Shared edit access of electronic content

• US 8,290,902 B1
• Filed: 04/06/2011
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaver, Robert, Kleppner, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Uyen T.
• Application Number:
  US13/081,236
• Time in Patent Office: 559 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/620
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2147 Locking files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

In various embodiments, a computerized method includes presenting an electronic document to one user out of multiple users that have edit access to the electronic document as part of a collaborative editing of the electronic document. The computerized method may include receiving an input from the user to edit the electronic document, as well as invoking a lock to prevent edit access by the other users responsive to receiving the input from the user to edit the electronic document.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing an electronic document for presentation to a user of multiple users that have edit access to the electronic document as part of a collaborative editing of the electronic document;

receiving an input from the user to edit the electronic document at a device of the user, the input triggering a lock command to be generated at the device of the user; and

transmitting the lock command from the device of the user in response to the receiving the input to edit the electronic document at the device of the user, the lock command causing invoking of a lock to prevent edit access by other users of the multiple users of the electronic document in response to the lock command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the invoking comprises transmitting the lock command to a server, the server to transmit a further lock command to prevent edit access to devices of the other users.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

saving content to a server;

receiving a confirmation of the saving of the content from the server; and

transmitting a release command to the server in response to receiving the confirmation, the server to transmit a further release command to devices of the other users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the invoking comprises:

receiving the lock command from the device of the user; and

transmitting a further lock command to prevent edit access to devices of the other users based on the receiving.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a save at a server;

sending a save confirmation to the device of the user based on saving an edit provided by the user; and

receiving a release command from the device of the user in response to receiving the save confirmation.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting a release command to devices of the other users.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the other users to add a comment to the electronic document despite the lock to prevent edit access by the other users.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising releasing the lock in response to a different user attempting to edit the electronic document and a time period having expired since there has been activity by the user to the electronic document.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical user interface, the graphic user interface providing a list of the other users and an access status for each of the other users currently accessing the electronic document.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

providing an electronic document for presentation to a user of multiple users that have edit access to the electronic document as part of a collaborative editing of the electronic document;

receiving an input from the user to edit the electronic document at a device of the user, the input triggering a lock command to be generated at the device of the user; and

transmitting the lock command from the device of the user in response to the receiving of the input to edit the electronic document at the device of the user, the lock command causing invoking of a lock to prevent edit access by other users of the multiple users of the electronic document in response to the lock command.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the invoking comprises transmitting the lock command to a server, the server to transmit a further lock command to prevent edit access to devices of the other users.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

saving content to a server;

receiving a confirmation of the saving of the content from the server; and

transmitting a release command to the server in response to receiving the confirmation, the server to transmit a further release command to devices of the other users.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the invoking comprises:

receiving the lock command from the device of the user; and

transmitting a further lock command to prevent edit access to devices of the other users based on the receiving.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

performing a save at a server;

sending a save confirmation to the device of the user based on saving an edit provided by the user; and

receiving a release command from the device of the user in response to receiving the save confirmation.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting a release command to devices of the other users.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise allowing the other users to add a comment to the electronic document despite the lock to prevent edit access by the other users.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise releasing the lock in response to a different user attempting to edit the electronic document and a time period having expired since there has been activity by the user to the electronic document.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise providing a graphical user interface, the graphic user interface providing a list of the other users and an access status for each of the other users currently accessing the electronic document.

19. A server comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable medium to store an electronic document that is edit accessible by multiple users from client devices communicatively coupled to the server; and

a control module to provide the electronic document for presentation to a user of multiple users that have edit access to the electronic document as part of a collaborative editing of the electronic document, to receive a lock command generated by a device of the user that is editing the electronic document, and to lock the electronic document to prevent edit access by other users of the multiple users of the electronic document in response to the lock command.

20. The server of claim 19, wherein the control module is further to release the lock of the electronic document to enable edit access by a different user of the multiple users in response to the different user attempting to edit the electronic document and a time period having expired since an activity by the user in the electronic document.

21. The server of claim 19, wherein the control module is further to release the lock of the electronic document to enable edit access by the other users after the electronic document has been saved on the non-volatile machine-readable medium in the server.