Method and system for automatically accessing, processing, and managing the data in a place

• US 20040039848A1
• Filed: 12/29/2000
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Estrada, Julio, Tan, Cun Yong, Estrada, Miguel
• Granted Patent: US 6,744,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/315
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

Collaboration space object model provides for a place consisting of rooms created by users interacting with a client browser. A skin (i.e., theme) may be used as template for creating places. PlaceBots (i.e., agents) provide for accessing, processing and managing data in a place. HTML may be dragged and dropped into a place, where it is parsed and corresponding place fields created. MS Excel or Word documents may be dragged and dropped into a place, which creates a corresponding form, and users may create new documents using that form. A place type comprising a template of an entire place, or collaboration space, may be used to create new places. Changes made to a place may be reported, subject to security controls, by selecting what'"'"'s new. Task fields are provided allowing web browser creation of forms for work flow. Place enabled objects are provided for synchronous communications. A quick browse feature provides a simplified format for browser windows based on selection of HTML links. MS Office documents may launched within a place for in place editing and importing the resulting document into the place.

Claims

1. Method for managing objects in collaboration space, comprising the steps of:

creating placebot code at a client browser;

uploading said placebot code to a collaboration space server;

at said collaboration space server, compiling said placebot code into a placebot agent.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of scheduling said placebot agent to run at specific times.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

associated said placebot agent with a form; and

upon opening said form, executing said placebot agent.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

implementing said collaboration space according to an object model comprising collaboration space objects selectively including place, room, folder, page, member, form, field, placetype, roomtype, skin, and placebot objects;

executing said placebot object to create or manipulate said collaboration space objects.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of executing one or more said placebot agents selectively for:

sharing documents;

holding discussions with team members;

performing actions triggered as result of submission of a form object; and

performing actions scheduled to run a specified time.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

executing said placebot object according to schedule or upon request;

when executing said placebot object according to schedule, controlling access to said placebot object and objects referenced by said placebot object by inheritance of access control from said collaboration space server; and

when executing said placebot object upon request of a user, controlling access to said placebot object and objects referenced by said placebot object according to the access rights of said user.

11. The method of claim 3, said custom code being uploaded to said server by dragging and dropping said code into a form.

7. Method for providing custom code to a collaboration space, comprising the steps of:

operating a browser to create and upload to a collaboration space server said custom code;

operating said server to compile said custom code into a placebot agent.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of implementing said collaboration space according to an object model selectively including place, room, folder, page, member, form, field, placetype, roomtype, skin, and placebot objects.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

maintaining for each said room, a list of all published objects in a place, including said room, page, placebot, field, skin and form objects; and

executing a view on said list to reference said published objects.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of:

using a placebot object associated with a form object to initiate processes outside of a page object.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

creating said custom code in a legacy form; and

including in said legacy form a text field with indicia recognizable by said server as identifying said custom code as a document to be rendered in said browser as a collaboration space form.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

creating said custom code as hypertext markup language code;

executing said hypertext markup language code selectively to define forms, execute backend logic, and define look and feel of said user interface to said collaboration space.

14. The method of claim 12, said legacy form being a Domino form, and said collaboration space form being a QuickPlace form.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

executing procedures within said placebot agent to access collaboration space objects including said collaboration space server and room objects in said collaboration space.

16. The method of claim 15, said placebot agent accessing said server according to the steps of:

executing a get database server command; and

receiving a database having a path designation;

determining that said path designation starts with indicia identifying said collaboration space server.

17. The method of claim 16, said placebot agent accessing a room object within said collaboration space according to the step of:

searching in a main collaboration space server directory for said room object in a path designation starting with said indicia identifying said collaboration space server.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

defining collaboration space members authorized to edit documents when creating a placebot object; and

responsive to execution of said placebot object, modifying access control to documents.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

to import an image into said place, referencing said image within a placebot object for creating new pages.

20. A system for managing collaboration space objects, comprising:

a text editor for creating custom logic;

at least one placebot serving as a primary repository for said custom logic; and

said placebot providing links between and manipulating said objects.

21. The system of claim 20, said collaboration space comprising an object model selectively including place, room, folder, page, member, form, field, placetype, roomtype, skin, and placebot objects.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a storage device for storing said placebot agent;

a code transfer facility responsive to request by a place manager irrespective of administrative access to a collaboration space server for installing said placebot to said collaboration space server.

23. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for managing objects in collaboration space, said method steps comprising:

creating placebot code at a client browser;

uploading said placebot code to a collaboration space server;

at said collaboration space server, compiling said placebot code into a placebot agent.

24. A computer program product or computer program element for managing objects in collaboration space by receiving placebot code at a client browser;

uploading said placebot code to a collaboration space server; and

at said collaboration space server, compiling said placebot code into a placebot agent.

25. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for providing custom code to a collaboration space, said method steps comprising:

operating a browser to create and upload to a collaboration space server said custom code; and

operating said server to compile said custom code into a placebot agent.