Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-20
2001-07-17
Black, Thomas (Department: 2771)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C705S043000, C705S075000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263340
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to an improvement in computing systems and in particular to the registration of users in file review systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is a common practice for the author of a document to make the document available on a computer system for review. This permits other users who have access to the computer system (either directly or over a network connection) to make comments on the document. These comments may be included in the document or may be viewable with reference to the original document in some other manner.
Word processors and other computer software are available to permit such comments or annotations to be entered in, or in association with, a given document. Such systems may relate to text documents, structured documents, or other types of computer-readable data stored in files. In general, such systems are file review systems in that the systems permit files of data to be reviewed and comments made in association with the files.
When such comments are inserted in a document, it is important to consistently identify comment authors (or reviewers). The writer of the original document may need to contact a reviewer for additional information, and a reviewer who chooses to use an alias or initials may be difficult to contact. In addition, certain file review systems are customizable to tailor the display or manipulation options for certain documents based on the identity of the reviewer. A file review system may filter comments based on the identity of the reviewer, or the identity of the person who has left the comment. It is therefore important in such systems to ensure that the reviewer is correctly identified and recognized by the system so that the document may be appropriately customized for the reviewer, both in terms of the display and the functionality available for the reviewer.
One approach is to require reviewers to enter their names when starting to review a document. However, reviewers who are forced to enter their names manually may use variants of their names in different comments. This will create difficulties for systems which provide for the process of filtering or searching for comments by a particular reviewer.
Another approach to this problem is to keep track of the reviewers by a machine, network or system identifier such as an IP address. This approach has the benefit of removing the variability of the user or reviewer entering a name or initials. When a new identifier is encountered by the system accepting a comment, the user can be asked to enter a name. Each time a reviewer with this identifier appends a comment, the stored name is assigned to the comment.
Basing reviewer identification on identifiers which are intrinsic to machines or systems presents limitations when reviewers wish to enter comments from different machines or systems, or those machines or systems are changed. These problems may result in comments being attributed to the wrong reviewer, which makes follow-up by the writer of the document being reviewed difficult and sometimes embarrassing.
It is therefore desirable to have a file review system which permits users to identify themselves to the system but to do so in a constrained manner to prevent inconsistent identification or misidentification in the file review system. It is also desirable to have a file review system in which an author or administrator may pre-define levels of access and provide different groups of potential users with different levels of access.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an improved system and method for registration of users in a file review system.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a user registration system for a file review system, the file review system providing users with selectively defined access authority to files in the file review system, the user registration system comprising:
(a) means for a first defined user to create one or more user profiles, each of the one or more user profiles comprising
a set of user identifiers, (the user identifiers comprising a user ID and a password), and
a set of user access data representing file access authority (comprising data for access authority for each file in the file review system)
(b) registration means for one or more second users to register in the file review system by each one of the second users selecting a one of the one or more user profiles,
the registration means creating a unique second user definition for each of the second users, the second user definition comprising a set of log on identifiers, and a set of user definition access data, the user definition access data being derived from the user profile selected by each one of the one or more second users,
the registration means further comprising means for each of the second users to log on to the file review system using each second user's log on identifier and means for associating each logged on second user with the corresponding user definition to define the system access authority for each logged on second user.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided the above user registration system in which the user definition further comprises a set of personal identifiers including one or more of user name, user address, and user e-mail address.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided the above user registration system in which the file review system is implemented in an HTML environment and in which the registration means comprises HTML forms made available to HTML browsers of the one or more second users.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided an HTML-based user registration system for a web-based file review system, the file review system providing a plurality of users with selectively defined access authority to files in the file review system, the user registration system comprising
(a) a common gateway interface program code means for a first defined user to create one or more user profiles, each of the one or more user profiles comprising
a set of user identifiers, and
a set of user access data representing file access authority
(b) a common gateway interface program code registration means for one or more second users to register in the file review system by each one of the second users selecting a one of the one or more user profiles,
the common gateway interface program code registration means creating a unique second user definition for each of the second users, the second user definition comprising
a set of log on identifiers, and
a set of user definition access data, the user definition access data being derived from the user profile selected by each one of the one or more second users,
the common gateway interface program code registration means further comprising means for each of the second users to log on to the file review system using each second user's log on identifier and means for associating each logged on second user with the corresponding user definition to define the system access authority for each logged on second user.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program product for use with a file review system, the file review system providing users with selectively defined access authority to files in the file review system, computer program product comprising:
a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for user registration, the computer program product having:
computer readable program code means for causing a computer, at the request of a first defined user, to create one or more user profiles, each of the one or more user profiles comprising
a set of user identifiers, and
a set of user access data representing file access authority
computer readable program code registration means for
causing a computer to register one or more second users in the file review system by each one of the second users select
Black Thomas
Duffield Edward H.
International Business Machines Corp.
Mizrahi Diane D.
LandOfFree
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