Electronic communication and file reference association

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12001398-B2
Application number	US-202117541600-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 3, 2021
Priority date	Jun 23, 2017
Publication date	Jun 4, 2024
Grant date	Jun 4, 2024

Abstract

Examples of the present disclosure describe systems and methods for electronic communication and file reference association. In an example, a file reference may refer to file content stored by a file service. The file reference may be used to share the file content in an electronic communication among a plurality of users. The file reference may be identified within the electronic communication, and may be used to generate a file node. The file node may store information relating to the file content and/or file reference. A message node associated with the electronic communication may be created, which may be associated with the file node. The file node may later be used to identify electronic communications relating to the file reference. Thus, electronic communications relating to the file reference may be accessible to a user using the file reference or by searching, rather than manually identifying related electronic communications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the system to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a user interface, a selection of a file stored by the system, the file being stored as a file node in a data store, the file node comprising content of the file;
in response to the selection of the file:
providing the content of the file in a first section of the user interface; and
providing an electronic communication associated with the file in a second section of the user interface, the electronic communication being stored as a message node in the data store, the message node being associated with the file node in the data store; and

in response to selection of the electronic communication, providing content of the electronic communication in a third section of the user interface, the content of the electronic communication including a file reference associated with the file, wherein providing the content of the electronic communication in the third section causes the first section comprising the content of the file, the second section comprising the electronic communication, and the third section comprising the content of the electronic communication to be concurrently present in the user interface.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface is a document editor provided by a client application of a user device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface is a file browser provided by:
a file service; or
an electronic communication platform.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first section is a document content pane for providing file content; and
the second section is a related electronic communications pane for providing electronic communications that include or mention the file.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first section and the second section are concurrently presented in the user interface such that the first section and the second section do not overlap.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the third section is a message viewer section that is presented as:
a popup; or
a separate window of the user interface.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the file reference is at one of:
a uniform resource locator (URL);
a file path; or
a globally unique identifier (GUID).

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein providing the electronic communication in the second section comprises:
generating a file identifier for the file based on the file reference;
using the file identifier to search the data store for the file node corresponding to the file;
identifying the message node corresponding to the electronic communication; and
selecting the electronic communication.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data store is a graph database and the file is stored by a file service.

10. A method comprising:
receiving, at a user interface, a selection of a file being stored as a file node in a data store, the file node comprising content of the file;
in response to the selection of the file:
providing the content of the file in a first section of the user interface; and
providing an electronic communication associated with the file in a second section of the user interface, the electronic communication being stored as a message node in the data store, the message node being associated with the file node in the data store; and

in response to selection of the electronic communication, providing content of the electronic communication in a third section of the user interface, wherein the electronic communication includes a simulated attachment as an attachment to the electronic communication, the simulated attachment comprising a file reference to a storage location of the file and not including the content of the file.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the file reference is a uniform resource identifier (URI).

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the simulated attachment further comprises metadata associated with the file, the metadata comprising at least one of:
an author of the file; or
a creation date of the file.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the metadata further comprises at least one of:
a last modification date of the file; or
a file size of the file.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the data store further stores:
an attribute node storing file attributes for the file; and
a relationship indicating that the file is related to the electronic communication.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein providing the electronic communication in the second section comprises:
identifying the relationship; and
providing the electronic communication to the second section based on the relationship.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the electronic communication is one of:
an email;
an instant message; or
a social network message.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the third section overlays at least a portion of:
the first section; or
the second section.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
the user interface is implemented by an electronic communication platform; and
providing the electronic communication in the second section comprises:
providing a plurality of electronic communications in the second section, the electronic communication being included in the plurality of electronic communications,

wherein each respective electronic communication of the plurality of electronic communications includes the file reference when the respective electronic communication is received at the electronic communication platform.

19. A device comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing instructions that, when executed, causes the device to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a user interface, a selection of a file being stored by a file service, the file being represented as a file node in a data store, the file node comprising content of the file;
in response to the selection of the file:
providing the content of the file in the user interface; and
providing an electronic communication associated with the file in the user interface, the electronic communication being represented as a message node in the data store and including a reference to the file, the message node being associated with the file node in the data store; and

in response to selection of the electronic communication, providing content of the electronic communication in the user interface such that the content of the file, the electronic communication, and the content of the electronic communication are concurrently present in the user interface, wherein the content of the electronic communication includes a reference to the file.

20. The device of claim 19 , wherein the message node is associated the file node such that the message node stores a relationship to the file node as an edge in a graph database.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Elvheim Bjørn
• Pettersen Vegar
• Jensen Erlend
• Meling Jon
• Johansen Terje
• Elsebø Kristian

Classifications

• G06F16/164 Primary

  File meta data generation · CPC title

• G06F16/156

  Query results presentation · CPC title

• G06F16/176

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

• G06Q10/06 Primary

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title