Techniques for managing persistent document collections

• US 9,626,362 B2
• Filed: 01/22/2015
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: FitzGerald, Maura J, Gur-esh, Ethan, Fink, Nathan, Friesenhahn, Dustin, Ramkumar, Nithya
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, CAM Y T
• Application Number:
  US14/602,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20150199348A1
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for creating and managing persistent document collections. A data store is used for storing one or more persistent document collections. A content management application is used for managing documents for users, for creating one or more persistent document collections of a sub-set of the documents upon user request, and for storing the one or more persistent document collections in the data store. Users can create one or more persistent document collections from a sub-set of the documents. Users can also modify the one or more persistent document collections. A requested portion of one or more persistent document collections can be output upon request from an external application so that the external application can download one or more of the documents that are represented by the persistent document collection for further modification by the user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

memory;

a data store to store a persistent document collection; and

a content management application to manage documents, to create the persistent document collection of a sub-set of the documents upon input by a plurality of users via a web browser, to assign a first attribute, a second attribute, and a third attribute to the persistent document collection, the first attribute specifying one or more external applications with which the persistent document collection can share the sub-set of documents, the second attribute specifying an amount of disk space measured in a multiple of bits or multiple of bytes to allocate to the persistent document collection, and the third attribute including a frequency that indicates how often the persistent document collection should be synchronized, to store the persistent document collection in the data store according to the second attribute, and to return at least a portion of the persistent document collection to the external application in response to a request from the external application according to the first attribute.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the content management application is further to receive a request from the external application for collection information regarding the at least a portion of the persistent document collection, and in response to the request from the external application, the content management application further to retrieve the collection information from the data store and return the collection information to the external application.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the collection information that is provided to the external application is used by the external application to allow management of one or more of the sub-set of documents that are represented by the collection information.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an external application, the external application to request collection information regarding at least a portion of the persistent document collection from the content management application to enable downloading of one or more of the sub-set of documents that are represented by the collection information.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the external application is to download the one or more of the sub-set of documents that are represented by the collection information.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the external application is to modify the one or more of the sub-set of documents that are represented by the collection information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the content management application is further to enable documents represented by at least a portion of the persistent document collection to be downloaded for further modification.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the content management application is further to enable one or more of the sub-set of documents represented by at least a portion of the persistent document collection to be synchronized with files residing on a computer.

9. The system of claim 1, the content management application is further to enable the one or more external applications to access the sub-set of the documents as a group according to the first attribute.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

displaying, by a computer system, a plurality of documents that are managed by a content management application that receives input by a plurality of users via a web browser;

receiving an add selection from the web browser which specifies at least one document of the plurality of documents to add to a persistent document collection, the persistent document collection comprising a grouping of a sub-set of the plurality of documents, the persistent document collection enabling access to the sub-set of documents as a group and having a first attribute that specifies one or more external applications with which the persistent document collection can share its documents, the persistent document collection further having a second attribute that specifies an amount of disk space measured in a multiple of bits or a multiple of bytes to allocate to the persistent document collection and a third attribute that includes a frequency that indicates how often the persistent document collection should be synchronized;

storing the persistent document collection comprising the at least one document of the plurality of documents in a data store having storage space allocated to the persistent document collection in accordance with the specified amount of disk space in the second attribute; and

communicating the sub-set documents upon request from an external application identified by the first attribute so that the external application can access the sub-set of documents as a group.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

at a later point in time, receiving another add selection which specifies another one or more of the plurality of documents to add to a different persistent document collection.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

at a later point in time, receiving another add selection which specifies another one or more of the plurality of documents to add to the persistent document collection.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

at a later point in time, receiving a remove selection which specifies the at least one or more of the plurality of documents to remove from the persistent document collection.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

enabling downloading of at least a portion of the documents that are represented by the persistent document collection for further modification.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

enabling synchronization of at least a portion of the documents that are represented by the persistent document collection with files residing on a computer.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

enabling access to the sub-set of documents as a group to the external application.

17. Computer-readable storage hardware having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform operations comprising:

enabling creation of a persistent document collection grouping together a plurality of documents, the persistent document collection enabling access to the plurality of documents as a group;

modifying the persistent document collection;

specifying attributes for the persistent document collection using a web browser, wherein the attributes include one or more attributes identifying one or more external applications that are allowed to access the persistent document collection;

assigning, by a content management application, other attributes to the persistent document collection, wherein the other attributes include an attribute specifying an amount of disk space to allocate to the persistent document collection measured in a multiple of bits or a multiple of bytes and another attribute specifying a frequency that indicates how often the persistent document collection should be synchronized;

storing the persistent document collection in a data store having storage space in accordance with the attribute of the other attributes; and

outputting a requested portion of the persistent document collection upon request from an external application identified by the attributes so that the external application can download one or more of the documents that are represented by the persistent document collection.