Proxy links to support legacy links

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11675864-B2
Application number	US-202117360556-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2021
Priority date	Jun 28, 2021
Publication date	Jun 13, 2023
Grant date	Jun 13, 2023

Abstract

The present technology pertains to a link service that can create, maintain, and service links to objects on behalf of a content management system or other services. The link service can share administration of links with other services when desired or can even allow other services to issue the link and manage the object that is the subject of the link while providing other functions to support the link. Additionally, link service can interface with a file system that can support links as actors in the file system, whereby greater control and flexibility in supporting links is provided. Link service can also accommodate servicing and management of links issued by legacy services, where the legacy services have unique link logic that should still be utilized to maintain a consistent user experience.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a link service, a request to provide a link caller access to an object referred to by a legacy link created by a legacy link service, wherein the request is a result of a proxy link called by the legacy link service;
validating, by the link service, the proxy link and performing, by the link service, at least one link servicing function; and
sending, by the link service, a file system access object pointing to a file system to the link caller of the legacy link, the file system access object including an authorization token, an identification of an authorized entity, and an object ID, wherein the file system access object is effective to retrieve the object from the file system.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
evaluating, by the link service, the legacy link according to legacy link evaluation logic, wherein the evaluating comprises:
receiving, by the link service, an access level from the legacy link service,

wherein the access level corresponds to the access of the link caller to the object; and
sending, by the link service, the access level to the file system.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the evaluating the legacy link according to the legacy link evaluation logic further comprises:
determining, by the link service, that the link caller is not authorized to access the object when a user account that originated the legacy link no longer has access to the object.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
when the proxy link has not been created, receiving, by the link service, a different request to access the object from the legacy link service that does not identify the proxy link; and
communicating, by the link service, with the file system to create a new proxy link, wherein the new proxy link is associated with its own user ID in the file system, and wherein the new proxy link is a proxy for the legacy link.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the file system access object does not include the new proxy link.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the file system access object includes the authorization token having a time-to-live to limit a time in which the file system access object remains valid.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the file system, whether the file system access object identifies a sID that is granted access by access permissions in the file system for the object; and
when the sID is granted access to the object, performing, by the file system, the sending of the object to the link caller consistent with the access permissions for the object.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions, when executed by a computing system comprising a legacy link service and a link service, cause the computing system to:
receive, by the link service and via the legacy link service, a first request from a link caller to provide access to an object referred to by a legacy link;
evaluate, by the link service, the legacy link according to legacy link evaluation logic provided by the legacy link service;
after the legacy link has been evaluated according to the legacy link evaluation logic, receive, by the link service, a second request to provide the access to the object referred to by the legacy link, wherein the second request is a result of a proxy link called by the legacy link service;
validate, by the link service, the proxy link and perform, by the link service, at least one link servicing function; and
cause, by the link service, a file system to configure a sID and send, by the link service, a file system access object pointing to the file system to the link caller of the legacy link, the file system access object including an authorization token, an identification of an authorized entity, and an object ID, wherein the file system access object is effective to retrieve the object from the file system, and wherein the authorization token, the identification of the authorized entity, and the object ID are used to identify, by the file system, whether the proxy link identifies the sID that is granted access in permissions for the object.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the computer readable medium further comprises instructions that, when executed by the computing system, cause the computing system to:
receive, by the link service, an access level from the legacy link service wherein the access level corresponds to the access of the link caller to the object; and
send, by the link service, the access level to the file system.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the computer readable medium further comprises instructions that, when executed by the computing system, cause the computing system to:
determine, by the link service, that the link caller is not authorized to access the object when a user account that originated the legacy link no longer has access to the object.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the computer readable medium further comprises instructions that, when executed by the computing system, cause the computing system to:
when the proxy link has not been created, receive, by the link service, a different request to access the object from the legacy link service that does not identify the proxy link; and
communicate, by the link service, with the file system to create a new proxy link, wherein the new proxy link is associated with its own user ID in the file system, and wherein the new proxy link is a proxy for the legacy link.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the file system access object does not include the new proxy link.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the file system access object includes a token having a time-to-live to limit a time in which the file system access object remains valid.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the computer readable medium further comprises instructions that, when executed by the computing system, cause the computing system to:
determine, by the file system, whether the proxy link identifies a sID that is granted access by access permissions in the file system for the object; and
when the sID is granted access to the object, send, by the file system, the object to the link caller consistent with the access permissions for the object.

15. A link service in communication with a legacy link service for supporting legacy links, comprising:
a storage configured to store instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions and cause the link service to:
receive a request to provide a link caller access to an object referred to by a legacy link created by the legacy link service, wherein the request is a result of a proxy link called by the legacy link service;
validate the proxy link and perform at least one link servicing function; and
send a file system access object pointing to a file system to the link caller of the legacy link, the file system access object including an authorization token, an identification of an authorized entity, and an object ID, wherein the file system access object is effective to retrieve the object from the file system.

16. The link service of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions and further cause the link service to:
evaluate the legacy link according to legacy link evaluation logic, wherein to evaluate the legacy link, execution of the instructions further causes the link service to:
receive an access level from the legacy link service, wherein the acc

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Passey Aaron
• Wang Fangzhou
• Cunningham Eric
• Ausburn Royce
• Larson Nicholas
• Wetterau David
• Ho William
• Ho Harrison

Classifications

• G06F16/176

  Support for shared access to files; File sharing support · CPC title

• G06F16/9566

  URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links · CPC title

• G06F16/9558 Primary

  Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations · CPC title

• G06F21/6218 Primary

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• G06F21/606

  by securing the transmission between two devices or processes · CPC title