Simplifying access to documents accessed recently in a remote system

• US 9,710,443 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2008
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Suresh
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Son T
• Application Number:
  US12/176,414
• Publication Number:
  US 20100017362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,284 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

Simplifying access to documents accessed recently on a remote system. In one embodiment, the list of documents accessed by a user using a first instance of an application in a first/remote system is maintained. The list of documents is provided/displayed to the same user when using a second instance of the same application on a second/local system, thereby facilitating the user to access the documents accessed recently on the remote system.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a first digital processing system in which a user executes a first instance of a content editor application and accesses a first set of documents using the first instance, wherein the first instance of the content editor application provides a first user interface in the first digital processing system to display content of documents, wherein is a document is considered to have been accessed if content of the document is displayed in the first user interface;

a manager module to maintain a first list specifying the first set of documents accessed by the user in the first digital processing system; and

a second digital processing system, geographically distant from the first processing system, in which the user executes a second instance of the content editor application, the second instance of the content editor application being operable to;

provide a second user interface in the second digital processing system to display and edit content of a document of interest selected by the user;

receive, from within the second user interface provided by the second instance of the content editor application, a request for a recent list specifying documents recently accessed by the user using the content editor application;

retrieve the first list by interfacing with the manager module; and

display the first list along with a second list as the recent list in response to the request, wherein the second list contains a second set of documents accessed by the user using the second instance before the user executes the second instance of the content editor application, wherein

the first set of documents is different and distinct from the second set of documents,

the user is able to select a specific second document from the recent list as the document of interest to display and edit content of the specific document directly in the second user interface, and

the recent list contains the documents recently accessed by the first and second instances of the content editor application, but not any other application.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the second user interface comprises a menu bar containing a plurality of options, wherein the request is received upon the user selecting a first option of the plurality of options, wherein the first option is a File Option.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the second instance is further operable to:

receive an indication that the user has selected the specific document from the first list displayed in the recent list;

get the specific document from the first digital processing system; and

display content of the specific document to the user in the second user interface on the second digital processing system.

4. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the second digital processing system stores a configuration file indicating an address of the first digital processing system and an authentication information of the user, wherein to retrieve the first list and to get the specific document, the second instance communicates with the first digital processing system using the address and provides the authentication information to the first digital processing system.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein the first digital processing system is located in an office of an enterprise and the second digital processing system is located in a home of the user such that the user at home can easily access the first set of documents from the office.

6. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the manager module stores the first list in a non-volatile memory when the user accesses the first set of documents using the first instance of the content editor application in the first digital processing system, wherein the stored first list is associated with an identifier of the content editor application, the manager module retrieves the first list from the non-volatile memory upon receiving a request based on the identifier for the first list from the second instance of the content editor application.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein the user is enabled to specify a number of documents to be maintained in the first list, wherein the manager module maintains only the number of documents in the first list.

8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the first list is stored in the form of Extensible Markup Language (XML) data and wherein the manager module is also executed on the first digital processing system.

9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the first list is stored associated with an identifier of the content editor application, and the first list is retrieved upon receiving a request for the first list based on the identifier from the second instance of the content editor application.

10. A method of enabling a user to edit documents, the method being performed in a second digital processing system, the method comprising:

providing, by a second instance of a content editor application, a user interface in the second digital processing system to display and edit content of a document of interest selected by the user;

receiving, from within the user interface provided by the second instance of the content editor application, a request for a recent list specifying documents recently accessed by the user using the content editor application;

retrieving, by interfacing with a first digital processing system, a first list specifying a first set of documents accessed by the user using a first instance of the content editor application in the first digital processing system, wherein the first digital processing system is geographically distant from the second digital processing system; and

displaying the first list along with a second list as the recent list in response to the request, wherein

the second list contains a second set of documents accessed by the user using the second instance before the user executes the second instance of the content editor application,

the first set of documents is different and distinct from the second set of documents,

the user selects a specific document from the recent list as the document of interest to display and edit the content of the specific document directly in the user interface, and

the recent list contains the documents recently accessed by the first and second instances of the content editor application, but not any other application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user interface comprises a menu bar containing a plurality of options, wherein the request is received upon the user selecting a first option of the plurality of options, wherein the first option is a File Option.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the user has selected the specific document from the first list displayed in the recent list;

getting the specific document from the first digital processing system; and

displaying content of the specific document to the user in the user interface on the second digital processing system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

storing a configuration file indicating an address of the first digital processing system and an authentication information of the user, wherein for the retrieving the first list and the getting the second document, the second instance communicates with the first digital processing system using the address and provides the authentication information to the first digital processing system.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first digital processing system is located in an office of an enterprise and the second digital processing system is located in a home of the user such that the user at home can easily access the first set of documents from the office.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the first list is stored associated with an identifier of the content editor application, and the first list is retrieved upon receiving a request for the first list based on the identifier from the second instance of the content editor application.

16. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions causing a second digital processing system to enable a user to edit documents, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in the second digital processing system causes the second processing digital system to perform the following actions of:

providing, by a second instance of a content editor application, a user interface in the second digital processing system to display and edit content of a document of interest selected by the user;

receiving, from within the user interface provided by the second instance of the content editor application, a request for a recent list specifying documents recently accessed by the user using the content editor application;

retrieving, by interfacing with a first digital processing system, a first list specifying a first set of documents accessed by the user using a first instance of the content editor application in the first digital processing system, wherein the first digital processing system is geographically distant from the second digital processing system; and

displaying the first list along with a second list as the recent list in response to the request, wherein

the second list contains a second set of documents accessed by the user using the second instance before the user executes the second instance of the content editor application,

the first set of documents is different and distinct from the second set of documents,

the user selects a specific document from the recent list as the document of interest to display and edit the content of the specific document directly in the user interface, and

the recent list contains the documents recently accessed by the first and second instances of the content editor application, but not any other application.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the user interface comprises a menu bar containing a plurality of options, wherein the request is received upon the user selecting a first option of the plurality of options, wherein the first option is a File Option.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, further comprising one or more instructions for:

receiving an indication that the user has selected the specific document of the first list displayed in the recent list;

getting the specific document from the first digital processing system; and

displaying content of the specific document to the user in the user interface on the second digital processing system.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, further comprising one or more instructions:

storing a configuration file indicating an address of the first digital processing system and an authentication information of the user, wherein for the retrieving the first list and the getting the second document, the second instance communicates with the first digital processing system using the address and provides the authentication information to the first digital processing system.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein the first digital processing system is located in an office of an enterprise and the second digital processing system is located in a home of the user such that the user at home can easily access the first set of documents from the office.

21. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first list is stored associated with an identifier of the content editor application, and the first list is retrieved upon receiving a request for the first list based on the identifier from the second instance of the content editor application.

22. A second digital processing system comprising:

a processor;

a random access memory (RAM);

a machine readable medium to store one or more instructions, which when retrieved into the RAM and executed by the processor causes the digital processing system to enable a user to edit documents, the digital processing system performing the following actions of;

providing, by a second instance of a content editor application, a user interface in the second digital processing system to display and edit content of a document of interest selected by the user;

receiving, from within the user interface provided by the editor application, a request for a recent list specifying documents recently accessed by the user using the content editor application;

retrieving, by interfacing with a first digital processing system, a first list specifying a first set of documents accessed by the user using a first instance of the content editor application in the first digital processing system, wherein the first digital processing system is geographically distant from the second digital processing system; and

displaying the first list along with a second list as the recent list in response to the request, wherein

the second list contains a second set of documents accessed by the user using the second instance before the user executes the second instance of the content editor application,

the first set of documents is different and distinct from the second set of documents,

the user selects a specific document from the recent list as the document of interest to display and edit the content of the specific document directly in the user interface, and

the recent list contains the documents recently accessed by the first and second instances of the content editor application, but not any other application.

23. The digital processing system of claim 22, wherein the first digital processing system is located in an office of an enterprise in and the second digital processing system is located in a home of the user such that the user at home can easily access the first set of documents from the office.

24. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions causing a second digital processing system to enable a user to edit documents, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in the second digital processing system causes the second processing digital system to perform the following actions of:

providing, by a second instance of a content editor application, a user interface in the second digital processing system to display and edit content of a document of interest selected by the user;

receiving, from within the user interface provided by the second instance of the content editor application, a request for a recent list specifying documents recently accessed by the user using the content editor application;

retrieving, by interfacing with a first digital processing system, a first list specifying a first set of documents accessed by the user using a first instance of the content editor application in the first digital processing system, wherein the first digital processing system is geographically distant from the second digital processing system;

displaying the first list along with a second list as the recent list in response to the request, wherein

the second list contains a second set of documents accessed by the user using the second instance before the user executes the second instance of the content editor application,

the first set of documents is different and distinct from the second set of documents,

the user selects a specific document from the recent list as the document of interest to display and edit the content of the specific document directly in the user interface, and

the first list is stored associated with an identifier of the content editor application, and the first list is retrieved upon receiving a request for the first list based on the identifier from the second instance of the content editor application.

25. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 24, wherein the recent list contains only documents accessed using the content editor application, but not any other application.