Server-side selective synchronization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10848557-B2
Application number	US-201916532397-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2019
Priority date	Nov 24, 2015
Publication date	Nov 24, 2020
Grant date	Nov 24, 2020

Abstract

A content management system can maintain the entirety of a user account's content library. As a default behavior, updates made to the content library when accessed from any client device authorized by the user account, including adding, modifying, and/or deleting content items, can be synchronized across all other authorized client devices. A user can opt out of the default behavior and specify, for each authorized client device, certain portions of the content library that the content management system should or should not synchronize.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a content management system from a client device and via a network, a set of synchronization preferences associated with content items in a content library of a user account on the content management system, the content library being stored on the content management system, wherein the set of synchronization preferences comprises:
a first preference to synchronize a first portion of the content items in the content library with a local copy of the content library stored on the client device, and
a second preference to opt out of synchronizing a second portion of the content items in the content library with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device;

based on the set of synchronization preferences, updating a synchronization state associated with the client device and the content items in the content library, the synchronization state indicating, for each of the content items, whether the client device and the content item are associated with the first preference or the second preference; and
selectively synchronizing updates to a particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device based on whether a respective portion of the synchronization state associated with the particular content item comprises the first preference or the second preference, wherein the selectively synchronizing comprises:
when the respective portion of the synchronization state associated with the particular content item comprises the first preference, allowing the content management system to synchronize updates to the particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device; and
when the respective portion of the synchronization state associated with a particular content item comprises the second preference, preventing the content management system from synchronizing updates to the particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether synchronization is authorized for the particular content item based on the synchronization state.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining whether the respective portion of the synchronization state associated with the client device and the particular content item authorizes synchronization of the particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the content items in the content library comprises one or more content items in the content library, and wherein the second portion of the content items in the content library comprises one or more different content items in the content library.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of synchronization preferences comprises a respective one of the first preference or the second preference for each of the content items in the content library.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the content management system from a second client device, an update to one or more content items in the content library stored on the content management system;
updating the one or more content items in the content library according to the received update; and
for each updated content item from the one or more content items updated, determining whether the synchronization state authorizes that updated content item to be synchronized with a local version of the updated content item stored in the local copy of the content library.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a conflict between the particular content item in the content library and a local version of the particular content item stored on the local copy of the content library;
resolving the conflict to obtain a resolved version of the particular content item;
updating a content journal associated with the content library to include a content entry associated with the resolved version of the particular content item; and
updating the synchronization state to include information for updating the local version of the particular content item based on the resolved version of the particular content item.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that adding a new content item to the local copy of the content library stored on the client device would exceed a threshold amount of memory on the client device; and
setting a respective synchronization state of the new content item on the client device to an unsynchronized state.

9. A content management system comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the content management system to:
receive, from a client device and over a network, a set of synchronization preferences associated with content items in a content library of a user account on the content management system, the content library being stored on the content management system, wherein the set of synchronization preferences comprises:
a first preference to synchronize a first portion of the content items in the content library with a local copy of the content library stored on the client device, and
a second preference to opt out of synchronizing a second portion of the content items in the content library with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device;

based on the set of synchronization preferences, update a synchronization state associated with the client device and the content items in the content library, the synchronization state indicating, for each of the content items, whether the client device and the content item are associated with the first preference or the second preference; and
selectively synchronize updates to a particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device based on whether a respective portion of the synchronization state associated with the particular content item comprises the first preference or the second preference, wherein the selectively synchronizing comprises:
when the respective portion of the synchronization state associated with the particular content item comprises the first preference, allowing the content management system to synchronize updates to the particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device; and
when the respective portion of the synchronization state associated with a particular content item comprises the second preference, preventing the content management system from synchronizing updates to the particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device.

10. The content management system of claim 9 , the memory comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the content management system to:
determine whether synchronization is authorized for the particular content item based on the synchronization state.

11. The content management system of claim 9 , the memory comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the content management system to:
determine whether the respective portion of the synchronization state associated with the client device and the particular content item authorizes synchronization of the particular content item with the local copy of the content library stored on the client device.

12. The content management system of claim 9 , wherein the first portion of the content items in the content library comprise

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Kaplan Joshua
• Goldberg Isaac
• Lai John

Classifications

• H04L67/53

  using third party service providers · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/1095 Primary

  Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes · CPC title

• H04L67/303

  Terminal profiles · CPC title

• G06F16/2379

  Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing · CPC title