Integrating external data processing technologies with a cloud-based collaboration platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11074475-B2
Application number	US-201816154655-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2018
Priority date	Oct 9, 2017
Publication date	Jul 27, 2021
Grant date	Jul 27, 2021

Abstract

Shared content is stored at a cloud-based collaboration platform hosted at first network domain. External data processing services are hosted at a second domain. An integration layer situated between the cloud-based collaboration platform and the external data processing services is configured to receive triggering events pertaining to content of the cloud-based collaboration platform. Based on characteristics of the content, communications with the external data processing services are initiated. The communication includes accessing network interfaces to send and receive data between the network domain of the cloud-based collaboration platform and a different network domain of the external data processing services. A plurality of rules are applied to select between a first external data processing service at a first network domain and a second external data processing service at a second domain. The selected external data processing service is invoked to produce outputs that are further processed by the cloud-based collaboration platform.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for event-based automated processing of a content item stored in a cloud-based collaboration platform, the method comprising:
maintaining a cloud-based collaboration platform hosted at a first network domain for multiple users in a second network domain to collaborate on a content item stored in the cloud-based collaboration platform;
identifying a first external data processing service and a second external data processing service respectively hosted at a first external network domain and a second external network domain;
configuring an integration layer situated between the cloud-based collaboration platform and the first and the second external data processing services, the integration layer to receive at least one triggering event and the content item from the cloud-based collaboration platform and, based at least in part on the at least one triggering event, to select and invoke a selected external data processing service from the first and the second external data processing services at least by:
initializing a plurality of network interfaces to send and receive data between the first network domain of the cloud-based collaboration platform and the second network domain of the first and the second external data processing services;
receiving event data indicative of an event pertaining to the content item stored in the cloud-based collaboration platform;
in response to the event data, determining insight into at least a portion of the content item at least by selecting the selected external data processing service between the first and the second external data processing services based at least in part a rule of the integration layer, wherein both the first and the second data processing services are configured to process the content item;
triggering invocation of the selected external data processing service to process the content item in order to determine the insight into the at least the portion of the content item; and
receiving, in the first network domain of the cloud-based collaboration platform, an output from the selected external data processing service.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
integrating the output into the cloud-based collaboration platform as metadata associated with the content item.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a payload to provide to the selected external data processing service, the payload including information to facilitate processing of the content item, wherein the processing of the content item includes at least one of face recognition, object identification, or topic extraction from the content item.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the payload includes at least one of event information, file information, collaboration information, or access credentials.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering the invocation of the selected external data processing service is responsive to a webhook message, and the integration layer is located in the first network domain or a third network domain.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering the invocation of the first selected external data processing service is by an application programming interface of a third-party gateway.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising configuring an execution environment that is hosted on a public cloud computing platform, wherein the execution environment comprises a first serverless instance that corresponds to the first external data processing service or the second external data processing service.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first external data processing service or the second external data processing service comprises executable code that is hosted in a public cloud computing platform.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first external data processing service and the second external data processing service are operated by two or more third-party providers located in different external network domains.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event data is received and processed at an event pump of the cloud-based collaboration platform, and the event specifies how a first output of the selected external data processing service is correlated to a second output of another external data processing service that is also performed on the content item to generate the second output.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein a particular external data processing service of the first and the second external data processing services is determined based at least in part on at least one of a file type of the content item, a folder associated with the cloud-based collaboration platform, or one or more users associated with the content item.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering of the invocation of the selected external data processing service is based at least in part on an input received from an administrator console of the cloud-based collaboration platform.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing the output of the selected external data processing service to form metadata associated with the content item of the cloud-based collaboration platform.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
processing a first output of a first one of multiple external data processing services to trigger a request to a second external data processing services; and
receiving, from the second one of the multiple external data processing services, a second output, wherein the second output generated by the second one of the multiple external data processing services is based at least in part on the request.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the request to the second one of the multiple external data processing services comprises at least one aspect of the content item stored in the cloud-based collaboration platform.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the request to the second one of the multiple external data processing services comprises at least one aspect of the first output of the first one of the multiple external data processing services.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and the second external data processing services is integrated into the cloud-based collaboration platform.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the integration layer is situated in a public cloud computing platform comprising at least one gateway, and the first or the second external data processing service is plugged into the integration layer, not into browsers.

19. A computer readable medium, embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a set of acts for event-based automated processing of content stored in a cloud-based collaboration platform, the set of acts comprising:
maintaining a cloud-based collaboration platform hosted at a first network domain for multiple users in a second network domain to collaborate on a content item stored in the cloud-based collaboration platform;
identifying a first external data processing service and a second external data processing service respectively hosted at a first eternal network domain and a second external network domain;
configuring an integration layer situated between the cloud-based collaboration platform and the first and the second external data processing services, the integration layer to receive at least one triggering event and the content item from the cloud-based collaboration platform an

Assignees

• Box Inc

Inventors

• Coven Andrew
• Kus Benjamin John
• Buzdar Faizan Nabi
• Self Matthew

Classifications

• G06F18/285

  Selection of pattern recognition techniques, e.g. of classifiers in a multi-classifier system · CPC title

• G06F9/542 Primary

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06F18/251

  of input or preprocessed data · CPC title

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• H04N21/4788

  communicating with other users, e.g. chatting {(arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104)} · CPC title