Distributed clipboard

• US 7,870,493 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2005
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Haverstock, Paul W., Pall, Gurdeep S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Campbell; Joshua D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alvesteffer; Stephen
• Application Number:
  US11/242,606
• Publication Number:
  US 20070079249A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,926 Days
• Field of Search: 715/758, 715/751
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/12 Arrangements for remote connection or disconnection of substations or of equipment thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status

Abstract

Techniques for providing a shared clipboard to participants in a conversation are provided. The shared clipboard is specific to the conversation to which it is associated in that the shared clipboard does not “spill over” from one conversation to another. When a conversation between two or more participants is established, a shared clipboard becomes available to the participants of the conversation. The shared clipboard facilitates the sharing of data between the participants in the conversation. During the conversation, each participant in the conversation is provided access to the shared clipboard, including its contents. When a participant joins or is added to the conversation, the added participant is also provided access to the shared clipboard and its contents.

Claims

1. A method in a collaboration system with a processor and a memory for sharing data, the method comprising:

detecting an establishment of a conversation between a plurality of participants, each of the plurality of participants being at a client system;

after detecting the establishment of the conversation, creating a shared clipboard for the conversation, the shared clipboard being operable to contain an item of data; and

providing each of the plurality of participants in the conversation access to the contents of the shared clipboard so that each of the plurality of participants can add items of data to the shared clipboard and copy items of data from the shared clipboard; and

during the established conversation, enforcing by the processor a permission of an item of data when a participant who has access rights to the item of data requests to add the item of data to the shared clipboard, the permission restricting the sharing of the item of data, by determining whether at least one of the plurality of participants other than the participant requesting to add the item of data does not have access rights to the item of data based on the permission of the item of data; and

when it is determined that at least one of the plurality of participants does not have access rights to the item of data, preventing the item of data from being added to the shared clipboard so that all the participants have access rights to each item of data that is added to the clipboard;

providing presence information of the shared clipboard by storing indications of interactions of the participants with the shared clipboard; and

presenting to a participant the stored indications of interactions of the other participants with the shared clipboard; and

temporarily archiving the shared clipboard at a client system of a participant when the participant leaves the conversation and when the temporary archiving of the shared clipboard is permitted so that the participant can access the temporarily archived shared clipboard after leaving the conversation.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing each of the plurality of participants in the conversation a visual rendering of the contents of the shared clipboard on the participant'"'"'s client system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of participants in the conversation interacts with the shared clipboard by interacting with the visual rendering of the shared clipboard on the participant'"'"'s client system.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of participants in the conversation may place an item of data on the shared clipboard by placing the item of data in the visual rendering of the shared clipboard on the participant'"'"'s client system.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of participants in the conversation may retrieve a copy of an item of data on the shared clipboard by retrieving the item of data from the visual rendering of the shared clipboard on the participant'"'"'s client system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein an item of data placed on the shared clipboard has associated with it the metadata associated with the conversation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein an item of data placed on the shared clipboard has associated with it the metadata associated with a data item on the client system from which the item of data originated.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein an item of data on the shared clipboard is checked for the presence of a security threat prior to being placed on the shared clipboard.

9. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for a collaboration application to provide a shared clipboard, by a method comprising:

detecting that the collaboration application executing on a client computing system has established a conversation with at least one other participant;

after detecting that the collaboration application has established the conversation, creating on the client computing system a shared clipboard for the conversation, wherein the shared clipboard is operable to contain an object placed by any of the participants in the conversation, further wherein the object on the shared clipboard is available to any of the participants in the conversation;

enforcing a permission of the object when a participant requests to add the object to the shared clipboard, the permission restricting the sharing of the object, wherein when at least one participant does not have access rights to the object based on the permission of the object, preventing the object from being added to the shared clipboard;

providing presence information of the shared clipboard to a participant, the presence information indicating the interactions of other participants with the shared clipboard; and

temporarily archiving the shared clipboard at a client system of a participant when the participant leaves the conversation and when the temporary archiving of the shared clipboard is permitted so that the participant can access the temporarily archived shared clipboard after leaving the conversation.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further comprising:

detecting that the collaboration application executing on the client computing system has established a second conversation with at least one other participant; and

after detecting that the collaboration application has established the second conversation, creating on the client computing system a second shared clipboard for the second conversation, wherein the second shared clipboard is operable to contain an object placed by any of the participants in the second conversation, further wherein the objects in the second shared clipboard are available to any of the participants in the second conversation.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further comprising:

detecting that an object is placed on the shared clipboard; and

after detecting that the object is placed on the shared clipboard, sending the other participants in the conversation notification of the placement of the object on the shared clipboard.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein sending the notification comprises sending the data associated with the object for placement in the receiving participant'"'"'s shared clipboard.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein sending the notification comprises sending a link to the data associated with the object for placement in the receiving participant'"'"'s shared clipboard.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein each object contained on the shared clipboard has associated with it an indication of the owner of the object.

15. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for a collaboration application to provide a shared clipboard, by a method comprising:

detecting that the collaboration application executing on a client computing system has established a conversation with at least one other participant;

after detecting that the collaboration application has established the conversation, creating on the client computing system a shared clipboard for the conversation, wherein the shared clipboard is operable to contain zero, one, or more objects placed by any of the participants in the conversation, further wherein the objects on the shared clipboard are available to any of the participants in the conversation;

enforcing a permission of an object when a participant requests to add the object to the shared clipboard, the permission restricting the sharing of the object, wherein when at least one participant does not have access rights to the object based on the permission of the object, preventing the object from being added to the shared clipboard;

providing presence information of the shared clipboard to a participant, the presence information indicating the interactions of other participants with the shared clipboard; and

temporarily archiving the shared clipboard at the client computing system when the participant leaves the conversation and when the temporary archiving of the shared clipboard is permitted so that the participant can access the temporarily archived shared clipboard after leaving the conversation, such that the shared clipboard is not archived when the temporary archiving is not permitted.