Document management

• US 9,710,502 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Expedox LLC
• Original Assignee: Expedox LLC
• Inventors: Pedersen, Palle M., Edelstein, Roy D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mackes, Kris
• Assistant Examiner(s): HTAY, LIN LIN M
• Application Number:
  US13/833,722
• Publication Number:
  US 20130262420A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,586 Days
• Field of Search: 707695
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

The invention generally relates to document management, including the management of documents and versions of documents within collaboration and document sharing systems. An access tracking version manager according to the invention allows document versions to be stored and managed in situations where various people have access to different document versions within a document chain.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of centralized document version management, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing, based on information received from a user associated with a first party, a document chain to which individual document versions are associated as a collection, where each document version includes at least some content that is same as content in at least one other document version in the document chain and where the document chain allows for document versions that include some content that is different from content in other document versions in the document chain;

allowing one or more users associated with the first party to a project to associate a document version to a specified document chain and to obtain initial access granting authority over the associated document version such that the associated document version would be private and exclusive to users associated with the first party and such that users associated with any different party to the project cannot access the associated document version until a grant of access from one or more of the users associated with the first party;

allowing one or more users associated with a second party to the project, where the users associated with the second party is non-overlapping with the users associated with the first party, to associate a different document version to the specified document chain and to obtain exclusive initial access granting authority over the associated different document version such that the associated different document version would be private and exclusive to the second party and such that users associated with any different party to the project, including users associated with the first party, cannot access the associated different document version until a grant of access from the one or more users associated with the second party;

allowing a different specified document version to be associated with the specified document chain and to remain private and exclusive to a user that did not first establish the specified document chain but that has access to the different specified document version associated with the specified document chain, such that the different specified document version is private from all other users including a user that first established the specified document chain in the system;

managing information about each of the plurality of document versions including associations to one or more other document versions and also determining which users have access to which document versions; and

controlling information conveyed to both the users of the first party and the users of the second party based on the managed information about each of the plurality of document versions in the specified document chain.

2. A system for managing document version access control which allows for at least two non-overlapping sets of users to each maintain privacy as to specific document versions within a single shared document chain, the system comprising:

a hardware processor; and

computer-readable storage medium containing instructions executable by the hardware processor to cause the system to;

establish a document chain based on information received from a user of the system associated with a first non-overlapping set of users, and where the document chain consists of a collection of document versions within the system, where each document version includes some content that is same as content in at least one other document version in the document chain and where the document chain allows for document versions that include some content that is different from content in other document versions in the document chain;

store and update information about the document chain;

allow different users of the system to access different document versions within the document chain, where access to each of the document versions in the document chain is controlled by version specific access control settings;

store one or more document versions received from users associated with the first non-overlapping set of users and at least a second non-overlapping set of users that has access to a document version associated with the document chain; and

set separate access control settings for each document version, where the system allows for a specified document version to be associated with the document chain and also to remain private and exclusive to the second non-overlapping set of users, such that the specified document version is private from all users that are not associated with the second non-overlapping set of users, including private from all users associated with the first non-overlapping set of users, and further where the system allows for a different specified document version to be associated with the document chain and to remain private and exclusive to a user that did not first establish the document chain but that has access to the different specified document version associated with the document chain, such that the different specified document version is private from all other users including a user that first established the document chain in the system.

3. The system of claim 2 further comprising storage for storing the document versions of the document chain.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein different non-overlapping sets of users of the system are allowed to access different notes versions associated with the different document versions.

5. A system for managing document version access control, the system comprising:

a hardware processor; and

computer-readable storage medium containing instructions executable by the hardware processor to cause the system to;

establish a document chain based on information received from a user of the system associated with a first non-overlapping set of users, where the document chain consists of a collection of document versions within the system, where each document version in the document chain includes at least some content that is same as content in at least one other document version in the document chain and where the document chain allows for document versions that include some content that is different from content in other document versions in the document chain;

store and update information about the document chain;

allow different users of the system to access different document versions within the document chain, where access to each of the document versions in the document chain is controlled by version specific access control settings;

set access control settings for at least one document version associated with the document chain, based on information received from a user associated with the first non-overlapping set of users, such that at least one user associated with a second non-overlapping set of users is granted access to at least one document version as part of the document chain, and

set different access control settings for at least one specified document version associated with the document chain wherein at least one additional user is granted access to the specified document version as part of the document chain, based on information received from at least one user associated with the second non-overlapping set of users, while keeping the different access control settings invisible to all users not associated with the second non-overlapping set of users, including invisible from the users associated with the first non-overlapping set of users that first established the document chain, and where the system allows for a different specified document version to be associated with the document chain and to remain private and exclusive to a user that did not establish the document chain but that has access to the different specified document version associated with the document chain, such that the different specified document version is private from all other users including a user that first established the document chain in the system.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the first non-overlapping set of users is associated with the first party and the second non-overlapping set of users is associated with the second party.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein different non-overlapping sets of users of the system are allowed to access different notes versions associated with the different document versions.