Comment Infrastructure for Co-authoring Conflict Resolution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current co-authoring technologies face challenges in resolving conflicts between multiple users editing the same document, often resulting in lost edits or disruptive locking of sections, as they lack effective mechanisms for tracking, merging, and resolving conflicts in a user-friendly manner, especially in offline scenarios.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a comment infrastructure that captures conflicting changes as comments within the document, allowing users to choose when to resolve conflicts, continue editing, or switch tasks, while enabling communication and collaboration among users to address conflicts inline.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a 'last saved wins' model is used to resolve conflicts, then the simplicity of conflict resolution is improved, but edits made by the first user are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a comment infrastructure as an intermediary mechanism that captures conflicting changes. When a conflict is detected, the system creates comments containing the conflicting content rather than immediately overwriting it. This allows the first user's edits to be preserved in the comment while still enabling the second user to save their changes, thus preventing information loss while maintaining operational simplicity.
2Loss of information
If a 'first saved wins' model is used to resolve conflicts, then edits made by the first user are preserved, but changes made by the second user are blocked from being saved
Solution Approach 1:
The comment infrastructure acts as a mediator that allows both users' changes to coexist. Instead of blocking the second user from saving, the system captures their conflicting changes in a comment. This enables the second user to complete their save operation without losing their work, while the first user's edits are preserved in the document content, thus maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent resolves conflicts by moving them to a different dimension - from the document content space to the comment space. Conflicting changes are not resolved by choosing one over the other in the same dimension, but by placing one in a separate dimension (comments), allowing both to coexist without blocking each other's save operations.
3Adaptability or versatility
If users are required to decide which changes to apply at save time, then conflict resolution control is improved, but the all-or-nothing scenario causes one user's changes to be lost
Solution Approach 1:
The comment infrastructure serves as an intermediary that automatically captures and preserves conflicting changes without requiring users to make all-or-nothing decisions. The system mediates the conflict by storing the conflicting content in comments while allowing the save operation to proceed, thus providing control while preventing information loss.
4Reliability
If document sections are locked when edited by another user, then conflict prevention is improved, but user collaboration is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using locking mechanisms that prevent access, the patent uses a comment infrastructure as a non-intrusive intermediary. When conflicts occur, the system automatically captures them in comments without blocking user access to document sections. This maintains reliable conflict tracking while allowing continuous collaboration without disruption.
Data Source
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AI summary
A comment infrastructure for managing co-authoring conflict resolutions is provided. During co-authoring, multiple users may make edits to a document at the same time or users may merge edits to a document. Embodiments determine if changes submitted by a user conflict with previously submitted changes. If a conflict is found, the conflicting change may be saved to the document as a comment, allowing for the user to choose when to resolve the conflict. The original content and the different co-authoring edits may be displayed side-by-side, allowing users to make an informed decision about a desired resolution of a conflict. Additional commenting functionalities may be provided for allowing users to leave comments, replies, or messages associated with a co-authoring conflict, providing communication and collaboration between users about a best way to resolve a co-authoring conflict.