Managing content across discrete systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10942944-B2
Application number	US-201816135316-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2018
Priority date	Dec 22, 2015
Publication date	Mar 9, 2021
Grant date	Mar 9, 2021

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for managing content across discrete systems. A content management system can be implemented to manage content items and synchronize content items across devices. A content collaboration system can be implemented to generate documents and facilitate collaboration on documents. To take advantage of the content management system's functionality to manage and synchronize content items while also providing the collaboration functionality of the content collaboration system, the content management system can store and manage references to documents created in the content collaboration system. The document references can be managed by the content management system such that the document references appear to users as if the document references were the referenced document in the collaboration system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a content management system, a first message from a collaboration system, the first message including document metadata corresponding to a document generated and managed by the collaboration system;
storing, in the content management system, a document reference to the document in content storage, wherein the document reference is managed by the content management system;
in response to receiving the first message, saving, in the content management system, the document metadata received in the first message as reference metadata for the document reference;
synchronizing, by the content management system, the document reference and the reference metadata with a first local file system of a first client device;
detecting, by the content management system, that the first client device shared the document reference with a second client device;
based on the detecting, storing, by the content management system, a second document reference to the document and a second reference metadata in the content storage;
monitoring, by the content management system, the first local file system of the first client device for changes made locally to the document reference; and
upon detecting a change by the first client device to the document reference, synchronizing the change with the second document reference in a second local file system of the second client device and with the document managed by the collaboration system.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, by the content management system, a mapping of a first identifier for the document to a plurality of document references, the plurality of document references including the document reference;
in response to receiving the first message, comparing, by the content management system, a second identifier received in the first message to the first identifier in the mapping;
determining, by the content management system, that the first message includes metadata for the document reference based on the comparison; and
in response to determining that the first message includes metadata for the document reference, updating, by the content management system, the metadata for the document reference managed by the content management system.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of document references includes a third reference, and further comprising:
determining, by the content management system, that the first message includes metadata for the third reference based on the comparison; and
in response to determining that the first message includes metadata for the third reference, updating, by the content management system, the metadata for the third reference managed by the content management system.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the document reference corresponds to a first user account of the content management system and the third reference corresponds to a third user account of the content management system that is distinct from the first account.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the content management system from a first user device, a second message including metadata corresponding to the document reference managed by the content management system;
updating, by the content management system, metadata corresponding to the document reference managed by the content management system based on the metadata in the second message; and
sending, by the content management system, a third message including a document identifier for the document in the collaboration system corresponding to the document reference and the reference metadata, where the collaboration system updates metadata for the document in the collaboration system corresponding to the identifier based on the metadata received in the third message.

6. The method of claim 1 , where the content management system and the collaboration system are distinct systems.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a content management system, causes:
receiving, by a content management system, a first message from a collaboration system, the first message including document metadata corresponding to a document generated and managed by the collaboration system;
storing, in the content management system, a document reference to the document in content storage, wherein the document reference is managed by the content management system;
in response to receiving the first message, saving, in the content management system, the document metadata received in the first message as reference metadata for the document reference;
synchronizing, by the content management system, the document reference and the reference metadata with a first local file system of a first client device;
detecting, by the content management system, that the first client device shared the document reference with a second client device;
based on the detecting, storing, by the content management system, a second document reference to the document and a second reference metadata in the content storage;
monitoring, by the content management system, the first local file system of the first client device for changes made locally to the document reference; and
upon detecting a change by the first client device to the document reference, synchronizing the change with the second document reference in a second local file system of the second client device and with the document managed by the collaboration system.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising:
storing, by the content management system, a mapping of a first identifier for the document to a plurality of document references, the plurality of document references including the document reference;
in response to receiving the first message, comparing, by the content management system, a second identifier received in the message to the first identifier in the mapping;
determining, by the content management system, that the first message includes metadata for the document reference based on the comparison; and
in response to determining that the first message includes metadata for the document reference, updating, by the content management system, the metadata for the document reference managed by the content management system.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of document references includes a third reference, and further comprising:
determining, by the content management system, that the first message includes metadata for the third reference based on the comparison; and
in response to determining that the first message includes metadata for the third reference, updating, by the content management system, the metadata for the third reference managed by the content management system.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the document reference corresponds to a first user account of the content management system and the third reference corresponds to a third user account of the content management system that is distinct from the first account.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving, by the content management system from a first user device, a second message including metadata corresponding to the document reference managed by the content management system;
updating, by the content management system, metadata corresponding to the document reference managed by the content management system based on the metadata in the second message; and
sending, by the content management system, a third message

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Busch Katherine
• Lee Amandine
• Hope Erik
• Poletto Stephen
• Gavran Zrinka
• Kaplan Joshua

Classifications

• G06F16/23

  Updating · CPC title

• G06F16/27 Primary

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