Web Document Collaboration via Segmented Element Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional web-based collaboration systems face challenges in managing concurrent edits and providing real-time updates across multiple user interactions on electronic documents, leading to potential conflicts and inefficiencies in collaborative editing processes.
Innovation Solution
A web-based document collaboration system that employs a rich internet application (RIA) running on client devices, which communicates with a web server to manage document updates, authenticate actions, and distribute presence information, allowing multiple users to collaborate on various types of documents while ensuring data integrity and version control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional web-based collaboration systems allow multiple users to collaborate on documents, then collaborative editing capability is improved, but concurrency conflicts and data integrity issues worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The document is divided into multiple document elements (e.g., paragraphs, images, tables) that can be independently tracked and updated. Each element has its own version identifier, allowing the system to segment the document into manageable units for conflict-free parallel editing by multiple users.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors and tracks changes made by different users in real-time, providing feedback mechanisms that detect potential conflicts. When conflicts are detected, the system automatically resolves them or notifies users, ensuring data integrity while maintaining collaborative editing capability.
2Reliability
If the system sends complete document updates to all clients, then data consistency is improved, but network bandwidth consumption and update latency worsen
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of sending complete document updates, the system extracts and transmits only the specific document elements that have changed. This selective update mechanism reduces network bandwidth consumption and update latency while maintaining data consistency across all client devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements partial updates by sending only the necessary portions of document changes to clients. This approach avoids the overhead of transmitting entire documents when only minor modifications occur, thereby reducing update latency and network resource consumption.
3Reliability
If the system validates all document updates on the server, then data integrity is improved, but processing time and server load worsen
Solution Approach 1:
Validation rules and constraints are pre-configured on the server for different document element types. When updates arrive, the server performs rapid validation by comparing against these pre-established rules, significantly reducing validation processing time while maintaining data integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The client devices perform preliminary validation of document updates before submitting them to the server. This self-service validation filters out obviously invalid updates, reducing the burden on the server and accelerating the overall validation process while maintaining data integrity.
4Productivity
If the system tracks all user presence information, then real-time collaboration awareness is improved, but system complexity and data processing requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system maintains simplified presence information for each user (e.g., user ID, current document element being edited, and status) rather than tracking all detailed user activities. This copied essential information provides real-time collaboration awareness while minimizing system complexity and data processing requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, include sending a first rich internet application over a data network from a web server to a first client device and to a second client device. The web server is adapted to allow multiple client devices to collaboratively access one or more electronic documents formatted for any one of multiple different applications, including the first rich internet application. A first electronic document, which includes multiple document elements, is sent from the web server to the first client device and to the second client device. A document update received from the first client device includes identifications of one or more of the document elements and a requested action with respect to the one or more identified document elements. The received document update is verified to determine whether the requested action complies with the document schema and whether the first client device is authorized to initiate the requested action. One or more updated document elements for the first electronic document is generated based at least in part on the verified document update and automatically sent to the second client device over the data network.