Presentation of document history in a web browsing application

摘要

In a collaborative computing environment, a method and system for displaying revisions associated with a hosted electronic document are disclosed. In accordance with the disclosed method and system, select revisions of an electronic document may be displayed to a user, recreating a visual history play-back of the evolution of the electronic document. The electronic document may be displayed in a web-browsing application, utilizing a Document Object Model (“DOM”) retrieving the select revisions via Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“AJAX”) calls to a remote device/server.

主权项

1. A method of retrieving and displaying a traversable, chronological representation of an electronic document's evolution in a web-browsing application, comprising:
displaying an electronic document in a first state within a web-browsing application; receiving a user instruction to view evolutionary changes to the electronic document; transmitting an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“AJAX”) request to a server to retrieve stored versions of the electronic document; receiving via AJAX from the server the stored versions of the electronic document; constructing a timeline, wherein the timeline is representative of the stored versions of the electronic document; displaying the timeline; receiving user selection of at least one point on the timeline wherein the at least one point on the timeline represents the electronic document in a second state; and morphing the electronic document from the first state to the second state, wherein the morphing is displayed as animation, further including: creating one or more transient representations of the electronic document, each transient representation containing a visual combination of the electronic document at its first state, at one transparency factor, combined with the second state of the electronic document at its second state at a second transparency factor, and displaying the one or more transient representations at a human-eye perceptible transition speed, prior to displaying the second state of the document.