Conditional Change Transmission in Collaborative Editing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In collaborative editing environments, managing changes to electronic content becomes increasingly complex as the number of editors grows, often leading to disruptive and error-prone interactions due to the lack of selective communication of changes.
Innovation Solution
The approach involves categorizing changes into propagating and non-propagating types, where propagating changes modify the content's substance and are transmitted to others, while non-propagating changes, such as view specifications, are selectively transmitted, allowing for a more controlled and less disruptive editing experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all changes are transmitted to all users in a collaborative editing environment, then complete information synchronization is achieved, but system complexity and disruptions increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments changes into two distinct categories: propagating changes (modifications to content substance) and non-propagating changes (modifications to view specifications). This segmentation allows the system to transmit only relevant changes to users, reducing unnecessary communications while maintaining information synchronization for substantive edits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by treating different types of changes differently based on their nature. Propagating changes are transmitted to all relevant users to ensure synchronization, while non-propagating changes are retained locally without transmission. This differentiated approach optimizes system complexity by transmitting only necessary information.
2Reliability
If all changes are transmitted to all users, then complete information synchronization is achieved, but disruptions and errors increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting changes into propagating and non-propagating types, the patent prevents non-propagating view specification changes from being transmitted and causing disruptions to other users' editing experiences, while still ensuring propagating content changes are properly synchronized.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts non-propagating changes from the transmission stream, removing them from the set of changes that are communicated to other users. This extraction eliminates the harmful effect of transmitting view specification changes that could cause disruptions, while maintaining transmission of essential content modifications.
3Stability of the object's composition
If view specifications are transmitted to all users, then view consistency is achieved, but editing freedom and flexibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments view specifications from content changes by categorizing view modifications as non-propagating changes. This segmentation allows users to maintain their preferred view specifications locally without being forced to adopt others' views, preserving editing freedom while still enabling content synchronization.
Solution Approach 2:
Each user maintains their own view specifications locally without requiring transmission from other users. Users serve themselves by keeping their preferred views, while the system automatically transmits only propagating content changes. This self-service approach maximizes editing freedom while maintaining content consistency.
Data Source
AI summary
Method and system for conditionally transmitting changes to information in a collaborative environment are provided. A system comprises a display, a change tracking module, and a rendering module. The change tracking module is configured to detect changes by a modifying user to information as a propagating or a non-propagating change. The rendering module transmits first view data to enable altering a first view based on the modification as part of a graphical user interface on the display presented to the modifying user and transmits second view data to enable altering a second view presented to a group of users, not including the modifying user, based on the modification if the modification comprises the propagating change. The second view data is not transmitted if the modification comprises the non-propagating change.