Autocomplete Feature for Cross-Tenant Resource Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In cloud computing environments, users face difficulties in quickly and intuitively identifying and sharing resources with intended recipients across different trust boundaries, especially when the intended recipient does not exist in the same directory or tenant, leading to potential mistyping and access control challenges.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an autocomplete feature that narrows down possible user identifications as the user types, allowing sharing across multiple tenants and unregistered users, using globally recognized identifiers like email addresses, and enabling permission designation for shared resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If users manually type user identifiers to share resources, then sharing functionality is achieved, but mistyping errors increase and identification accuracy decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-loads and displays a list of potential sharees (users, groups, distribution lists) that match the beginning of the typed identifier. This preliminary action allows users to select from predefined options rather than typing complete identifiers, eliminating mistyping errors while maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
As the user types characters in the sharee identifier field, the system provides immediate feedback by filtering and displaying matching sharees from the directory. This real-time feedback mechanism guides the user to the correct sharee selection, improving identification accuracy without complicating the sharing process.
2Adaptability or versatility
If autocomplete is limited to recently used email addresses, then ease of operation is maintained, but adaptability across tenants and unregistered users is restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The autocomplete feature is enhanced to search across multiple tenants and include unregistered users in addition to recently used contacts. This universal search capability allows resource sharing across organizational boundaries while maintaining a single, unified user interface that abstracts the underlying complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary search mechanism that translates user input into cross-tenant queries. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of multi-tenant directory searches, permission checks, and user matching, presenting a simple autocomplete experience to users while managing the underlying complexity.
3Reliability
If permission designation is required for each sharee, then access control security is improved, but operation time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different permission levels (read, write, execute, etc.) to different sharees based on their identity and relationship to the resource. This local quality approach allows customized permission assignment for each sharee while maintaining security, rather than applying a single blanket permission policy to all users.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements default permission settings that apply to all sharees unless explicitly modified. This partial action approach reduces configuration time by automatically assigning reasonable defaults, while still allowing administrators to override specific permissions when needed, balancing security with operational efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Autocompleting into an invite box for purposes of sharing an executable computing resource such as an application or portion thereof. However, the autocomplete is populated with potential sharees of multiple tenants or with identities that are not registered with the tenant directory of the user. Thus, potentially any potentially sharee worldwide may be populated within the list of potential sharees. As the desired potential sharee comes into view, that potential sharee may be selected, and added to a list of one or more selected sharees. At some point, a control may be selected to allow the executable computing resource to be shared with the selected sharees within the list.