Managing access permissions to class notebooks and their section groups in a notebook application

• US 9,547,776 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2015
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Tholfsen, Michael Edward, Han, Ivan Hor Siu, Grudin, Jonathan Thomas, Wionzek, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Chai, Longbit
• Application Number:
  US14/633,951
• Publication Number:
  US 20160162702A1
• Time in Patent Office: 690 Days
• Field of Search: 726/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip

Abstract

A method of adding a co-teacher to an original teacher'"'"'s class notebook can include, in response to receiving a request, at a client device, to add a co-teacher to a class notebook managed by a classroom notebook application, assigning the co-teacher full read/write permissions to the teacher'"'"'s class notebook including any section groups having connected role inheritances. The co-teacher is also assigned full read/write permissions to the student-specific section groups and the collaboration space section group, which are all in the class notebook and which have broken permission inheritance. To protect the teacher'"'"'s personal folder, which is a parent folder to the teacher'"'"'s class notebook, the classroom notebook application removes the co-teacher'"'"'s permissions to the teacher'"'"'s personal folder.

Claims

1. A method of managing access permissions to class notebooks, comprising:

receiving a request, at a client device, to add a co-teacher to a class notebook associated with a personal folder of a teacher that is stored at a server, wherein the class notebook comprises a collaboration section group, a content library section group, and a plurality of student-specific section groups, wherein each section group corresponds to one or more pages of the class notebook respectively and the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups have broken role inheritances from the class notebook;

assigning, via the client device, the co-teacher to the class notebook, including any section groups of the class notebook having connected role inheritances, with read/write permissions;

assigning, via the client device, the co-teacher to the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups, which have the broken role inheritances, with read/write permissions; and

removing, via the client device, read/write permissions of the co-teacher from the personal folder of the teacher.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the co-teacher to the class notebook comprises requesting the server to store the read/write permissions for the co-teacher associated with the class notebook.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the co-teacher to the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups comprises requesting the server to store the read/write permissions for the co-teacher associated with the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein removing the read/write permissions of the co-teacher from the personal folder of the teacher comprises requesting the server to remove the co-teacher from access to the personal folder of the teacher.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the co-teacher that they have access to the class notebook by automatically populating the co-teacher'"'"'s personal folder with a link to the class notebook.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a new student to the class notebook by:

assigning the new student a read-only role to the class notebook;

creating a new section group in the class notebook;

breaking a role inheritance setting of the new section group;

assigning the new student with read/write permissions to the new section group;

assigning the teacher and any co-teachers with read/write permissions to the new section group; and

assigning the new student with read/write permissions to the collaboration space.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing the co-teacher from the class notebook by:

removing access of the co-teacher to the class notebook;

removing access of the co-teacher to the collaboration space; and

removing access of the co-teacher to the plurality of student-specific section groups.

8. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to:

assign a co-teacher with read/write permissions to a class notebook associated with a personal folder of a teacher that is stored at a server, including any section groups of the class notebook having connected role inheritances, wherein the class notebook comprises a collaboration section group, a content library section group, and a plurality of student-specific section groups, wherein each section croup corresponds to one or more pages of the class notebook respectively and the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups have broken role inheritances from the class notebook;

assign the co-teacher to the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups, which have the broken role inheritances, with read/write permissions; and

remove read/write permissions of the co-teacher from the personal folder of the teacher.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein the instructions to assign the co-teacher to the class notebook direct the processing system to request the server to store the read/write permissions for the co-teacher associated with the class notebook.

10. The media of claim 8, wherein the instructions to assign the co-teacher to the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups direct the processing system to request the server to store the read/write permissions for the co-teacher associated with the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups.

11. The media of claim 8, wherein the instructions to remove the read/write permissions of the co-teacher from the personal folder of the teacher direct the processing system to request the server to remove the co-teacher from access to the personal folder of the teacher.

12. The media of claim 8, further comprising instructions that direct the processing system to add a new student to the class notebook by:

assigning the new student a read-only role to the class notebook;

creating a new section group in the class notebook;

breaking a role inheritance setting of the new section group;

assigning the new student with read/write permissions to the new section group;

assigning the teacher and any co-teachers with read/write permissions to the new section group; and

assigning the new student with read/write permissions to the collaboration space.

13. The media of claim 8, further comprising instructions that direct the processing system to remove the co-teacher from the class notebook by:

removing access of the co-teacher to the class notebook;

removing access of the co-teacher to the collaboration space; and

removing access of the co-teacher to the plurality of student-specific section groups.

14. A system comprising:

a processing system comprising one or more processors;

a storage system comprising memory; and

a classroom notebook application stored in the storage system that, when executed by the processing system, directs the processing system to;

in response to receiving a request to create a class notebook for a teacher, store a new class notebook in a personal folder of the teacher at a server and create section groups including a collaboration space section group and a content library section group, wherein each section group corresponds to one or more pages of the class notebook respectively;

break a role inheritance of the collaboration space section group;

assign read/write permissions for the teacher to the collaboration space section group after the role inheritance is broken;

in response to receiving a request to add at least one student, assign each of the at least one student read-only access to the class notebook, create student-specific section groups in the class notebook for each of the at least one student, break role inheritances of the student-specific section groups, assign read/write permissions for each of the at least one student to a corresponding one of the student-specific section groups after the role inheritance is broken, assign read/write permissions for the teacher to the student specific section groups having the broken role inheritances, assign read/write permissions for each of the at least one student to the collaboration space section group having the broken role inheritance; and

in response to receiving a request to add a co-teacher to the class notebook, assign read/write permissions for the co-teacher to the class notebook, assign the co-teacher to the collaboration section group and each of the student-specific section groups having the broken role inheritances; and

remove read/write permissions of the co-teacher from the personal folder of the teacher.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the classroom notebook application directs the processing system to assign the co-teacher to the class notebook by requesting the server to store the read/write permissions for the co-teacher associated with the class notebook.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the classroom notebook application directs the processing system to assign the co-teacher to the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups by requesting the server to store the read/write permissions for the co-teacher associated with the collaboration section group and each of the plurality of student-specific section groups.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the classroom notebook application directs the processing system to remove the read/write permissions of the co-teacher from the personal folder of the teacher by requesting the server to remove the co-teacher from access to the personal folder of the teacher.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the classroom notebook application further directs the processing system to add a new student to the class notebook by:

assigning the new student a read-only role to the class notebook;

creating a new section group in the class notebook;

breaking a role inheritance setting of the new section group;

assigning the new student with read/write permissions to the new section group;

assigning the teacher and any co-teachers with read/write permissions to the new section group; and

assigning the new student with read/write permissions to the collaboration space.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the classroom notebook application directs the processing system to remove the co-teacher from the class notebook by:

removing access of the co-teacher to the class notebook;

removing access of the co-teacher to the collaboration space; and

removing access of the co-teacher to the plurality of student-specific section groups.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the classroom notebook application directs the processing system to notify the co-teacher that they have access to the class notebook by populating the co-teacher'"'"'s personal folder at the server with a link to the class notebook.