System, method, and computer program for enabling a user to access and edit via a virtual drive objects synchronized to a plurality of synchronization clients

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11233851-B2
Application number	US-202016991446-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 12, 2020
Priority date	Aug 10, 2012
Publication date	Jan 25, 2022
Grant date	Jan 25, 2022

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program for enabling a user to edit and access local and remote objects via a virtual drive, including objects synchronized to a plurality of synchronization clients. A virtual drive is displayed on the user's local client device with all objects, which a user has synchronized to a synchronization server. A user is able to access and edit any object displayed in the virtual drive. In response to detecting a change in an object in the virtual drive, the object is updated on the synchronization server. All remote clients of the user or of any other users who have access to the changed folder are identified and notified of the change. In response to the change being a change to content within the folder, the content of the folder is automatically updated on any identified remote clients that have a corresponding folder.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
generating a collection comprising a plurality of references corresponding to a plurality of content items stored at multiple different file system locations within a content synchronization system;
providing, for display on a client device, a network folder comprising the collection including graphical elements corresponding to the plurality of content items stored at the multiple different file system locations within the content synchronization system;
receiving, from a client device, a selection indication of a content item from the plurality of content items based on a user interacting with a graphical element corresponding to the content item within the collection;
based on receiving the selection indication of the content item, identifying a file system location within the content synchronization system corresponding to the content item; and
providing, to the client device, access to the content item.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
generating the collection comprises generating a collection data object that comprises the plurality of references corresponding to the plurality of content items; and
each reference of the plurality of references indicates a file system location within the content synchronization system for a corresponding content item of the plurality of content items.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of content items stored at multiple different file system locations within a content synchronization system comprise:
a first content item stored at a first file system location associated with a first user account; and
a second content item stored at a second file system location associated with a second user account.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the client device, an identification of an additional content item stored at a file system location associated with a user account corresponding to the client device; and
adding the additional content item to the collection by adding an additional reference to the plurality of references of the collection and adding an additional graphical element to the network folder.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the client device, a user identification associated with a second client device; and
sharing the collection with the second client device, wherein sharing the collection with the second client device allows the second client device to access the network folder including the graphical elements corresponding to the plurality of content items stored at the multiple different file system locations within the content synchronization system.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the client device, an edit to the content item; and
updating the content item at the file system location corresponding to the content item.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a plurality of user accounts with which the collection is shared;
detecting a user action with respect to the collection or with respect to at least content item from the plurality of content items within the collection; and
providing a notification of the user action to a plurality of client devices associated with the plurality of user accounts.

8. A system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
generate a collection comprising a plurality of references corresponding to a plurality of content items stored at multiple different file system locations within a content synchronization system, wherein each reference of the plurality of references indicates a file system location within the content synchronization system for each content item of the plurality of content items;
provide, for display on a client device, a network folder comprising the collection including graphical elements corresponding to the plurality of content items stored at the multiple different file system locations within the content synchronization system;
receive, from a client device, a selection indication of a content item from the plurality of content items based on a user interacting with a graphical element corresponding to the content item within the collection;
based on receiving the selection indication of the content item, identify a file system location within the content synchronization system corresponding to the content item; and
provide, to the client device, access to the content item.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein generating the collection comprises generating a collection data object that comprises the plurality of references corresponding to the plurality of content items.

10. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:
detect a change from the file system location of the content item to an updated file system location; and
update a reference from the plurality of references that corresponds to the content item to reflect the updated file system location.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of content items stored at multiple different file system locations within a content synchronization system comprise:
a first content item stored at a first file system location associated with a first user account; and
a second content item stored at a second file system location associated with a second user account.

12. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:
receive, from the client device, an identification of an additional content item stored at a file system location associated with a user account corresponding to the client device; and
add the additional content item to the collection by adding an additional reference to the plurality of references of the collection and adding an additional graphical element to the network folder.

13. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:
receive, from the client device, a user identification associated with a second client device; and
share the collection with the second client device, wherein sharing the collection with the second client device allows the second client device to access the network folder including the graphical elements corresponding to the plurality of content items stored at the multiple different file system locations within the content synchronization system.

14. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:
identify a plurality of user accounts with which the collection is shared;
detect a user action with respect to the collection or with respect to at least content item from the plurality of content items within the collection; and
provide a notification of the user action to a plurality of client devices associated with the plurality of user accounts.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, causes a computing device to:
generate a collection comprising a plurality of references corresponding to a plurality of content items stored at multiple different file system locations within a content synchronization system, wherein each reference of the plurality of references indicates a file system location within the content synchronization system for eac

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Rashid Fuad
• Morford Michael Phillip
• Wagner Eric Wayne
• Wong James David
• Yip Sing

Classifications

• H04L67/01

  Protocols · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L67/1095 Primary

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

• H04L67/00

  Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications (user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00) · CPC title

• G06F3/00

  Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements · CPC title