Secure and efficient product development through subscription to an event associated with a restricted design dependency tree

A method for secure use and communication of design data in a development process, the method comprising:

• receiving a request for retrieval of a dependency tree of a version of a component, the first request comprising a unique identifier of a user generating the request and a unique identifier of the version of the component as a root version of the dependency tree;
• submitting the unique identifier of the version of the component as a query to a design database comprising a set of dependency references defining a directed acyclic graph stored in a computer memory;
• wherein, the directed acyclic graph comprising a set of versions of components as nodes of the directed acyclic graph and a set of dependency references of at least one of the set of versions of components drawn between the nodes as directed edges of the directed acyclic graph;
• comparing the unique identifier of the version of the component and a unique identifier of a version of each of a set of sub-components of the root version to a unique identifier of the user to determine an authorization status for the root version and the version of each of the set of sub-components of the root version;
• storing a restricted tree data comprising a unique identifier of the root version and the unique identifier of the version of each of the set of sub-components having a connection to the root version through a dependency chain of versions having a positive authorization status;
• and
• subscribing the user to receive a message describing an event associated with at least one of the component and a variant of the component, to improve design security and developer communication.

A system for security of design data used in a design development process, the system comprising:

• a coordination server comprising:
• a processor of the coordination server,
• a memory of the coordination server,
• a request agent comprising computer executable instructions that when executed on the processor of the coordination server receive a first request for retrieval of a dependency tree of a version of a component, the first request comprising a unique identifier of a user and a unique identifier of the version of the component as a root version of the dependency tree,
• a tree query engine comprising computer executable instructions that when executed on the processor of the coordination server, starting at the root version of the component, follow a set of dependency references of the version of the component and a set of dependency references of a version of each of a set of sub-components of the component to assemble a tree data, and
• a tree restriction engine comprising:
• (i) a node authorization module that determines an authorization status for the root version and each versions of the set of sub-components, and
• (ii) a node selection module of the coordination server comprising computer executable instructions that when executed on the processor of the coordination server store a restricted tree data comprising a unique identifier of the root version and the unique identifier of each version of the set of sub-components having both:
• (a) a positive authorization status and (b) a connection to the root version of the component through a dependency chain of versions, each version in the dependency chain having the positive authorization status;
• and
• a subscription server comprising computer readable instructions that when executed on a computer processor of the subscription server:
• (i) store the unique identifier of the user in association with at least one of the component and the version of the component to subscribe the user to an event, and
• (ii) delete the unique identifier of the user associated with the unique identifier of at least one of the component and the version of the component, to un-subscribe the user from the event, and
• a network.