Allocation and reassignment of unique identifiers for synchronization of content items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10872098-B2
Application number	US-201715858357-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2017
Priority date	Dec 28, 2017
Publication date	Dec 22, 2020
Grant date	Dec 22, 2020

Abstract

A client can allocate and reassociate unique identifiers to local content items associated with an account at a content management system, and use the unique identifiers to commit operations for the content items on the content management system. For example, a client can create a content item and determine the content item does not have an identifier from the content management system. The client obtains an identifier for the content item and asks the content management system to verify a uniqueness of the identifier. When the identifier is unique, the client adds a node corresponding to the content item to a local tree representing a state at the client of content items associated with the account, and uploads the content item with the identifier to the content management system. When the identifier is not unique, the client obtains a new identifier for the content item.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
adding a content item at a client device, the content item being associated with a user account at a content management system;
determining, via a client application at the client device, whether the content item is related to a second content item, including determining whether the second content item was previously located at a path corresponding to the content item or has a name corresponding to the content item;
when the content item is related to the second content item, reassigning a second unique identifier inherited from the second content item to the content item;
when the content item is not related to the second content item, determining that the content item does not have a unique identifier from the content management system, the client application being associated with the content management system;
sending a request to the content management system, for a new unique identifier for the content item, the new unique identifier being defined by the content management system;
receiving, from the content management system, the new unique identifier for the content item;
sending, by the client application to the content management system, a request to verify a uniqueness of the new unique identifier at the content management system;
receiving, by the client application, a determination based on the request, the determination identifying the new unique identifier as verifiably unique at the content management system or not verifiably unique at the content management system; and
when the new unique identifier is identified as verifiably unique at the content management system:
adding, by the client application, a node representing the content item to a local tree at the client device, the node comprising the new unique identifier and the local tree representing a file system state at the client device for content items associated with the user account;
uploading the content item with the new unique identifier to the content management system; and

when the new unique identifier is identified as not verifiably unique at the content management system:
removing the new unique identifier from the content item; and
obtaining a second new unique identifier for the content item.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the content item is related to a second content item.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
identifying the path corresponding to the content item;
determining a previous path associated with the second content item matches the path associated with the content item;
in response to determining the previous path associated with the second content item matches the path associated with the content item, determining that the content item comprises a version of the second content item being resurrected or moved to the path associated with the content item; and
based on determining that the content item comprises the version of the second content item, determining that the content item should inherit a second unique identifier from the second content item.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein reassigning the second unique identifier from the second content item to the content item comprises:
determining that the second unique identifier is assigned to the second content item as a respective unique identifier of the second content item;
extracting the second unique identifier from the second content item; and
associating the second unique identifier with the content item.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising appending the second unique identifier to the content item as an extended attribute.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the new unique identifier further comprises:
associating, via the client application, the new unique identifier with the content item.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein associating the new unique identifier with the content item comprises writing the new unique identifier to the content item as an extended attribute of the content item.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause a client device to:
store a content item associated with a user account at a content management system;
determine, via a client application, whether the content item is related to a second content item, including determining whether the second content item was previously located at a path corresponding to the content item or has a name corresponding to the content item;
when the content item is related to the second content item, reassign a second unique identifier inherited from the second content item to the content item;
when the content item is not related to the second content item, determine that the content item does not have a unique identifier from the content management system, the client application being associated with the content management system;
send, a request, to the content management system, for a new unique identifier for the content item, the new unique identifier being defined by the content management system;
receive, from the content management system, the new unique identifier for the content item;
send, by the client application to the content management system, a request to verify a uniqueness of the new unique identifier at the content management system;
receive, by the client application, a determination identifying the new unique identifier as verifiably unique at the content management system or not verifiably unique at the content management system; and
when the new unique identifier is identified as verifiably unique at the content management system:
add, by the client application, a node representing the content item to a local tree at the client device, the node comprising the new unique identifier and the local tree representing a file system state at the client device for content items associated with the user account;
upload the content item with the new unique identifier to the content management system; and

when the new unique identifier is identified as not verifiably unique at the content management system:
remove the new unique identifier from the content item; and
obtain a second new unique identifier for the content item.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the client device to:
determine that the content item is related to a second content item.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising:
identify the path corresponding to the content item;
determine a previous path associated with the second content item matches the path associated with the content item;
in response to determining the previous path associated with the second content item matches the path associated with the content item, determine that the content item comprises a version of the second content item being resurrected or moved to the path associated with the content item; and
based on determining that the content item comprises the version of the second content item, determine that the content item should inherit a second unique identifier from the second content item, wherein reassigning the second unique identifier includes associating the unique identifier as an extended attribute of the content item.

11. A computing device comprising:
one or more processors; and
at least one non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:
store a content item associated with a user account at a

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Goldberg Isaac
• Lai John
• Jayakar Sujay

Classifications

• G06F16/27 Primary

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title

• G06F16/11 Primary

  File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14) · CPC title

• H04L67/01

  Protocols · CPC title

• G06F9/547

  Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services · CPC title

• G06F16/116

  Details of conversion of file system types or formats · CPC title