Filtering content using synchronization data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10242045-B2
Application number	US-201314067683-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2013
Priority date	Oct 30, 2013
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates access to content. During operation, the system provides access to a set of content items associated with at least one user account in a synchronized content management system through a file chooser on an electronic device. Next, the system provides one or more filters for viewing the content items through the file chooser, wherein the one or more filters are based at least in part on synchronization data associated with the set of content items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
providing access to a remote set of content items and a local set of content items, each associated with a content management system through a file explorer interface on an electronic device, the remote set of content items and the local set of content items being associated with a user account at the content management system, the file explorer interface providing remote access to the remote set of content items stored on the content management system integrated with local access to the local set of content items stored on the electronic device and synchronized with the content management system, wherein a portion of the remote set of content items is distinct from a portion of the local set of content items;
receiving, from the content management system by a content management client application associated with the content management system, synchronization data identifying the remote set of content items stored on the content management system and the local set of content items stored on the electronic device, the synchronization data comprising at least one of a content share attribute or a shared content usage attribute, whereby a portion of the synchronization data is associated with a second user account at the content management system;
providing a filter for filtering the remote set of content items and the local set of content items to identify, based on the synchronization data, a filtered subset of content items of the remote set of content items and the local set of content items, each content item in the filtered subset of content items having a common characteristic in the synchronization data defined by the filter; and
in response to an application of the filter, displaying the filtered subset of content items on the file explorer interface; and
sending, to the content management system from the file explorer interface, an indication identifying selection of one or more of the remote set of content items from the filtered subset of content items.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the shared content usage attribute comprises at least one of a creation time, an access time, a modification time, or a number of modifications.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a first ordered listing of the filtered subset of content items;
generating a second ordered listing of a second filtered subset of content items matching a second filter; and
presenting the first ordered listing and the second ordered listing in the file explorer interface.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the content share attribute comprises at least one of a share status or a number of user accounts having shared access.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein providing remote access to the remote set of content items comprises providing at least one of:
navigation access to the remote set of content items;
modification access to the remote set of content items;
creation of remote content items; and
upload access for uploading remote content items to the content management system.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the filtered subset of content items on the file explorer interface comprises displaying the filtered subset of content items according to a display arrangement that is different from a storage organizational structure associated with the remote set of content items stored on the content management system.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the file explorer interface allows content items displayed within the file explorer interface to be selected, retrieved from storage at the content management system, and loaded on a client-side application at the electronic device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
applying the filter to content items associated with the synchronization data;
displaying the filtered subset of content items within the file explorer interface;
displaying an indication of a storage organizational structure of content items separately from the filtered subset of a content items; and
displaying a link to the storage organizational structure of content items at the file explorer interface.

9. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
at least one computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
provide, via a file chooser having communications with a remote content management system, access to content items associated with the remote content management system, the content items being associated with one or more user accounts in the remote content management system, the file chooser providing remote access to remote content items stored at the remote content management system integrated with local access to local content items on an electronic device synchronized with the remote content management system, wherein a portion of the remote content items is distinct from a portion of the local content items;
provide, via the file chooser, one or more filters based on synchronization data received from the remote content management system and associated with content items of the remote content management system;
provide access to the file chooser from a third party application;
provide from the file chooser to the third party application, the one or more filters for displaying, through the third party application, a filtered subset of content items of the remote content items integrated with the local content items, each content item in the filtered subset of content items having a common characteristic defined by the one or more filters, the common characteristic comprising at least one of a content share attribute or a shared content usage attribute, whereby a portion of the synchronization data is associated with a second user account at the remote content management system; and
in response to a selection of the one or more filters, display, within the third party application, the filtered subset of the remote content items integrated with the local content items.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the shared content usage attribute comprises at least one of a creation time, an access time, a modification time, or a number of modifications.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein providing the one or more filters via the file chooser comprises:
generating a first ordered listing using a first filter;
generating a second ordered listing using a second filter; and
providing the first ordered listing and the second ordered listing to the third party application from the file chooser.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the shared content usage attribute is based on at least one of:
an access event associated with a respective content item;
a modification event associated with the respective content item;
a creation event associated with the respective content item; and
uploading of the respective content item to the remote content management system.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the content share attribute comprises at least one of a share status, a share type, or a number of user accounts having shared access.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein providing the one or more filters comprises at least one of:
applying the one or more filters to the remote content items integrated with the local content items;
displaying a storage organizational structure associated with the content items at the remote content management system, the storage organization struc

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Grue Anthony
• Mody Viraj
• Varenhorst Chris
• Lynch Sean

Classifications

• G06F16/24 Primary

  Querying · CPC title

• G06F17/30386 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic