windows, each of the windows corresponding to a respective type of data presentation that is output to the participants during the collaborative session;

receiving a template selected by the participant for the capture of the data, the template determining which parts of the collaborative session the data is captured from and a format of the data to be captured, one of the parts being output using a first type of data presentation in a first window of the windows and another of the parts being output using a second type of data presentation in a second window of the windows, the data including user identifying information about one or more participants of the collaborative session, the user identifying information being unviewable in the collaborative session by at least one of the participants; and

saving the snapshot of the given instance of time of the collaborative session into a document having editable format, the saving comprising;

performing the capture of the data into the template as the snapshot; and

storing the snapshot, including the user identifying information, in the document having the editable format on machine-readable medium, the editable format allowing participants of the collaborative session to subsequently edit the data stored in the document, the document being stored with at least another document comprising another snapshot of a different instance of time of the collaborative session than the given instance of time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving data that is being shared as part of the collaborative session among two or more devices, wherein the data that is captured is based on the data that is being shared as part of the collaborative session.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the data stored in the editable format to at least one participant of the collaborative session.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first window is a white board window and the second window is a participants window that includes characteristics of participants of the collaborative session.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the parts correspond to a subset of the windows displayed during the collaborative session.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is not viewable by at least one participant of the collaborative session.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing the data is independent of capturing pixels on a screen being used by the participant for the collaborative session.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the input from the participant comprises receiving a selection of the template.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first snapshot does not include any data corresponding to output to a third window of the windows.

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

receiving data that is being shared as part of a collaborative session among two or more devices, the collaborative session being viewable by participants using the two or more devices, the data comprising non-viewable data that is viewable in the collaborative session only by one or more administrators of the collaborative session;

receiving an input from a participant of the collaborative session, the input being a request by the participant to capture the data that is part of the state of the collaborative session in a snapshot of a given instance of time of the collaborative session while the collaborative session is occurring, the collaborative session comprising windows, each window corresponding to a respective type of data presentation that is output to the participants during the collaborative session, the data that is part of the state of the collaborative session including the non-viewable data comprising user identifying information about at least one of the participants of the collaborative session, the input comprising a selection of a template into which the data is to be stored, the template selected by the participant for the capture of the data, the template determining which parts of the collaborative session the data is captured from and a format of the data to be captured, one of the parts being output using a first type of data presentation in a first window of the windows and another of the parts being output using a second type of data presentation in a second window of the windows; and

saving the snapshot of the given instance of time of the collaborative session into a document having an editable format, the saving comprising performing the capture of the data into the template as the snapshot and storing the snapshot, including the user identifying information, on at least one of the machine-readable medium or a different machine-readable medium to create the document, the editable format allowing participants of the collaborative session to subsequently edit the data stored in the document, the document being stored with at least another document comprising another snapshot of a different instance of time of the collaborative session than the given instance of time.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein capturing of the data is independent of capturing pixels on the screen being used by the participant for the collaborative session.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising transmitting the data stored in the editable format to participants of the collaborative session.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the data comprises at least one of data from a white board, data from a note pad, or data that includes characteristics of participants of the collaborative session.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a machine-readable medium;

a session module to receive data that is being shared as part of a collaborative session with one or more other apparatuses, the session module to save the data in a snapshot of a given instance of time of the collaborative session while the collaborative session is occurring in response to a request by a participant of the collaborative session to capture a state of the collaborative session in the snapshot of the given instance of time of the collaborative session, the collaborative session comprising windows, each of the windows corresponding to a respective type of data presentation that is output to the participants during the collaborative session, the data including an email address, phone number, or street address of one or more participants of the collaborative session that is unviewable in the collaborative session by at least one of the participants, the session module to receive a template selected by the participant for the capture of the data, the template determining which parts of the collaborative session the data is captured from and a format of the data to be captured, one of the parts being output using a first type of data presentation in a first window of the windows and another of the parts being output using a second type of data presentation in a second window of the windows, and save the snapshot of the given instance of time, including the email address, phone number, or street address in a document having an editable format on the machine-readable medium, the editable format allowing participants of the collaborative session to subsequently edit the data stored in the document; and

a display screen to display at least a subset of the data that is being shared as part of the collaborative session, the email address, phone number, or street address not being included in the subset of the data being displayed.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the data of the collaborative session comprises at least one of data from a white board, data from a note pad, or data that includes characteristics of participants of the collaborative session.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the parts correspond to a subset of the windows displayed during the collaborative session.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the data that is saved in the editable format is independent of a capture of pixels of a screen shot.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein at least part of the data is derived from data that is being shared as part of the collaborative session and is not viewable on the display screen.

19. A method performed by a computer comprising a processor and a memory, the method comprising:

receiving a first input from a participant of participants of a collaborative session among two or more devices, the first input being a first request by the participant to capture first data that is part of a first state of the collaborative session in a first snapshot of a first particular instance of time of the collaborative session while the collaborative session is occurring, the collaborative session comprising windows, each of the windows corresponding to a respective type of data presentation that is output to the participants during the collaborative session;

responsive to the receiving of the first request;

receiving a first template selected by the participant for the capture of the first data, the first template determining which parts of the collaborative session the first data is captured from and a format of the first data to be captured, one of the parts being output using a first type of data presentation in a first window of the windows and another of the parts being output using a second type of data presentation in a second window of the windows; and

causing the first snapshot of the first particular instance of time of the collaborative session to be captured into the first template as the first snapshot and stored into a first editable document;

receiving a second input from the participant, the second input being a second request by the participant to capture second data that is part of a second state of the collaborative session in a second snapshot of a second particular instance of time of the collaborative session while the collaborative session is occurring;

responsive to the receiving of the second request;

receiving a second template selected by the participant for the capture of the second data, the second template determining which parts of the collaborative session the second data is captured from and a format of the second data to be captured, one of the parts being output using the first type of data presentation in the first window of the windows and another of the parts being output using a third type of data presentation in a third window of the windows that is not captured in the first snapshot; and

causing the second snapshot of the second particular instance of time of the collaborative session to be captured into the second template as the second snapshot and stored into a second editable document, the second editable document being stored with the first editable document.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the collaborative session comprises a chat log window that displays a chat log comprising chat entries provided by a plurality of the participants during the collaborative session, the first snapshot having first chat log entries from the chat log at the first particular instance of time that are saved into the first editable document, the second snapshot having second chat log entries from the chat log at the second particular instance of time that are saved into the second editable document.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the first editable document and the second editable document are stored in a data store along with a recording of the collaborative session.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the first editable document and the second editable document are stored on a client device of the participant.