Systems and methods for managing shared content based on sharing profiles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016198017-A1
Application number	US-201615067053-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 10, 2016
Priority date	Dec 4, 2013
Publication date	Jul 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Content items stored in an online content management service can be organized and shared. Content items can be associated with sharing profiles that include various sharing-specific metadata, such as details of how an item is shared or with whom it is shared. In some embodiments, the metadata stored in the sharing profiles can be used to organize shared content into shared folders automatically and/or to sort a list of content items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method executable at a server, the method comprising:
storing, by an online content management service, content items associated with a user identifier, wherein each of the content items is associated with a sharing content profile for the content item, and wherein the sharing content profile includes a plurality of sharing restriction fields, each indicating a sharing restriction associated with the content item; analyzing the sharing content profile associated with each of the content items to determine specific sharing restrictions stored in the sharing content profile associated with each of the content items; and presenting the content items in a list of content items along with information stored in the sharing content profile.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein plurality of sharing restriction fields includes at least one of:
a sharing status field indicating whether the content item is shared;
a sharing mode field indicating how the content is shared;
a sharing target field that includes one or more identifiers corresponding to users or groups with which the content item is shared; or
a sharing restriction field indicating one or more sharing restrictions associated with the content item.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving a request to sort the content items associated with the user identifier by a selected one of the plurality of sharing restriction fields; sorting the content items based on the selected one of the plurality of sharing restriction fields.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving a request to display shared content items associated with the user identifier; analyzing the sharing profiles associated with the content items to determine a subset of content items that are shared.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining a plurality of sharing entities associated with the subset of content items, wherein each sharing entity includes a different combination of target identifiers with which at least one content item in the subset of content items is shared; and wherein the default sorted list is sorted based on the plurality of sharing entities.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the sharing content profile associated with each content item of the content items indicates whether the content item is shared, indicates how the content item is shared, and indicates one or more users with which the content item is shared.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
joining the first content item with the second content item; updating a first sharing content profile associated with the first content item to indicate that the first content item is joined with the second content item; and updating a second sharing content profile associated with the second content item to indicate that the first content item is joined with the second content item.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining whether to create a new folder based on a type of the first content item and a type of the second content item.

9 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the sharing mode field includes one or more of a reference to a shared link and a reference to a shared folder.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sharing restrictions associated with the content item includes a temporal restriction, a download restriction, or a geographic restriction.

11 . The method of claim 7 wherein updating a sharing profile associated with the first and second content items based on the joining includes:
determining a hierarchical relationship between the first content item and second content item; and
updating the sharing profile of an hierarchically inferior content item to match the sharing profile of an hierarchically superior content item.

12 . The method of claim 1 wherein the sharing content profile of a first content item from the content items associated with the user identifier is inherited from a second content item that is hierarchically superior to the first content item.

13 . A system comprising:
an online content management service including storage and one or more processors, the online content management service configured to:
store the plurality of content items in the storage, each of the plurality of content items being associated with a sharing content profile, and wherein the sharing content profile includes a sharing restriction field indicating one or more sharing restrictions associated with the content item;
receive a request to display shared content items stored in the online content management service; and
sort the content items into a sorted list of shared content items, based on the sharing content profiles associated with the shared content items.

14 . The system of claim 13 wherein each sharing profile includes a plurality of fields, wherein the plurality of fields includes one or more of:
a sharing status field indicating whether the content item is shared;
a sharing mode field indicating how the content is shared;
a sharing target field that includes one or more identifiers corresponding to users or groups with which the content item is shared; or
a sharing restriction field indicating one or more of:
a temporal restriction;
a download restriction; or
a geographic restriction.

15 . The system of claim 13 wherein the content management system presents a graphical user interface that includes a plurality of selectable views based on data associated with plurality of fields stored in the sharing profiles.

16 . The system of claim 15 wherein the content management system is configured to receive a selection of a content item through the graphical user interface and to display an interactive sharing summary based on the content item's sharing profile.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the content management system is further configured to:
receive a request to dynamically modify one or more target identifiers in the interactive sharing summary, and update the sharing profile associated with the content item based on the request.

18 . The system of claim 16 wherein the interactive sharing summary includes a representation of the sharing restrictions.

19 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed, being effective to cause a processor of an online content management service to:
store a content item associated with a user identifier, wherein the content item is associated with a sharing content profile for the content item, and wherein the sharing content profile includes a plurality of sharing restriction fields, each of the restriction fields indicating a sharing restriction associated with the content item; receive in a graphical user interface a request to display shared content items; and when the sharing content profile of the content item indicates the content item is shared, present the content item in the graphical user interface along with information stored in the sharing content profile.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the instructions cause the content management system to:
receive, through the graphical user interface a request to dynamically modify an item of information in the sharing content profile, and update the sharing content profile associated with the content item based on the request.

21 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Alten Brett

Classifications

• H04L67/306 Primary

  User profiles · CPC title

• G06F17/30424

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L67/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F16/24537

  of operators · CPC title

• G06F16/16 Primary

  File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems · CPC title