Providing unique views of data based on changes or rules

• US 8,930,331 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2007
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Palantir Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Palantir Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: McGrew, Robert J., Gettings, Nathan, Cohen, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAYE, CHELCIE L
• Application Number:
  US11/709,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201339A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,876 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/203, 707/9, 707/695, 709/229
• US Class Current: 707/695
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• 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 16/2329 using versioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2445 Data retrieval commands; View definitions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises creating and storing, in a revisioning database, one or more data objects; wherein a first plurality of the data objects is associated with a base realm representing data shared across all users of the database; wherein a second plurality of the data objects is associated with one or more child realms, wherein each of the child realms represents data local to a project, wherein each of the users is associated with one or more of the child realms; wherein the revisioning database associates each data object to a realm identifier value and to a version identifier value for a plurality of versions of the data object, wherein each of the versions represents a change to the data object by any of a plurality of users; receiving a request from a first user to view a third plurality of data objects in the revisioning database; selecting, based on the base realm, the particular realm, the version identifier value for the data objects in the third plurality, and one or more rules associated with the particular realm and the first user, data objects in the third plurality that can be viewed by the first user; creating a particular data view that includes only the selected data objects; and providing a display of the particular data view to the first user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, from a first user that is currently within a first child realm that contains a first plurality of data object versions that are only visible to particular users currently within the first child realm, a command to publish a particular version of a particular data object from the first child realm to a base realm that contains a second plurality of data object versions that are visible to a plurality of users of a database comprising the particular users and other users that are not currently within the first child realm;

in response to the command, publishing the particular version of the particular data object but not one or more other versions of the particular data object to the base realm;

receiving, from a second user that is currently within a second child realm that contains data object versions that are only visible to users within the second child realm, a request to subscribe to any version of the particular data object that has been published to the base realm;

in response to the request, and based at least in part to the publication of the particular version of the particular data object to the base realm, allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object that has been published to the base realm;

wherein the first child realm is separate from the second child realm;

wherein the first user is separate from the second user;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving definitions of one or more rules, wherein each rule restricts access for one or more users to one or more data objects regardless of which realm contains the one or more data objects;

wherein allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object is based on determining that the one or more rules do not restrict access for the second user to the particular data object as well as being based on the base realm and a version identifier value for the one or more data objects.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that a change has occurred in the particular data object;

wherein allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object is based on determining whether the particular data object can be provided to the second user based on the base realm and a version identifier value for the particular data object.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object comprises providing only a selected subset of rows of a revisioning database to the second user.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

creating and storing an object table comprising rows that represent the first plurality of data object versions and the second plurality of data object versions and columns that represent, for each of the first plurality of data object versions and the second plurality of data object versions, an associated realm, a version value, and a pointer to a previous version, wherein said associated realm is different from said version value.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising asynchronously receiving, from different users, a plurality of changes to the particular data object, and in response thereto, creating a new row in the object table for each of the changes.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein publishing the particular version of the particular data object to the base realm comprises publishing the particular version of the particular data object to the base realm without sending data directly between the first user and the second user.

13. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

creating and storing one or more data object versions in a revisioning database;

wherein the revisioning database associates each data object version of the one or more data versions to a realm identifier value and to a version identifier value.

7. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having one or more program instructions recorded thereon, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving, from a first user that is currently within a first child realm that contains a first plurality of data object versions that are only visible to particular users currently within the first child realm, a command to publish a particular version of a particular data object from the first child realm to a base realm that contains a second plurality of data object versions that are visible to a plurality of users of a database comprising the particular users and other users that are not currently within the first child realm;

in response to the command, publishing the particular version of the particular data object but not one or more other versions of the particular data object to the base realm;

receiving, from a second user that is currently within a second child realm that contains data object versions that are only visible to users within the second child realm, a request to subscribe to any version of the particular data object that has been published to the base realm;

in response to the request, and in response at least in part to the publication of the particular version of the particular data object to the base realm, allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object that has been published to the base realm;

wherein the first child realm is separate from the second child realm;

wherein the first user is separate from the second user.

8. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 7, further comprising instructions which when executed cause:

receiving definitions of one or more rules, wherein each rule restricts access for one or more users to one or more data objects regardless of which realm contains the one or more data objects;

wherein allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object is based on determining that the one or more rules do not restrict access for the second user to the particular data object as well as being based on the base realm and a version identifier value for the one or more data objects.

9. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 7, further comprising instructions which when executed cause:

detecting that a change has occurred in the particular data object;

wherein allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object is based on determining whether the particular data object can be provided to the second user based on the base realm and a version identifier value for the particular data object.

10. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 7, wherein the instructions when executed cause creating and storing an object table comprising rows that represent the first plurality of data object versions and the second plurality of data object versions and columns that represent, for each of the first plurality of data object versions and the second plurality of data object versions, an associated realm, a version value, and a pointer to a previous version, wherein said associated realm is different from said version value.

11. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 10, further comprising instructions which when executed cause asynchronously receiving, from different users, a plurality of changes to the particular data object, and in response thereto, creating a new row in the object table for each of the changes.

14. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 7, wherein publishing the particular version of the particular data object to the base realm comprises publishing the particular version of the particular data object to the base realm without sending data directly between the first user and the second user.

15. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 7, further comprising instructions which when executed cause:

creating and storing one or more data object versions in a revisioning database;

wherein the revisioning database associates each data object version of the one or more data versions to a realm identifier value and to a version identifier value.

16. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 7, wherein allowing the second user to access the particular version of the particular data object comprises providing only a selected subset of rows of a revisioning database to the second user.