The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 12, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1995
Monte Zweben, San Francisco, CA (US);
Michael J Deale, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Mark A Vershel, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Christophe E Pettus, San Francisco, CA (US);
PeopleSoft, Inc., Pleasanton, CA (US);
Abstract
The invention enables multiple users to simultaneously access and change the contents of a database in a flexible manner. Each user interacts with a working copy of a master copy of the database. The contents of each of the working copies of the database can be accessed and manipulated so that the contents of the working copy of the database can be revised. Each user has control over whether to the 'publish' revisions made to the contents of that user's working copy of the database, i.e., write the revisions to the master copy and present other users with the option of including the revisions in the working copies of those other users. Each user has the option to reject revisions published by other users so that the contents of each user's working copy of the database may or may not be maintained consistent with other working copies of the database operated on by other users. However, in order to ensure data integrity of the master database, each user that rejects the inclusion of revisions published by another user is prospectively prevented from publishing revisions to other users, until the user accepts the previously rejected published revisions. The invention employs a distributed architecture that allows each user to interact with that user's working copy of the database in a way that is controlled by that user without impairing the functionality of the database for other users. The database inconsistency allowed by the invention facilitates the performance by users of 'what-if' analyses.