SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MUTATIONS AND OPERATIONAL TRANSFORMS IN A COLLABORATIVE SPREADSHEET ENVIRONMENT

• US 20150199328A1
• Filed: 06/11/2013
• Published: 07/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Danziger, Joshua Ari, Karve, Amod, Lloyd, Zachary Erik, Kahlon, Yossi, Tragut, Manuel, Simon, Benjamin Wolfe
• Granted Patent: US 9,720,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

Mutations representing spreadsheet edit operations are received at a server from client computers of collaborators and also at a collaborator'"'"'s client computer from other collaborators and the server. Different mutations may conflict, i.e., provide contradictory instructions on how a spreadsheet is to be edited. Techniques for representing sort operations, cut-and-paste operations, and operations to change cell properties as mutations, and operational transform techniques that can be used to resolve conflicts between such mutations, are disclosed herein. Further disclosed herein are techniques for identifying and processing computationally intensive types of mutations in a calculation thread which operates asynchronously with respect to a UI thread at a collaborator'"'"'s client computer. The processing may include performing an operational transform on results of the calculation thread based on results obtained in the UI thread.

Claims

1-30. -30. (canceled)

31. A method for updating a property of a cell in a collaborative spreadsheet, the method comprising:

receiving a first mutation from a first source, the first mutation comprising a value of a first cell property of a cell in the spreadsheet;

receiving a second mutation from a second source, the second mutation comprising a value of a second cell property of the cell in the spreadsheet;

determining that the first cell property and the second cell property belong to a common property field;

performing an operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate a modified mutation; and

updating a property of the cell in the spreadsheet based on the modified mutation.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the common property field is selected from the group consisting of

a cell background field, a cell border field, a text formatting field, a vertical alignment field, a wrap strategy field, and a number format field.

33. The method of claim 31, where the first source is a first client computer and the second source is a second client computer located remotely to the first client computer, and wherein the updating is performed at a server.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein performing the operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate a modified mutation comprises:

selecting one of the first mutation and the second mutation as the modified mutation based on a policy in response to a determination that the first mutation and the second mutation each correspond to a replace mutation.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein selecting one of the first mutation and the second mutation as the modified mutation based on the policy comprises determining whether the first mutation or the second mutation was received first.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein performing an operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate a modified mutation further comprises:

selecting the first mutation as the modified mutation in response to a determination that the first mutation is a replace mutation and that the second mutation is a merge mutation.

37. The method of claim 31, wherein performing an operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate a modified mutation comprises:

determining that the first mutation and the second mutation each correspond to a merge mutation; and

generating the modified mutation by merging non-conflicting subfields of the first mutation and the second mutation in response to the determination.

38. A computing system configured to update a spreadsheet based on user inputs, the computing system comprising:

a network interface configured to;

receive a first mutation from a first source, the first mutation comprising a value of a first cell property of a cell in the spreadsheet; and

receive a second mutation from a second source, the second mutation comprising a value of a second cell property of the cell in the spreadsheet; and

a processor configured to;

determine that the first cell property and the second cell property belong to a common property field;

perform an operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate a modified mutation; and

update a property of the cell in the spreadsheet based on the modified mutation.

39. The computing system of claim 38, wherein the common property field is selected from the group consisting of a cell background field, a cell border field, a text formatting field, a vertical alignment field, a wrap strategy field, and a number format field.

40. The computing system of claim 38, where the first source is a first client computer and the second source is a second client computer located remotely to the first client computer, and wherein the updating is performed at a server.

41. The computing system of claim 38, wherein the processor is further configured to perform the operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate a modified mutation by selecting one of the first mutation and the second mutation as the modified mutation based on a policy in response to a determination that the first mutation and the second mutation each correspond to a replace mutation.

42. The computing system of claim 41, wherein the processor is further configured to select one of the first mutation and the second mutation as the modified mutation based on the policy by determining whether the first mutation or the second mutation was received first.

43. The computing system of claim 41, wherein the processor is further configured to perform the operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate the modified mutation by selecting the first mutation as the modified mutation in response to a determination that the first mutation is a replace mutation and that the second mutation is a merge mutation.

44. The computing system of claim 38, wherein the processor is further configured to perform the operational transform based on the first mutation and the second mutation to generate a modified mutation by:

determining that the first mutation and the second mutation each correspond to a merge mutation; and

generating the modified mutation by merging non-conflicting subfields of the first mutation and the second mutation in response to the determination.