Activity stream based collaboration

• US 9,692,675 B1
• Filed: 06/21/2012
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Open Text Corporation
• Original Assignee: Open Text Corporation
• Inventors: Van Rotterdam, Jeroen, Frankel, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayard, Djenane
• Application Number:
  US13/529,286
• Time in Patent Office: 1,832 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

An activity stream based interaction model is disclosed. To cause a desired application level action to be performed at a remote system, such as automatically retrieving and displaying a document in a viewer or other portion of a user interface at the remote system, a text-based tag, such as a hash tag, is inserted into an activity stream. The activity stream is sent to the remote system, which is configured to respond to the text-based tag by performing, at least in part automatically, the corresponding application level action.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a first system, an indication from a first user that an application-level action is to be exercised at a second system that is controlled by a second user, wherein the indication corresponds to one or more text-based tags associated with a command for the second system to perform an application action desired by the first user, and wherein the indication, an object name, and the application action to be performed in connection with an object corresponding to the object name are inserted into an activity stream by the first user; and

in response to receiving the indication from the first user, transmitting the activity stream, including at least one of the one or more text-based tags, to the second system,

wherein the second system is configured to detect the at least one of the one or more text-based tags in the activity stream and to perform, based at least in part on the at least one of the one or more text-based tags, the object and an application context of the second system, the application action commanded by the at least one of the one or more text-based tags.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and the second user are participants in a collaboration with which the activity stream is associated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more text-based tags comprises a hash tag.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more text-based tags further comprises an identifier associated with the application action.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more text-based tags further comprise an identifier associated with one or more objects with respect to which to perform the application action.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second system is configured to be responsive to the at least one of the one or more text-based tags at least in part by running on the second system an application configured to recognize the presence of the at least one of the one or more text-based tags in the activity stream as received at the second system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the application action includes retrieving from a repository and displaying at the second system a document or other stored object.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one of the one or more text-based tags identifies the document or other stored object to be retrieved and displayed at the second system.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one of the one or more text-based tags specifies the application action and the document or other stored object to be retrieved and displayed at the second system is determined at the second system, upon receipt of the at least one of the one or more text-based tags via the activity stream, based at least in part on the application context at the second system.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the application action further includes determining the document or other stored object to retrieve from the repository according to at least one of an application context of the first system and the application context of the second system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more text-based tags is inserted into the activity stream at least in part by the first user entering text comprising the one or more text-based tags into a text entry interface at the first system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the application action is associated with at least a portion of a user interface running on the second system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the application action is associated with an enterprise content management (ECM) client user interface running on the second system.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity stream is provided at least in part by an enterprise social collaboration tool.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more text-based tags comprises one of a plurality of pre-defined text-based tags, each of which is associated with a corresponding application action.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more text-based tags is inserted into the activity stream by a non-human participant in the activity stream.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more text-based tags is inserted into the activity stream by a non-human participant in a collaboration with which the activity stream is associated.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the application action comprises causing a search to be performed in a manner indicated by the one or more text-based tags and returning and displaying associated search results at the second system.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the application action desired by the first user is performed at the second system as if the second user had directly requested the performance of the application action at the second system.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the second system is configured to perform the application action commanded by the at least one of the one or more text-based tags further based at least in part on one or more preferences specified by the second user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one of the one or more preferences specified by the second user is whether the second system is to perform the application action automatically or only in the event that the second user indicates approval of the application action.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to recognizing the one or more text-based tags in the activity stream, broadcasting, on an enterprise content management event bus, an event that notifies other elements that the one or more text-based tags has been detected.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the desired application action includes retrieving information from a shared repository that stores information that is accessible to the first system and the second system.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein in response to recognizing the one or more text-based tags in the activity stream, automatically retrieving the information from the shared repository and displaying the information at the second system.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the desired application action includes invoking a workflow, and wherein the indication is inserted into the activity stream by the first user.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the second system is configured to determine an object to which to apply the application action based at least in part on the application context of the second system.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the second system is configured to determine the object to which to apply the application action using the one or more text-based tags in the event that the one or more text-based tags includes an identifier associated with the object.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein in the event that the one or more tags does not include an identifier associated with an object to which to apply the application action, the second system determines the object to which to apply the application action based at least in part on the application context of the second system.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the second system is configured to provide the second user with an interface to control a degree of control of the second system to be ceded to the first system via the one or more text-based tags included in the activity stream.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the second user can control whether the second system is to be interrupted by an action initiated by the first system via the one or more text-based tags included in the activity stream.

31. A system, comprising:

a communication interface; and

a processor coupled to the communication interface and configured to;

receive an indication from a first user at a first system that an application-level action is to be exercised at a second system that is controlled by a second user, wherein the indication corresponds to one or more text-based tags associated with a command for the second system to perform an application action desired by the first user, and wherein the indication, an object name, and the application action to be performed in connection with an object corresponding to the object name are inserted into an activity stream by the first user; and

transmit, in response to receiving the indication from the first user, the activity stream, including at least one of the one or more text-based tags, to the second system,

wherein the second system is configured to detect the at least one of the one or more text-based tags in the activity stream and to perform, based at least in part on the at least one of the one or more text-based tags and an application context of the second system, the application action commanded by the at least one of the one or more text-based tags; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide instructions to the processor.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the second system is configured to be responsive to the at least one of the one or more text-based tags at least in part by running on the second system an application configured to recognize the presence of the at least one of the one or more text-based tags in the activity stream as received at the second system.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the application action includes retrieving from a repository and displaying at the second system a document or other stored object.

34. A computer program product embodied in a tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an indication from a first user of a first system that an application-level action is to be exercised at a second system that is controlled by a second user, wherein the indication corresponds to one or more text-based tags associated with a command for the second system to perform an application action desired by the first user, and wherein the indication, an object name, and the application action to be performed in connection with an object corresponding to the object name are inserted into an activity stream by the first user; and

in response to receiving the indication from the first user, transmitting the activity stream, including at least one of the one or more text-based tags, to the second system,

wherein the second system is configured to detect at least one of the one or more text-based tags in the activity stream and to perform, based at least in part on the at least one of the one or more text-based tags the object, and an application context of the second system, the application action commanded by the at least one of the one or more text-based tags.