Method and system for enabling collaborative authoring of hierarchical documents with locking

A system for locking nodes of a shared hierarchical document, the hierarchical document having multiple nodes, comprising:

• a processor and;
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing components implemented by software, the components comprising:
• a component that places a lock on a first node and a second node;
• a component that adds an indication of the locked first node to a lock bag, wherein the lock bag includes indications of multiple nodes, including the locked first node and an unlocked third node, but does not include an indication of the locked second node;
• a component that removes the indication of the locked first node from the lock bag, wherein the indication of the locked first node is removed from the lock bag while the first node remains locked;
• and
• a component that applies a lock characteristic to the lock bag, wherein the lock characteristic is applied to all nodes indicated as belonging to the lock bag.

A computer-readable medium storing a data structure, the data structure comprising:

• a hierarchical document, the hierarchical document having at least two nodes;
• an indication that a first node is locked an indication that a second node is unlocked;
• and
• an indication of an owner of a lock, wherein a descendant of the first node is indicated to have a different lock owner, the first node belonging to a lock bag and the descendant node not belonging to the lock bag,
• wherein the lock bag includes the first and second nodes, and wherein the lock bag enables a characteristic to be applied to all locked nodes belonging to the lock bag.