Content management client synchronization service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10949445-B2
Application number	US-201815868511-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2018
Priority date	Dec 28, 2017
Publication date	Mar 16, 2021
Grant date	Mar 16, 2021

Abstract

The disclosed technology relates to a system configured to compute a difference between a remote tree data structure representing a server state for content items associated with an account on a content management system and a sync tree data structure representing a known synchronization state between the content management system and the computing system. The system is configured to generate, based on the difference, a set of operations that when performed on the computing system update the content items stored on the client device to converge a file system state on the computing system and the server state.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for synchronizing modifications to a user account on a content management system to a client device authorized to access the user account, the computer-implemented method comprising:
computing a difference between a remote tree data structure representing a server state for content items associated with the user account on the content management system and a sync tree data structure representing a last known synchronization state between the content management system and the client device; and
generating, based on the difference, a set of operations that when performed on the client device update the content items stored on the client device to converge a file system state on the client device and the server state.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the sync tree data structure comprises one or more nodes having metadata, wherein the metadata reveals a last known synchronization state of each respective node corresponding to content items that were last synchronized.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the remote tree data structure and the sync tree data structure are stored on the client device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the client device, client modification data for content items stored on the client device; and
updating, based on the client modification data, a local tree data structure representing a file state for content items associated with the user account on the client device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , further comprising updating, based on the client modification data, the sync tree data structure.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
computing a second difference between a local tree data structure representing the file system state for content items associated with the user account on the client device and the sync tree data structure representing a second known synchronization state between the content management system and the client device;
generating, based on the difference, a second set of operations that when performed update the content items stored on the content management system to converge the server state for content items associated the user account on the content management system and the file system state; and
managing execution of the second set of operations.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the local tree data structure is stored on the client device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving, from the content management system, server modification data for content items stored by the content management system; and
updating, based on the server modification data, the remote tree data structure.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising updating, based on the server modification data, the sync tree data structure.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to:
compute a difference between a remote tree data structure representing a server state for content items associated with an account on a content management system and a sync tree data structure representing a last known synchronization state between the content management system and the computing system; and
generate, based on the difference, a set of operations that when performed on the computing system update the content items stored on a computing system to converge a file system state on the computing system and the server state.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the sync tree data structure comprise one or more nodes having metadata, wherein the metadata reveals a last known synchronization state of each respective node corresponding to content items that were last synchronized.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the remote tree data structure and the sync tree data structure are stored on the computing system.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein instructions further cause the computing system to:
receive, from the computing system, client modification data for content items stored on the computing system; and
update, based on the client modification data, a local tree data structure representing a file state for content items associated with a user account on the computing system.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein instructions further cause the computing system to update, based on the client modification data, the sync tree data structure.

15. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
compute a difference between a remote tree data structure representing a server state for content items associated with a user account on a content management system and a sync tree data structure representing a last known synchronization state between the content management system and the system; and
generate, based on the difference, a set of operations that when performed on the system, update the content items stored on a system to converge a file system state on the system and the server state.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the sync tree data structure comprise one or more nodes having metadata, wherein the metadata reveals a last known synchronization state of each respective node corresponding to content items that were last synchronized.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the remote tree data structure and the sync tree data structure are stored on the system.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein instructions further cause the one or more processors to:
receive, from the system, client modification data for content items stored by the system; and
update, based on the client modification data, a local tree data structure representing a file state for content items associated with the user account on the system.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein instructions further cause the one or more processors to update, based on the client modification data, the sync tree data structure.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein instructions further cause the one or more processors to:
compute a second difference between a local tree data structure representing the file system state for content items associated with the user account on the system and the sync tree data structure representing a known synchronization state between the content management system and the system;
generate, based on the difference, a second set of operations that when performed update the content items stored on the content management system to converge the server state for content items associated the user account on the content management system and the file system state; and
managing execution of the second set of operations.

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Goldberg Isaac
• Jayakar Sujay
• Lai John
• Ying Robert
• Koorapati Nipunn
• Gupta Gautam
• Song Geoffry
• Jubb Iv Elmer Charles

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

• G06F16/122

  using management policies (point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185) · CPC title

• G06F16/113

  Details of archiving (lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data G06F11/1446) · CPC title