File-level commenting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9519525-B2
Application number	US-201314080600-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2013
Priority date	Nov 14, 2013
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

Various embodiments provide a commenting system for multiple users to provide and share comments to shared content items. For example, users can share a web link to a collection of content items, such as documents, spreadsheets, photos, and any other media, with other users stored in an online content management system. To enable such functionality, the online content management system can expose an application programming interface to enable third-party service providers to develop and attach a comment interface to content items. Accordingly, such a commenting system can provide a comment interface for concurrent display alongside a respective content item in which users can provide comments to shared content items or to use as notes for their personal content items.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,
providing a content item for display on a first computing device, the content item being viewable between the first computing device and at least one second computing device through an account with an online content management system, with the account being accessible via the first computing device and the at least one second computing device;
providing a comment interface associated with the content item for concurrent display with the content item, the comment interface interfacing with the content item through an application programming interface (API) provided by the online content management system; and
in response to a comment provided to the comment interface on the first computing device, synchronizing the comment with both the first computing device and the at least one second computing device, wherein synchronizing the comment results in a copy of the comment being attached to both the content item stored by the first computing device and the content item stored by the at least one second computing device, and wherein the synchronizing does not alter data in the content item stored on either the first computing device or the at least one second computing device, and wherein the comment provided to the comment interface is received through the API.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the comment interface is provided by a service provider separate from the online content management system.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the content item is displayed on a webpage and the comment interface is associated with a browser plug-in.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the comment interface is at least one of scrollable independently of the content item or each comment is linkable to a location in the content item.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the content item is at least one of a word processing document, a spreadsheet, a presentation, a video, streaming content, or an image.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selectably providing the comment interface to be displayed or hidden from concurrent display with the content item.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to:
receive a comment to a content item stored in an account with an online content management system, the comment being received through an application programming interface (API) provided by the online content management system, with the content item being accessible via the account by at least two computing devices, and wherein a copy of the content item is stored locally on the at least two computing devices;
assign the comment to the content item, wherein the content item is synchronized with the at least two computing devices; and
cause the comment to be synchronized with the at least two computing devices, wherein synchronizing the comment does not alter data in the content item stored on the at least two computing devices.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:
provide, by the online content management system, the API to be available to a third-party service provider.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the API interfaces with the content item via metadata associated with the content item.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:
provide, by the online content management system, the content item for display; and
selectably provide the comment to be displayed concurrently with the content item or hidden from view.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the content item is displayed on a webpage and the comment is displayed on an interface associated with a browser plug-in.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the content item is displayed with a comment interface provided by a third-party service provider and, wherein the comment interface interfaces with the content item through the API.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the comment is displayable with the content item across a plurality of different computing device types and across a plurality of different platform types for a plurality of different content item types.

14. A computing system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing system to:
provide a content item for display on a first computing device, the content item being viewable between the first computing device and at least one second computing device through an account with an online content management system, with the account being accessible via the first computing device and the at least one second computing device;
receive a comment to the content item, the comment being received through an application programming interface (API) provided by the online content management system; and
cause the comment to be synchronized with the first computing device and the at least one second computing device, wherein the comment is synchronized and attached to a copy of the content item stored locally on both the first computing device and the at least one second computing device, and wherein synchronizing the comment does not alter data in the content item stored on either the first computing device or the at least one second computing device.

15. The computing system of claim 14 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further enable the computing device to:
provide, by the online content management system, the API to be available to a third-party service provider, wherein the comment is received in a comment interface provided by the third-party service provider.

16. The computing system of claim 14 , wherein the API interfaces with the content item via metadata associated with the content item.

17. The computing system of claim 14 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further enable the computing device to: selectably provide the comment to be displayed concurrently with the content item or hidden from view.

18. The computing system of claim 14 , wherein the content item is displayed concurrently with a comment interface provided by a third-party service provider, and wherein the comment interface interfaces with the content item through the API.

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Carriero Thomas
• Delamere Mark
• Rha Phil
• Vincent Jon
• Jayakar Sujay

Classifications

• G06F40/169

  Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F16/958 Primary

  Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking · CPC title

• G06F3/04817

  using icons (graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34) · CPC title