Methods and systems for interchanging documents between a sender computer, a server and a receiver computer
A method for storing, accessing and interchanging voluminous confidential documents for review by a plurality of parties and for notifying selected ones of a plurality of receiving computers generally operated by unrelated business organizations of receipt by a predetermined host server of such electronic documents from a sender computer for review. The documents are reviewable by each respective receiving computer over a global communications network. The sender computer and the receiving computers are registered in the host server. The method comprises selecting one or more of the plurality of receiver computers to which selected documents are to be reviewed over the global communications network are addressed, storing the respective documents in a first database that is local relative to the sender computer, replicating the documents stored in the first database in a second database that is local relative to the predetermined server, issuing a respective notification message from the predetermined server to the selected receiver computers, each respective notification message indicating replicated documents available in the second database for their respective retrieval over the global communications network, and retrieving the replicated documents in the second database by the selected receiver computers over the global communications network upon a respective user of the selected receiver computers issuing a respective download command signal to the predetermined server.
1. A system for interchanging documents between a sender computer associated with a sending party, a server, and a receiver computer associated with a receiving party, comprising:
a selecting mechanism, wherein the selecting mechanism selects the receiving party as an intended recipient of a document and wherein the receiving party has an identifier associated therewith;
a security mechanism, wherein the security mechanism adds a security designation to the identifier;
a sender computer storage mechanism, wherein the sender computer storage mechanism stores at least one of the documents;
a server storage mechanism;
an uploading mechanism, wherein the uploading mechanism uploads the document stored in the sender computer storage mechanism into the server storage mechanism as an uploaded document and wherein the uploaded document is uploaded to the server storage mechanism based upon the security designation;
a notification message issuing mechanism, wherein the notification message issuing mechanism issues a notification message from the server to the intended recipient, the notification message indicating that the uploaded document is available in the server storage mechanism; and
a viewing mechanism operatively communicating with the receiver computer, wherein the viewing mechanism provides the intended recipient a view of the uploaded document upon the issuance by the receiver computer of a view request to the server;
wherein the viewing mechanism is responsive to the uploaded document such that the intended recipient is, based upon the security designation, permitted to view at least one document selected from a plurality of documents; and
wherein the plurality of documents are grouped together as a subset of all of a larger number of documents uploaded to the server storage mechanism.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the documents are interchanged between the sender computer and one or more of a plurality of receiver computers, each associated with a respective receiving party; wherein the selecting mechanism further selects one or more of the receiving parties as intended recipients of a document; wherein the security mechanism further adds a security designation to each identifier associated with each of the selected receiving parties; wherein the notification message issuing mechanism further issues a notification message from the server to each of the intended recipients; and wherein the viewing mechanism further provides each of the intended recipients a view of the uploaded document upon the issuance, by a respective one of the plurality of receiver computers, of a view request to the server.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the notification message issuing mechanism issues the notification message via email.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the uploading mechanism uploads the document at predetermined time intervals.
5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the notification message includes data indicative of new documents uploaded into the server storage mechanism from the sender computer storage mechanism since the issuance of a previous notification message.
6. The system of claim 2 , wherein the notification message issuing mechanism issues a message report to the sending party, wherein the message report includes data indicative of whether a document has been viewed by a given intended recipient.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the interchanged documents is in the form of a computer file.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the computer file includes one of at least text data, still image data, moving image data, and audio data.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sender computer storage mechanism is local relative to the sender computer and the server storage mechanism is local relative to the server.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the uploading mechanism comprises a sender client software program associated with the sender computer in communication with a server software program associated with the server.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the sender client software program comprises a software program selected from the group including: a) a web browser and b) a Lotus Notes client software program and the server software program comprises a web server software program.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the viewing mechanism comprises a receiver client software program associated with the receiver computer in communication with a server software program associated with the server.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the receiver client software program comprises a web browser and the server software program comprises a web server software program.
14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identifier is a unique identifier.
15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identifier is an email address.
16. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an editing mechanism operatively communicating with the receiver computer, wherein the editing mechanism permits the intended recipient to edit the uploaded document that the intended recipient is viewing.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the editing mechanism is responsive to the uploaded document such that the intended recipient is, based upon the security designation, either:
(a) permitted to edit the document; or
(b) prohibited from editing the document.