Electronic document sharing with asynchronous processing on indirect changes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016239488-A1
Application number	US-201514700904-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 30, 2015
Priority date	Feb 18, 2015
Publication date	Aug 18, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for sharing changes to an electronic document is described. A share request is received, at a first computing device, that indicates a change to a shared element of the electronic document that is directly changed by a user. A first update set of elements that should be updated based on the change is determined by the first computing device, the first update set including the shared element and one or more elements not directly changed by the user. For each element of the first update set, the first computing device selects between a second update set and a third update set based on a respective dependency relationship with the shared element. Elements of the first update set are associated with the corresponding selected update set. A synchronous update for the second update set and an asynchronous update for the third update set are performed.

First claim

1 . A method for sharing changes to an electronic document in a distributed networked environment, the method comprising:
receiving, at a first computing device of the distributed networked environment, a share request that indicates a change to a shared element of a section of the electronic document that is directly changed by a user of the electronic document; determining, by the first computing device, a first update set of elements to be updated based on the change to the shared element, the first update set including at least the shared element and one or more elements not directly changed by the user; dividing, by the first computing device, elements of the first update set into a second update set and a third update set, wherein the second update set comprises at least the shared element, and the third update set comprises one or more elements of the first update set that are not directly changed by the user and not in the section of the electronic document; providing, by the first computing device to a second computing device, a first user interface through which the share request is received and the section of the electronic document is displayed; disabling one or more user interface functionality features of the first user interface in response to the share request; updating, by a first set of computing devices, elements of the second update set based on the change to the shared element while the one or more user interface functionality features of the first user interface are disabled; enabling at least a portion of the one or more user interface functionality features of the first user interface in response to completion of the update of the elements of the second update set; and updating, by a second set of computing devices, elements of the third update set based on the change to the shared element after enabling at least the portion of the one or more user interface functionality features of the first user interface.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second update set further comprises one or more elements of the first update set that are in the section of the electronic document displayed through the first user interface but are not directly changed by the user.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein performing the update for the second update set comprises updating the shared element prior to updating the one or more elements that are in the section of the electronic document but are not directly changed by the user.

4 . (canceled)

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the third update set is a third update queue; dividing the first update set comprises adding an element of the first update set into the third update queue in order based on a priority value corresponding to the element of the first update set; and updating the elements of the third update set comprises updating the elements of the third update queue in the order based on the priority values.

6 . (canceled)

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
enabling a remainder of the one or more user interface functionality features of the first user interface in response to completion of both the update of the second update set and the update of the third update set.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, by the first computing device to a third computing device, a second user interface that is distinct from the first user interface and through which at least one element of the first update set is displayed; wherein providing the second user interface comprises:
disabling one or more user interface functionality features of the second user interface in response to the updating of the elements of the second update set; and
enabling the one or more user interface functionality features of the second user interface in response to completion of an update of at least one element of the third update set.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the first computing device, a fourth update set of elements to be updated based on updates to the one or more elements not directly changed by the user; dividing, by the first computing device, an element of the fourth update set into the second update set if the element of the fourth update set is in the section of the electronic document; and dividing, by the first computing device, the element of the fourth update set into the third update set if the element of the fourth update set is not in the section of the electronic document.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the elements of the second update set comprises:
preventing further changes, via the first user interface, to the elements of the second update set and the elements of the third update set while the update of the second update set is performed; wherein updating the elements of the third update set comprises:
preventing further changes to the elements of the third update set while the update of the elements of the third update set is performed.

11 . (canceled)

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the elements of the second update set comprises:
determining whether a first element of the second update set has a dependency relationship with a second element of the second update set; performing a first update of the first element and a second update of the second element; wherein the first update and the second update are performed asynchronously with respect to each other and synchronously with respect to the first user interface in response to a determination that the first element and the second element do not have a dependency relationship with each other; wherein the first update and the second update are performed synchronously with respect to each other and synchronously with respect to the first user interface in response to a determination that the first element and the second element have a dependency relationship with each other.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the third update set comprises:
determining whether a first element of the third update set has a dependency relationship with a second element of the third update set; performing a first update of the first element and a second update of the second element; wherein the first update and the second update are performed asynchronously with respect to each other and asynchronously with respect to the first user interface in response to a determination that the first element and the second element do not have a dependency relationship with each other; wherein the first update and the second update are performed synchronously with respect to each other and asynchronously with respect to the first user interface in response to a determination that the first element and the second element have a dependency relationship with each other.

14 . A first computing device of a distributed networked environment for sharing changes to an electronic document, the first computing device comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable memory; a hardware processor that:
receives a share request that indicates a change to a shared element of a section of the electronic document that is directly changed by a user of the electronic document;
determines a first update set of elements to be updated based on the change to the shared element, the first update set including at least the shared element and one or more elements not directly changed by the user;
divides elements of the first update set into a second update set and a third update set, wherein the second update set comprises at least the shared element, and the third update set comprises one or more elements of the first update

Assignees

• Workiva Inc

Inventors

• Aguilon Jason
• Allen Andrew
• Broad Macleod
• Hayes-Sheen Josh
• Hiatt Dustin
• Kluin Robert A
• Lyddon Beau D
• Petersen Erik
• Lessard Dustin

Classifications

• G06F16/93 Primary

  Document management systems · CPC title

• G06F17/30578

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30011 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30581

  Physics · mapped topic