Synchronized Collaborative Workspace via Intermediary Server
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Collaborative systems face challenges in maintaining real-time synchronization between client devices and a shared workspace on a server, leading to conflicts when users edit or delete documents simultaneously.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based collaborative system where each client device maintains a local copy of the shared workspace, synchronized with the server, using a synchronization server to propagate changes and manage state counts, ensuring all users have the same view of the workspace.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If real-time synchronization is maintained between client devices and server workspace, then collaboration reliability is improved, but system complexity and communication overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a synchronization server as an intermediary component that mediates between client devices and the master workspace. This synchronization server receives change notifications from clients, applies them to the master workspace, and propagates updates to all connected clients, thereby managing the complexity of real-time synchronization centrally rather than requiring direct peer-to-peer coordination between all clients.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the synchronization server sends change notifications to clients and receives acknowledgments. The server tracks the state of the master workspace and provides feedback to clients about updates, ensuring that all clients remain synchronized with the authoritative copy while managing communication efficiently.
2Speed
If local copies of workspace are maintained on client devices, then access speed is improved, but data consistency and synchronization difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a copying architecture where each client device maintains a local copy (snapshot) of the master workspace. This allows clients to access and work with data locally at high speed without constant network round-trips. The local copies are updated periodically or on-demand from the authoritative master workspace maintained on the synchronization server, balancing fast local access with eventual consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-loading workspace data into local copies on client devices before it is needed for editing. This allows users to work with data locally without network latency. When changes are made at the master workspace, the system propagates updates to relevant clients, ensuring data consistency is maintained through periodic synchronization rather than requiring constant network connectivity during editing.
Data Source
AI summary
A cloud based collaborative work environment enables users to work collaboratively within a shared workspace. An application server on a host device is accessible to client devices via a communication network and maintains the shared workspace for collaboration between users. Client applications hosted on client devices enable users of the workspace to access and make changes in the shared workspace, such as adding or deleting items to or from the workspace, editing or annotating existing items, viewing items in the workspace, or downloading items in the workspace. Local copies of the shared workspace are maintained by the client devices and are synchronized with the shared workspace maintained by the application server so that any changes made to by a user to its local copy of the shared workspace are propagated to other users. Thus, synchronization is maintained between master workspace and the local workspaces on the client devices.