U.S. patent application number 13/483635 was filed with the patent office on 2013-12-05 for systems and methods for displaying contextual revision history.
This patent application is currently assigned to Google Inc.. The applicant listed for this patent is Ian Gunn, Kevin Siwoff. Invention is credited to Ian Gunn, Kevin Siwoff.
Application Number | 20130326323 13/483635 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 49671842 |
Filed Date | 2013-12-05 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130326323 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Siwoff; Kevin ; et
al. |
December 5, 2013 |
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISPLAYING CONTEXTUAL REVISION HISTORY
Abstract
A user may want to view the revision history of a particular
section or context of an electronic document. The user selects a
context by selecting a section of the electronic document in a
document editing application. Based on the selected context, the
application filters and displays only information about revisions
associated with the selected section of the electronic document.
The application omits information about revisions made to other
unselected sections of the electronic document from display.
Inventors: |
Siwoff; Kevin; (Astoria,
NY) ; Gunn; Ian; (San Francisco, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Siwoff; Kevin
Gunn; Ian |
Astoria
San Francisco |
NY
CA |
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Google Inc.
Mountain View
CA
|
Family ID: |
49671842 |
Appl. No.: |
13/483635 |
Filed: |
May 30, 2012 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
715/229 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/04845 20130101;
G06F 3/0482 20130101; G06F 40/169 20200101; G06T 11/001 20130101;
G06F 3/04842 20130101; G06F 40/197 20200101; G06F 40/137
20200101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/229 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/00 20060101
G06F017/00 |
Claims
1. A method of presenting revision history information of an
electronic document, comprising: detecting a selection of a section
of the electronic document by a user; in response to detecting the
selection of the section of the electronic document, displaying a
first menu having a command to display a subset of the revision
history information of the electronic document, the subset
including revision history information corresponding to the
selected section of the electronic document and omitting revision
history information unassociated with the selected section of the
electronic document; detecting a selection by the user of the
command to display the subset of the revision history information
of the electronic document; and in response to detecting the
selection by the user of the command to display the subset of the
revision history information of the electronic document, displaying
via a second menu a list having a revision entry associated with a
revision to the selected section of the electronic document,
wherein the revision entry includes: identification information
identifying an editor having made the revision to the selected
section of the electronic document, and timestamp information
indicating the time that the revision was made.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information
includes a name corresponding to the editor and an image
corresponding to the editor.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is
displayed in a color associated with the editor.
4. The method of claim 3, comprising: displaying, in the electronic
document, text corresponding to the revision entry in the color
associated with the editor identified in the revision entry.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein the displaying text includes
displaying text added to the electronic document and not displaying
text removed from the electronic document.
6. The method of claim 4, comprising: displaying, in a vertical
margin of a visual display of the electronic document, a vertical
line having a segment, wherein: a first end of the segment is
aligned vertically with a beginning of the text corresponding to
the revision entry, a second end of the segment is aligned
vertically with an end of the text, and the segment is displayed in
the color of the text.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first end of the segment
comprises a user interface configured to be selected by the
user.
8. The method of claim 7, comprising: detecting a selection by the
user of the first end of the segment; and in response to detecting
the selection of the first end of the segment, displaying the
revision entry next to the first end of the segment.
9. A system for presenting revision history information of an
electronic document, the system comprising an electronic document
editing application comprising: a model process for managing
application data associated with the electronic document; a context
revision history process for receiving commands from a user, the
context revision history process configured to detect a selection
of a section of the electronic document by a user; a revision
database for storing revision history information of the electronic
document; and a view process for displaying the electronic document
in a visual display, the view process configured to display a menu
including a list having a revision entry associated with a revision
to the selected section of the electronic document, wherein the
revision entry is retrieved from the revision database, and the
revision entry includes: identification information identifying an
editor having made the revision to the selected section of the
electronic document, and timestamp information indicating the time
that the revision was made.
10. The system of claim 9, wherein the identification information
includes a name corresponding to the editor and an image
corresponding to the editor.
11. The system of claim 9, wherein the identification information
is displayed in a color associated with the editor.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the view process is further
configured to display text corresponding to the revision entry in
the color associated with the editor identified in the revision
entry.
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the view process is further
configured to display text added to the electronic document and not
text removed from the electronic document.
14. The system of claim 12, wherein the view process is further
configured to display, in a vertical margin of a visual display of
the electronic document, a vertical line comprising a segment,
wherein: a first end of the segment is aligned vertically with a
beginning of the text corresponding to the revision entry, a second
end of the segment is aligned vertically with an end of the text,
and the segment is displayed in the color of the text.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first end of the segment
comprises a user interface element configured to be selectable by
the user.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein: the controller process is
further configured to detect a selection by the user via the
controller logic of the first end of the segment; and in response
to detecting the selection of the first end of the segment, the
view process is configured to display the revision entry next to
the first end of the segment.
Description
FIELD
[0001] The systems and methods described herein generally relate to
organizing, displaying, and managing revision history information
associated with electronic documents, such as text documents,
spreadsheets, presentations, multimedia files, or other types of
documents.
BACKGROUND
[0002] The rapid advancement of networking and computer technology
has allowed people to communicate and work together even if they
are located in different parts of the world. Often, multiple
editors may need to collaboratively create and edit a shared common
electronic document. Because multiple editors may make many
revisions to the document over a long period of time, existing
document editing applications often assist a user in managing the
revision history information of the document. For example, some
document editing applications maintain and display a complete list
of revisions made to the document for viewing by a user. Each
revision in the list of revisions may include information about the
name of the editor who made the revision, the time that the
revision was made, and the content of revision.
[0003] Unfortunately, in many situations, it is not desirable for a
document editing application to display a complete list of
revisions made to a document because it may result in information
overload. For example, if a document editing application must
display a very long list of revisions, a user may have difficulty
visually determining how a particular revision affected a
particular section of the document. Similarly, the user may have
difficulty determining the identity of the editor of a particular
revision or set of revisions. In addition, the user may have
difficulty viewing only the revisions made to a particular section
of the document.
SUMMARY
[0004] Thus, systems and methods are disclosed that allow a user to
easily view only a subset of the revisions made to a document based
on a context selected by the user. A context refers to any subset
of the document, such as a word, an image, a phrase, a sentence, a
paragraph, or other portion of the document.
[0005] The user selects a context by selecting a section of the
electronic document in a document editing application. The context
is used to change the behavior of the application, such as changing
the specific revision history information that is displayed by the
application. Using the selected context as input, the application
filters and displays only information about revisions associated
with the selected section of the electronic document. The
application omits information about revisions made to other
unselected sections of the electronic document from display.
[0006] According to one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a
method of presenting revision history information of an electronic
document. The method includes detecting a selection of a section of
the electronic document by a user. In response to detecting the
selection of the section of the electronic document, first menu is
displayed having a command to display a subset of the revision
history information of the electronic document. The subset includes
revision history information corresponding to the selected section
of the electronic document and omits revision history information
unassociated with the selected section of the electronic document.
The method further includes detecting a selection by the user of
the command to display the subset of the revision history
information of the electronic document. In response to detecting
the selection by the user of the command to display the subset of
the revision history information of the electronic document, a list
is displayed via a second menu. The list has a revision entry
associated with a revision to the selected section of the
electronic document. The revision entry includes identification
information identifying an editor having made the revision to the
selected section of the electronic document, and timestamp
information indicating the time that the revision was made.
[0007] In some embodiments, the identification information includes
a name corresponding to the editor and an image corresponding to
the editor. In some embodiments, the identification information is
displayed in a color associated with the editor. In some
embodiments, the method includes displaying, in the electronic
document, text corresponding to the revision entry in the color
associated with the editor identified in the revision entry. In
some embodiments, the displaying text includes displaying text
added to the electronic document and not displaying text removed
from the electronic document. In some embodiments, the method
includes displaying, in a vertical margin of a visual display of
the electronic document, a vertical line having a segment. A first
end of the segment is aligned vertically with a beginning of the
text corresponding to the revision entry. A second end of the
segment is aligned vertically with an end of the text, and the
segment is displayed in the color of the text. In some embodiments,
the first end of the segment comprises a user interface configured
to be selected by the user. In some embodiments, the method
includes detecting a selection by the user of the first end of the
segment. In response to detecting the selection of the first end of
the segment, the revision entry is displayed next to the first end
of the segment.
[0008] According to another aspect, the present disclosure relates
to a system for presenting revision history information of an
electronic document. The system includes an electronic document
editing application. The application includes a model process for
managing application data associated with the electronic document
and a context revision history process for receiving commands from
a user. The context revision history process is configured to
detect a selection of a section of the electronic document by a
user. The application also includes a revision database for storing
revision history information of the electronic document and a view
process for displaying the electronic document in a visual display.
The view process is configured to display a menu including a list
having a revision entry associated with a revision to the selected
section of the electronic document. The revision entry is retrieved
from the revision database, and the revision entry includes
identification information identifying an editor having made the
revision to the selected section of the electronic document. The
revision entry also includes timestamp information indicating the
time that the revision was made.
[0009] In some embodiments, the identification information includes
a name corresponding to the editor and an image corresponding to
the editor. In some embodiments, the identification information is
displayed in a color associated with the editor. In some
embodiments, the view process is further configured to display text
corresponding to the revision entry in the color associated with
the editor identified in the revision entry. In some embodiments,
the view process is further configured to display text added to the
electronic document and not text removed from the electronic
document. In some embodiments, the view process is further
configured to display, in a vertical margin of a visual display of
the electronic document, a vertical line comprising a segment. A
first end of the segment is aligned vertically with a beginning of
the text corresponding to the revision entry. A second end of the
segment is aligned vertically with an end of the text, and the
segment is displayed in the color of the text. In some embodiments,
the first end of the segment comprises a user interface element
configured to be selectable by the user. In some embodiments, the
controller process is further configured to detect a selection by
the user via the controller logic of the first end of the segment.
In response to detecting the selection of the first end of the
segment, the view process is configured to display the revision
entry next to the first end of the segment.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] Further features of the present disclosure, its nature and
various advantages, will be apparent upon consideration of the
following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to
like parts throughout, and in which:
[0011] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative system for providing and
displaying contextual revision history, according to an
embodiment;
[0012] FIG. 2 shows in more detail the revision database of FIG. 1,
according to an embodiment;
[0013] FIG. 3 shows in more detail the document model 114 of FIG.
1, according to an embodiment;
[0014] FIG. 4A shows an illustrative screenshot of the system of
FIG. 1, according to an embodiment;
[0015] FIG. 4B shows the document model of FIGS. 1 and 3, according
to an embodiment;
[0016] FIG. 4C shows the revision table of FIG. 2, according to an
embodiment;
[0017] FIG. 5A is a pictorial representation of a display screen of
the system of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment;
[0018] FIG. 5B shows another view of the document model of FIGS. 1
and 3, according to an embodiment;
[0019] FIG. 5C shows in more detail the revision table 210 of FIG.
2 in operation with the screenshot of FIG. 5A, according to an
embodiment;
[0020] FIG. 6 shows an illustrative process for displaying the
revision history information of a section of an electronic document
based on the selection of a section or context, according to an
embodiment;
[0021] FIG. 7 shows an illustrative process for displaying the
revision history information of a section of an electronic document
using a revision history bar, according to an embodiment; and
[0022] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a computing device for
presenting the revision history information of an electronic
document, according to an embodiment.
DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS
[0023] To provide an overall understanding of the systems and
methods described herein, certain implementations will now be
described, including systems and methods for displaying contextual
revision history. However, it will be understood by one of ordinary
skill in the art that the systems and methods described herein may
be adapted and modified as is appropriate for the application being
addressed. For example, the systems and methods described herein
may be adapted for other uses, such as for displaying the revision
history of portions of a picture, a sound clip, a movie clip, or an
email thread. Similarly, the systems and methods described herein
may be adapted for other platforms such as online web applications
(e.g. Google Documents), mobile devices such as smartphones or
tablets, or collaborative web frameworks such as a wiki. Thus, the
systems and methods described herein may be employed in other
suitable applications, and that such other additions and
modifications will not depart from the scope thereof.
[0024] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative system for providing and
displaying contextual revision history, according to an embodiment.
A system 100 includes a document editor 110, a context revision
history process 120, a revision database 130, a user 140, and an
electronic document 150. The document editor 110 includes an
application programming interface (API) 112, a document model 114,
and a view component 116. The context revision history process 120
includes a context detector 122, a revision filter/reverter 124,
and a revision list builder 126. As described in detail further
below, the system 100 allows the user 140 to view the revision
history of the electronic document 150, which is being edited
and/or viewed in the document editor 110. In particular, the user
140 selects a context, such as a sentence or a paragraph, within
the document 150 in order to view revision history information
corresponding only to the selected context within the document
150.
[0025] The document editor 110 may be any type of electronic
document editing or viewing application, such as a text editor, a
spreadsheet application, an email application, or an integrated
development environment (IDE) program. The depicted document editor
110 includes an application programming interface (API) 112, a
document model 114, and a view component 116.
[0026] The API 112 provides an interface for the context revision
history process 120 to interact with and send commands to the
document editor 110. For example, the API 112 may provide functions
that may be called by the context revision history process 120 to
send commands to the document model 114 and the view component
116.
[0027] The document model 114 is a data structure that contains one
or more structured data sets representing the data stored in the
document 150. The document editor 110 generates the document model
114 from the data stored in the document 150 when it loads the
document 150 into memory. The document model 114 stores data and
metadata associated with the document 150. This data and metadata
may include information such as text, formatting, images, sound,
and authorship information. For example, the document model 114 may
store the data and metadata associated with the document 150 inside
a markup language tree structure such as an Extensible Markup
Language (XML) Document Object Model (DOM). The systems and methods
disclosed herein do not depend on any particular implementation of
the document model 114, and any suitable document model may be
employed.
[0028] The view component 116 renders the data stored in the
document model 114 to a screen, such as a computer monitor, for
viewing by the user 140. Thus, the view component 116 may display
the document 150 in an interactive editor for viewing and editing
by the user. For example, the view component 116 may be a canonical
document display process. The view component 116 may provide a What
You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) graphical user interface that
displays the formatted text of the document 150 as an editable
document.
[0029] The depicted context revision history process 120 includes a
context detector 122, a revision filter/reverter 124, and a
revision list builder 126. The context revision history process 120
detects the selection of a context within the document 150 by the
user 140 and provides the view component 116 with a filtered list
of revisions made to that context of the document 150 for display
to the user 140. The context detector 122 detects the selection of
a context within the document 150 by the user 140. A context is a
subset of the text in the document 150, such as a particular
portion or section of the text of the document 150. For example, a
subset of the text could be a particular word, sentence, or
paragraph in the text of the document 150. A subset of the text may
also be a particular part of a sentence, a particular part of a
paragraph, a particular set of multiple paragraphs, or particular
parts of multiple paragraphs. The subset does not need to be
continuous and may include, for example, sentences from different
paragraphs of the text. Thus, a context represents a subset of the
whole text of the document 150.
[0030] In the system 100, the revision history information of the
document 150 is represented as a list of revision entries. Each
revision entry in the list is associated with a revision to the
document 150. Thus, the revision history information of a
particular context of the document 150 is represented as a list of
revision entries associated with revisions to that particular
context.
[0031] The context detector 122 detects the selection of a context
by looking and responding to certain actions taken by the user 140.
For example, the user 140 may use an input device such as a mouse
to select a section of text in the document 150, open a menu, and
select a command in the menu to the context revision history
process 120 to display revisions made to the selected section of
text. The context detector 122 may include a listener process that
specifically looks for and detects the selection of text by the
user 140.
[0032] After the context detector 122 has detected the selection of
a context, the revision filter/reverter 124 uses the selected
context to obtain a subset of the revision history information of
the document 150 from the revision database 130. The subset of the
revision history information includes revision history information
corresponding to the selected context and omits revision history
information unassociated with the selected context. For example,
the selected context may be a particular sentence within the
document 150. In this example, the revision filter/reverter 124
queries the revision database 130 for revisions made to that
sentence within the document 150. In response, the revision
database 130 returns revision data pertaining to the revisions made
to that sentence within the document 150.
[0033] After the revision filter/reverter 124 has received the
subset of the revision history information corresponding to the
selected context, the revision list builder 126 uses the subset to
build a list of revision entries corresponding to the selected
context. Each revision entry in the list is associated with a
revision made to the selected context. For example, each revision
entry may include identification information identifying the editor
who made the revision, timestamp information corresponding to the
time that the revision was made, and the content of the revision.
The identification information may include a name or username and
an image associated with the editor.
[0034] After the revision list builder 126 builds the list of
revision entries corresponding to the selected context, the view
component 116 displays the list to the user 140 via a display, such
as a computer monitor or other visual interface.
[0035] In some embodiments, the revision filter/reverter 124 allows
the user 140 to revert or "undo" a revision made to the selected
context. For example, the user 140 may choose a revision entry in
the list of revision entries constructed by the revision list
builder 126. The user 140 may issue a command to the contextual
revision history process 120 to revert the revision associated with
the chosen revision entry. In response, the revision
filter/reverter 124 updates the revision database 130 to undo that
revision in the document 150.
[0036] In some embodiments, the system 100 may be implemented in a
computer system. For example, the document editor 110, the context
revision history process 120, and the revision database 130 may be
implemented as separate software applications on the computer
system or as one integrated software application. In some
embodiments, the document editor 110 and the context revision
history process 120 may be implemented on a server and provided to
the user 140 over the internet via a web browser. The revision
database 130 may also be implemented on a server separate from the
document editor 110 and the context revision history process 120.
The revision database 130 may be distributed among multiple servers
over the internet.
[0037] FIG. 2 shows in detail the revision database 130 of FIG. 1,
according to an embodiment. The revision database 130 may be a flat
file, an SQL database or other type of relational database or
distributed database suitable for storing revision history
information. The revision database 130 includes a revision table
210. The revision table 210 stores the revision history information
of the document 150 of FIG. 1. The revision table 210 includes an
editor column 212, a timestamp column 214, a content column 216,
and a context column 218. The revision table 210 also includes a
number of revision entry rows, such as revision entry rows 220,
222, and 224. Each revision of the document 150 is represented by a
revision entry row in the revision table 210. For a revision entry
row, such as the revision entry row 220, the editor column 212
contains information identifying the editor who made the revision,
and the timestamp column 214 contains timestamp information
indicating the time that the revision was made. Similarly, the
content column 216 contains information about the content of the
revision, such as the text that was added or removed or the
formatting information that was changed. The context column 218
contains information about the context that the revision
corresponds to. For example, in FIG. 2, the revision entry row 220
represents a revision made by a user "User 1" (225) at 8:45 am on
Mar. 1, 2012 (226) associated with a context named "Sentence1"
(227). The following discussion of FIG. 3 will explain how the
context is mapped to the underlying electronic document and
document model.
[0038] FIG. 3 shows in more detail a graphical depiction of the
document model 114 of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment. The
depicted document model 114 is represents the document 150 as a
hierarchical tree structure containing a root document node 310,
paragraph nodes 320, 330, and 340, and sentence nodes 322, 324,
326, 332, and 342. For example, the hierarchical tree structure may
be an XML DOM structure commonly used for web applications.
[0039] Each node corresponds to a section of the document 150. For
example, the paragraph nodes 320, 330, and 340 correspond to a
first, a second, and a third text paragraph in the document 150.
The paragraph node 320 has three children nodes--the sentence nodes
322, 324, and 326, which correspond to a first, a second, and a
third sentence in the first paragraph. The paragraph node 330 has
one child node--the sentence node 332, which corresponds to a
sentence in the second paragraph, and the paragraph node 342 has
one child node--the sentence node 342, which corresponds to a
sentence in the third paragraph. The discussion of FIGS. 4A and 4B
below will illustrate how the nodes map to the text of the document
150.
[0040] Each node also contains information associated with its
corresponding section of the document 150. The information may
include data regarding the font style, font size, formatting, and
textual content of the corresponding section of the document 150.
For example, the paragraph node 320 may contain formatting and font
information regarding the first paragraph in the document 150.
Similarly, the sentence node 322 may contain the text of the
sentence that it corresponds to. Each node also has a label or name
for identifying itself. For example, the paragraph node 320 has the
name "Paragraph1," and the sentence node 322 has the name
"Sentence1."
[0041] The hierarchical tree of nodes in the document model 114
provides a way to structurally divide the document 150 into
sections. Because a node corresponds to a section of the document
150, a node may represent a section, and thus a context within the
document 150. Each revision to the document 150 is associated with
a node to identify the context that the revision is associated
with. For example, turning back to FIG. 2, the revision entry row
220 is associated with a context "Sentence1," which corresponds to
the sentence node 322. Accordingly, the revision represented by
revision entry row 220 may be mapped to a particular section of the
document 150 as represented by the sentence node 322 in the
document model 114.
[0042] The hierarchical structure of the document model 114 in FIG.
3 is explained by way of example only. The document model 114 may
be divided into different types of subsections without departing
from the principles of the present disclosure. In addition, the
document model 114 is represented as a tree structure by way of
example only. Any suitable data structure known in the art may be
used to represent the document model 114.
[0043] FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C illustrate the presentation of revision
history information of an electronic document in the system 100 of
FIG. 1, according to an embodiment. FIG. 4A shows an illustrative
screenshot 400 containing sentence 410, a command menu 420, and a
revision history menu 430. The revision history menu 430 contains a
revision entry 432 and a revision entry 434. FIG. 4B shows another
view of the document model 114 of FIGS. 1 and 3, according to an
embodiment. FIG. 4C shows the revision table 210 of FIG. 2,
according to an embodiment.
[0044] In FIG. 4A, the screenshot 400 shows a view of the depicted
document 150 of FIG. 1. As seen in the screenshot 400, the document
150 contains a first paragraph containing sentences 410, 412, and
414, a second paragraph containing a sentence 416, and a third
paragraph containing a sentence 418. A user, such as the user 140
of FIG. 1, selects the sentence 410 with a mouse and opens the
command menu 420. For example, the command menu 140 may be opened
by right clicking on the selected sentence 410 with the mouse. The
command menu 140 contains a command to display a subset of the
revision history information of the electronic document
corresponding to the selected context. In FIG. 4A, the user 140
selects the command "History of Selection" to view the revisions
made to the selected sentence 410.
[0045] In response to the user 140's selection of the command, the
context detector 122 of FIG. 1 detects the context selected by the
user 140 by identifying the appropriate node or nodes in the
document model 114 that corresponds to the selected sentence 410.
As shown in FIG. 4B, the sentences in FIG. 4A correspond to the
nodes in FIG. 4B. For example, the sentence nodes 322, 324, and 325
correspond to the sentences 410, 412, and 414 respectively.
Similarly, the sentence nodes 330 and 340 correspond to the
sentences 416 and 418 respectively. As shown in FIG. 4B, the
context detector 122 determines that the selected sentence 410
corresponds to the sentence node 322 in the document model 114.
Turning back to FIG. 1, the context detector 122 instructs the
revision filter/reverter 124 to search the revision database 130
for revisions corresponding to a context represented by the
sentence node 322.
[0046] FIG. 4C shows the revision table 210 stored in the revision
database 130 of FIGS. 1 and 2. The revision filter/reverter 124
queries the revision database 130 for revision entry rows in the
revision table 210 that match the context represented by the
sentence node 322. The sentence node 322 has the name "Sentence1,"
so the revision database 130 searches the revision table 210 for
any revision entry rows that match the value "Sentence1" under the
context column 218. As seen in FIG. 4C, the revision entry row 220
and the revision entry row 222 match the value "Sentence1" under
the context column 218. Accordingly, in response to the query made
by the revision filter/reverter 124, the revision database 130 will
return the revision data in the revision entry rows 220 and 222 to
the revision filter/reverter 124, as shown in FIG. 1.
[0047] After the revision filter/reverter 124 receives the revision
data in the revision entry rows 220 and 222, it communicates the
revision data to the revision list builder 126, as shown in FIG. 1.
The revision list builder 126 constructs a list containing two
revision entries sorted in chronological order by timestamp
information. Thus, the first revision entry corresponds to the
revision entry row 220, and the second revision entry corresponds
to the revision entry row 222. The revision list builder 126
transmits the list of revision entries to the view component 116 in
the document editor 110. The view component 116 renders the list of
revision entries for display to the user 140 to provide a response
to the user 140's command to view the revisions made to the
selected sentence 410. As seen in FIG. 4A, the revision history
menu 430 displays the list of revision entries. The revision entry
432 displays the information in the revision entry row 220 in order
to tell the user 140 that the selected sentence 410 was edited by
an editor with the username "User1" at 3/1/122012 at 8:45 am.
Similarly, the revision entry displays the information in the
revision entry row 222 to tell the user 140 that the selected
sentence 410 was also edited by another editor with the username
"User2" at Mar. 2, 2012 at 12:00 pm.
[0048] As depicted in FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C, the system 100 presents
to a user revisions made to a particular section of an electronic
document based on a context selected by the user. In addition to
selecting a single sentence, the user 140 may optimally select any
subset of the text in the document 150, including any portion of a
sentence or group of sentences or any portion of a paragraph or
group of paragraphs.
[0049] In some embodiments, each different editor in the revision
history menu 430 may be associated with a different color.
Revisions in the selected sentence 410 made by a particular editor
may be displayed in the editor's associated color to assist the
user 140 in distinguishing between revisions made by different
editors. For example, the editor "User1" may be associated with the
color green, and the editor "User2" may be associated with the
color blue. Thus, the portions of the selected sentence 410 edited
by "User1" may be displayed in green, and the portions of the
selected sentence 410 edited by "User2" may be displayed in
blue.
[0050] In some embodiments, the user 140 may select a revision
entry in the revision history menu 430 and send a command to the
contextual revision history process 120 to revert the revision
associated with the revision entry. For example, the user 140 may
choose the revision entry 432 and send a command to the revision
filter/reverter 124 to revert the revision associated with the
revision entry 432. In response, the revision filter/reverter 124
may send a command to the revision table 210 to remove the revision
entry row 220, which corresponds to the revision entry 432. In
addition, the document 150 may be updated to remove the changes
introduced in the revision associated with the revision entry
432.
[0051] FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C illustrate the presentation of revision
history information of an electronic document in the system 100 of
FIG. 1 using a revision history bar, according to an embodiment.
FIG. 5A shows an illustrative screenshot 500 containing sentences
410, 412, 414, 416, and 418, a revision history bar 515 containing
revision line segments 521 and 531 and user interface elements 520
and 530, and a revision entry 532. FIG. 5B shows another view of
the document model 114 of FIGS. 1 and 3, according to an
embodiment. FIG. 5C shows the revision table 210 of FIG. 2,
according to an embodiment.
[0052] In FIG. 5A, the screenshot 500 shows a view of the document
150 of FIG. 1. As seen in the screenshot 500 and as discussed
previously, the document 150 contains a first paragraph containing
the sentences 410, 412, and 414, a second paragraph containing the
sentence 416, and a third paragraph containing the sentence 418.
The screenshot 500 also shows a revision history bar 515. The
revision history bar 515 is a user interface element implemented as
a fixed vertical line in the margin of the screenshot 500
containing the revision line segments 521 and 531. The revision
history bar 515 provides an unobtrusive way to show how the
revisions made to the document 150 line up with the text of the
document 150. Thus, the revision history bar 515 provides dynamic,
unobtrusive access to revision history information of the document
150.
[0053] To show how the revisions made to the document 150 line up
with the text of the document 150, the revision history bar 515
contains the revision line segments 521 and 531. The revision line
segments 521 and 531 correspond to different contexts within the
document 150 that contain revisions, and the revision line segments
521 and 531 align vertically with those contexts. For example, the
revision line segment 521 corresponds to the first paragraph of the
document 150. As seen in FIG. 5A, the revision line segment 521
aligns vertically with the first paragraph of the document 150 so
that the top end of the revision line segment 521 aligns vertically
with the beginning of the paragraph, and the bottom end of the
revision line segment 521 aligns vertically with the end of the
paragraph. The first paragraph of the document 150 corresponds to
the "Paragraph1" context, as shown in FIG. 5B. Thus the first
paragraph of the document 150 has two associated revisions in the
"Sentence1" context as seen in FIGS. 5B and 5C. Similarly, the
revision line segment 531 corresponds to the second paragraph of
the document 150 (i.e. the "Paragraph2" context).
[0054] Each revision line segment contains a user interface element
at the top end of the revision line segment. As shown in FIG. 5A,
the revision line segment 521 contains the user interface element
520, and the revision line segment 531 contains the user interface
element 530. The user interface elements 520 and 530 may be buttons
or any other suitable user interface element. When the user 140
interacts with a user interface element, the revision entry 532
provides the user 140 with revision history information
corresponding to the context associated with the revision line
segment containing that user interface element. For example, when
the user 140 interacts (i.e. clicks or hovers over with a mouse
pointer) with the user interface element 530, the revision entry
532 provides the user with revision history information
corresponding to the context associated with the revision line
segment 531, which contains the user interface element 530. In this
example, the revision line segment 531 is associated with the
"Paragraph2" context. Following the steps similar to those
described previously, the context detector 122 determines that that
the selected context is the paragraph node 320 shown in FIG. 5B.
The context detector 122 determines that the paragraph node 320 has
only one child node, i.e. the sentence node 322 (the "Sentence4"
context). Thus, the revision filter/reverter 124 queries the
revision database 130 for revision entry rows that correspond to
the "Sentence4" context. The revision database 130 will return the
revision data in the revision entry row 224, which corresponds to
the "Sentence4" context, as shown in FIG. 5C. The build context
revision list component 124 will construct a list containing one
revision entry (i.e. the revision entry 532) and instruct the view
component 116 to display the list to the user 140. Accordingly, the
revision entry 532 is displayed next to the user interface element
530 inside a window, a tooltip, or some other suitable user
interface element. The revision entry 532 provides the user 140
with information relating to the revision made by the editor "User
1" at Mar. 10, 2012 at 3:15 pm to the sentence 416.
[0055] FIG. 6 shows an illustrative process for showing the
revision history information of a section of an electronic document
based on the selection of a section or context. A process 600 may
be performed by a system such as the system 100 of FIG. 1. In order
to provide a clear explanation, the process 600 will be described
in relation to the system 100 by way of example. The process 600
begins with a step 602. At the step 602, the context detector 122,
detects the selection of a section of the electronic document 150
by the user 140. For example, the user 140 may select any subset of
the document 150, such as a word, a phrase, a sentence or a
paragraph, a portion thereof, etc. As shown in FIGS. 4A and 5A, the
selection section may be the sentence 410 or the sentence 416.
[0056] At step 604, in response to detecting the selection of the
section of the document 150, the view component 116 displays a
first menu having a command to display a subset of the revision
history information of the document 150. For example, in FIG. 4A,
the first menu is the command menu 420. The command to display the
subset of the revision history information of the document 150 is
the command labeled "History of Selection" in the command menu
420.
[0057] At step 606, the context detector 122 detects the user
selection of the command to display the subset of the revision
history information of the electronic document. For example,
turning back to FIG. 4A, the user selection of the "History of
Selection" command is the user 140's clicking or hovering over the
"History of Selection" command with a mouse pointer. As described
in detail previously, in response to the detection of the user
selection of the command, the revision filter/reverter 124 queries
the revision database 130 to obtain revision data corresponding to
the selected section. The revision list builder 126 constructs a
list of revision entries from the revision data obtained from the
revision database 130. The revision list builder 126 sends the list
of revision entries to the view component 116 for display.
[0058] At step 608, in response to detecting the selection by the
user 140 of the command to display the subset of the revision
history information of the document 150, the view component 116
displays via a second menu the list of revision entries associated
with revisions to the selected section of the document 150. A
revision entry may be associated with a revision to the selected
section of the document 150. For example, in FIG. 4A, the list of
revision entries is shown visually as the revision history menu
430, which contains the revision entry 432 and the revision entry
434. A revision entry includes identification information
identifying an editor having made the revision to the selected
section of the document 150, and timestamp information indicating
the time that the revision was made. In some embodiments, the
identification information includes a name corresponding to the
editor and an image corresponding to the editor.
[0059] At step 610, for each revision entry, the view component 116
may display the text corresponding to each revision entry in a
color associated with the editor identified in the revision entry.
For example, in FIG. 4A as described above, the view component 116
may display the portion of the sentence 410 corresponding to the
revision made by the editor "User1" in one color (e.g. green) and
the portion of the sentence 410 corresponding to the revision made
by the editor "User2" in another color (e.g. blue). In some
embodiments, the text displayed includes text added to the document
150 and not text removed from the document 150.
[0060] FIG. 7 shows an illustrative process for showing the
revision history information of a section of an electronic document
using a revision history bar. A process 700 may be performed by a
system such as the system 100 of FIG. 1. To provide a clear
explanation, the process 700 will be described in relation to the
system 100 by way of example. The process 700 begins with a step
702. At step 702, the view component 116 displays a vertical line
(called a "revision history bar") containing line segments in a
vertical margin of a visual display of the document 150. The line
segments are revision line segments such as those shown in FIG. 5A.
For example, in FIG. 5A, the revision history bar is the revision
history bar 515, and the revision line segments are the revision
line segments 521 and 531. As mentioned above in the discussion of
FIG. 5A, a first end of a revision line segment is aligned
vertically with the beginning of the text corresponding to the
revision entry associated with the revision line segment. A second
end of the revision line segment is aligned vertically with the end
of the text. The revision line segment is displayed in the same
color as the text, where the color corresponds to the color
associated with the editor who made the revision associated with
the revision line segment.
[0061] At step 704, the context detector 122 detects the user
selection of a revision line segment. For example, in FIG. 5A, the
user 140 selects a revision line segment by using a mouse pointer
to click or hover over a user interface element that the revision
line segment contains. Thus, to select the revision line segment
531, the user 140 clicks or hovers over the user interface element
530.
[0062] At step 706, the view component 116 may visually mark the
text in the document 50 associated with the selected revision line
segment. For example, in FIG. 5A, if the user 140 selects the
revision line segment 531, then the view component 116 may
highlight the sentence 416, which corresponds to the context
associated with the revision line segment 531.
[0063] At step 708, the view component 116 displays the associated
revision entry next to the selected revision line segment. For
example, in FIG. 5A, the view component displays the revision entry
532 which corresponds to the context associated with the revision
line segment 531.
[0064] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a computing device, such as any
of the parts of the system 100 of FIG. 1, for presenting the
revision history information of an electronic document. Each of the
parts of the system 100, such as the document editor 110, the
context revision history process 120, and the revision database 130
may be implemented on one or more computing devices 800. In some
implementations the computing devices 800 may be connected over a
local area network or over the internet.
[0065] The computing device 800 comprises at least one
communications interface unit, an input/output controller 810,
system memory, and one or more data storage devices. The system
memory includes at least one random access memory (RAM 802) and at
least one read-only memory (ROM 804). All of these elements are in
communication with a central processing unit (CPU 806) to
facilitate the operation of the computing device 800. The computing
device 800 may be configured in many different ways. For example,
the computing device 800 may be a conventional standalone computer
or alternatively, the functions of computing device 800 may be
distributed across multiple computer systems and architectures. In
FIG. 8, the computing device 800 is linked, via network or local
network, to other servers or systems.
[0066] The computing device 800 may be configured in a distributed
architecture, wherein databases and processors are housed in
separate units or locations. Some units perform primary processing
functions and contain at a minimum a general controller or a
processor and a system memory. In distributed architecture
implementations, each of these units may be attached via the
communications interface unit 808 to a communications hub or port
(not shown) that serves as a primary communication link with other
servers, client or user computers and other related devices. The
communications hub or port may have minimal processing capability
itself, serving primarily as a communications router. A variety of
communications protocols may be part of the system, including, but
not limited to: Ethernet, SAP, SAS.TM., ATP, BLUETOOTH.TM., GSM and
TCP/IP.
[0067] The CPU 806 comprises a processor, such as one or more
conventional microprocessors and one or more supplementary
co-processors such as math co-processors for offloading workload
from the CPU 806. The CPU 806 is in communication with the
communications interface unit 808 and the input/output controller
810, through which the CPU 806 communicates with other devices such
as other servers, user terminals, or devices. The communications
interface unit 808 and the input/output controller 810 may include
multiple communication channels for simultaneous communication
with, for example, other processors, servers or client
terminals.
[0068] The CPU 806 is also in communication with the data storage
device. The data storage device may comprise an appropriate
combination of magnetic, optical or semiconductor memory, and may
include, for example, RAM 802, ROM 804, flash drive, an optical
disc such as a compact disc or a hard disk or drive. The CPU 806
and the data storage device each may be, for example, located
entirely within a single computer or other computing device; or
connected to each other by a communication medium, such as a USB
port, serial port cable, a coaxial cable, an Ethernet cable, a
telephone line, a radio frequency transceiver or other similar
wireless or wired medium or combination of the foregoing. For
example, the CPU 806 may be connected to the data storage device
via the communications interface unit 808. The CPU 806 may be
configured to perform one or more particular processing
functions.
[0069] The data storage device may store, for example, (i) an
operating system 812 for the computing device 800; (ii) one or more
applications 814 (e.g., computer program code or a computer program
product) adapted to direct the CPU 806 in accordance with the
systems and methods described here, and particularly in accordance
with the processes described in detail with regard to the CPU 806;
or (iii) database(s) 816 adapted to store information that may be
utilized to store information required by the program. The one or
more applications 814 may include the document editor 110 and the
context revision history process 120. The database 816 may include
the revision history database 130.
[0070] The operating system 812 and applications 814 may be stored,
for example, in a compressed, an uncompiled and an encrypted
format, and may include computer program code. The instructions of
the program may be read into a main memory of the processor from a
computer-readable medium other than the data storage device, such
as from the ROM 804 or from the RAM 802. While execution of
sequences of instructions in the program causes the CPU 806 to
perform the process steps described herein, hard-wired circuitry
may be used in place of, or in combination with, software
instructions for implementation of the processes of the present
disclosure. Thus, the systems and methods described are not limited
to any specific combination of hardware and software.
[0071] Suitable computer program code may be provided for
performing one or more functions in relation to aligning dietary
behavior as described herein. The program also may include program
elements such as an operating system 812, a database management
system and "device drivers" that allow the processor to interface
with computer peripheral devices (e.g., a video display, a
keyboard, a computer mouse, etc.) via the input/output controller
810.
[0072] The term "computer-readable medium" as used herein refers to
any non-transitory medium that provides or participates in
providing instructions to the processor of the computing device 800
(or any other processor of a device described herein) for
execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not
limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile
media include, for example, optical, magnetic, or opto-magnetic
disks, or integrated circuit memory, such as flash memory. Volatile
media include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically
constitutes the main memory. Common forms of computer-readable
media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard
disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any
other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical
medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM or EEPROM
(electronically erasable programmable read-only memory), a
FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other
non-transitory medium from which a computer can read.
[0073] Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in
carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to the
CPU 806 (or any other processor of a device described herein) for
execution. For example, the instructions may initially be borne on
a magnetic disk of a remote computer (not shown). The remote
computer can load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send
the instructions over an Ethernet connection, cable line, or even
telephone line using a modem. A communications device local to a
computing device 800 (e.g., a server) can receive the data on the
respective communications line and place the data on a system bus
for the processor. The system bus carries the data to main memory,
from which the processor retrieves and executes the instructions.
The instructions received by main memory may optionally be stored
in memory either before or after execution by the processor. In
addition, instructions may be received via a communication port as
electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals, which are exemplary
forms of wireless communications or data streams that carry various
types of information.
[0074] While various implementations have been shown and described
herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that such
implementations are provided by way of example only. Numerous
variations, changes, and substitutions will now occur to those
skilled in the art without departing from the present disclosure.
It should be understood that various alternatives to the
implementations described herein may be employed. It is intended
that the following claims define the scope of the present
disclosure and that methods and structures within the scope of
these claims and their equivalents be covered thereby.
* * * * *