Systems and methods for tracking assets across a distributed network environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10657163-B2
Application number	US-201815899551-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2018
Priority date	Feb 22, 2017
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods for tracking and searching the usage, flow or communication of assets are disclosed. Embodiments as disclosed herein may create and update a graph representing the assets in an enterprise, where the objects and relationships in the graph represent the assets, communications, users or relationship. The graph may be queried to discover a wide variety of information regarding these assets, communications, users or relationships.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A content flow system for providing asset tracking in a distributed and networked enterprise environment, comprising:
a content flow server coupled to a set of distributed content management systems over a network, each content management system managing a corresponding set of assets and having an asset tracking module deployed thereon, the content flow server including:
a graph database storing a graph representing the sets of assets across the set of distributed content management systems, a set of communications sent by a communication management system and a set of users to which the set of communications were sent by the communication management system, the graph comprising:
a set of asset objects and a set of usedIn relationships between those asset objects, wherein each asset object includes a content management identifier of the content management system managing the asset corresponding to the asset object and an asset identifier used by that content management system for managing the corresponding asset,
a set of communication objects and a set of generate relationships between the set of asset objects and the set of communication objects, and
a set of user objects and a set of sent relationships between the set of communication objects and the set of user objects, each sent relationship specifying a delivery method as a property;

an asset tracking interface for:
receiving an interaction notification from a first asset tracking module deployed on a first content management system in the enterprise environment, the interaction notification specifying a first content management identifier of the first content management system, a first asset identifier for a first asset as used by the first content management system, and the first usedIn relationship including the first asset; and
updating the set of asset objects and set of usedIn relationships of the graph in the graph database based on the interaction notification, including creating a usedIn relationship between a first asset object representing the first asset and at least one second asset object representing a second asset managed by a second content management system;

a communication tracking interface for:
receiving a communication notification from a communications tracking module deployed on the communication management system in the enterprise environment, the communication notification specifying a first communication, a generate relationship with the first asset and a sent relationship including the first communication and a first user; and
updating the set of communication objects, set of user objects, set of generate relationships and set of sent relationships of the graph of the graph database to include a first communication object representing the first communication, a first user object representing the first user, a first generate relationship between the first communication object and the first asset object and a first sent relationship between the first communication object and the first user object; and

a search interface for:
receiving a query including the first asset identifier for the first asset as used by the first content management system and the generate relationship;
forming a graph query corresponding to the received query, including the first asset identifier of the first asset;
searching the graph database based on the graph query to determine the first user object for the first user having the first sent relationship to the first communication object having the generate relationship to the first asset object; and
returning, in response to the received query, a user identifier for the first user associated with the first user object and the delivery method associated with the first sent relationship between the first user object and the first communication object.

2. A content flow system for providing asset tracking in a distributed and networked enterprise environment, comprising:
a content flow server coupled to a set of distributed content management systems over a network, each content management system managing a corresponding set of assets and having an asset tracking module deployed thereon, the content flow server including:
a graph database storing a graph representing the sets of assets across the set of distributed content management systems, the graph comprising a set of asset objects and a set of first relationships between those asset objects, wherein each asset object includes a content management identifier of the content management system managing the asset corresponding to the asset object and an asset identifier used by that content management system for managing the corresponding asset;
an asset tracking interface for:
receiving an interaction notification from a first asset tracking module deployed on a first content management system in the enterprise environment, the interaction notification specifying a first content management identifier of the first content management system, a first asset identifier for a first asset as used by the first content management system, and the first relationship including the first asset; and
updating the set of asset objects and set of first relationships of the graph in the graph database based on the interaction notification, including the first asset and the first relationship specified in the interaction notification; and

a search interface for:
receiving a query including the first asset identifier for the first asset as used by the first content management system and the first relationship;
forming a graph query corresponding to the received query, including the first asset identifier of the first asset and the first relationship;
searching the graph database based on the graph query to determine a second asset object for a second asset having the first relationship to the first asset, wherein the second asset is managed by a second content management system; and
returning, in response to the received query, a second asset identifier for the second asset as used by the second content management system to manage the second asset and the second content management identifier of the second content management system.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first asset was created at the first content management system and includes the second asset managed by the second content management system.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the set of first relationships are usedIn relationships.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the graph represents a set of communications sent by a communication management system and wherein the graph comprises a set of communication objects and a set of second relationships between the set of asset objects and the set of communication objects.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the second relationships are generate relationships.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the graph represents a set of users to which the set of communications were sent by the communication management system and the graph comprises a set of user objects and a set of third relationships between the set of communication objects and the set of user objects.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the third relationships are sent relationships.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein each sent relationship specifies a delivery method as a property.

10. The system of claim 5 , wherein the content flow server includes a communication tracking interface for:
receiving a communication notification from a communications tracking module deployed on the communication management system in the enterprise environment, the communication notification specifying a first communication, a second relationship and a third relationship including the

Assignees

• Open Text Sa Ulc

Inventors

• Pruitt Byron Steven
• Cole Jeffrey Alan
• Downs James Matthew

Classifications

• G06Q10/06

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• G06F16/40

  of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data (retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70) · CPC title

• G06F16/3328 Primary

  using graphical result space presentation or visualisation · CPC title

• H04L67/125 Primary

  involving control of end-device applications over a network · CPC title