Systems and methods for maintaining local virtual states pending server-side storage across multiple devices and users and intermittent network connections

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9544373-B2
Application number	US-201414247528-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2014
Priority date	Dec 24, 2013
Publication date	Jan 10, 2017
Grant date	Jan 10, 2017

Abstract

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media are provided for maintaining local virtual states pending server-side storage across multiple devices and users and intermittent network connections. In exemplary embodiments, content added by a user to his or her account locally on a user device may be displayed, and all interactivity therewith may be facilitated, as if the content had already been created on the content management system. In content management system applications that support shared virtual spaces, changes made by the user from his or her user device to the shared virtual space (including creation of a new shared virtual space) may be displayed locally as soon as the change has been made, not waiting for the information to be transmitted to the server or its state to be made consistent with that of the mobile device.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method comprising:
identifying, at a user device, a content item to upload to a user account on a content management system;
in response to identifying the content item to upload to the user account, providing, to the content management system, a request for a global identification (ID) associated with the content item;
prior to receiving the global ID from the content management system:
creating a local ID for the content item; and
referencing one or more actions taken on the content item using the local ID;

receiving, from the content management system, the global ID associated with the content item;
storing, in response to receiving the global ID, the global ID in an association with the local ID; and
replacing the local ID with the global ID in reference to one or more pending operations corresponding to the one or more actions taken on the content item using the local ID.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the association is stored in a data structure that associates local IDs to global IDs.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the data structure is one or more of a lookup table, a translation table, or a database.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the request for the global ID and creating the local ID for the at least one content item occur at a substantially same time following the user request.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content item comprises an image added to an existing shared virtual space, and wherein the existing shared virtual space comprises a virtual space that exists locally on the user device.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a connectivity between the user device and a content management system server;
determining that the connectivity is below a threshold connectivity; and
wherein creating the local ID for the content item is performed in response to determining that the connectivity between the user device and the content management system server is below the threshold connectivity.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storing the global ID in an association with the local ID, and replacing the local ID with said global ID, are performed one or more of:
after a defined time limit following receipt of the global ID;
after a defined number of global IDs have been received; or
based upon activity regarding the content item to which the local ID was assigned.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
verifying that another global ID has not been assigned to the content item.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein verifying that another global ID has not been assigned to the content item comprises: sending the local ID to the content management system server with the request for the global ID.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein replacing the local ID with the global ID comprises replacing the local ID with the global ID in reference to one or more pending operations corresponding to the one or more actions taken on the content item using the local ID in an operations queue and one or more data structures stored on the user device so as to seamlessly preserve a state of the content item between the user device and the content management system.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a user device, cause the user device to:
identify content item to upload to a user account on a content management system;
in response to identifying the content item to upload to the user account, provide request for a global identification (ID) associated with the content item;
prior to receiving the global ID from the content management system;
create a local ID for the at least one content item; and
reference one or more user actions taken on the content item using the local ID;

receive, from the content management system, the global ID associated with the content item;
store, in response to receiving the global ID from the content management system, the global ID in an association with the local ID; and
replace the local ID with the global ID in reference to one or more pending operations corresponding to the one or more actions taken on the content item using the local ID.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , when executed by the at least one processor of the user device, further causes the user device to:
provide another request to the content management system to store the content item in the user account using the global ID; and
display the content item on the user device.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the content item comprises an image added to an existing shared virtual space, and wherein the existing shared virtual space comprises a virtual space that exists locally on the user device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the association is stored in a data structure that associates local IDs to global IDs.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the data structure is one or more of a lookup table, a translation table, or a database.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the association of the global ID and the local ID is stored in a lookup table on the user device.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , when executed by the at least one processor of the user device, further causes the user device to: send the local ID to the content management system with the request for the global ID.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the stored association and the replacement of the local ID with the global ID is performed one of:
after a defined time limit upon receipt of the global ID;
after a defined number of global IDs have been received by the user device; or
based upon activity associated with the at least one content item the local ID was assigned to.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein replacing the local ID with the global ID comprises replacing the local ID with the global ID in reference to one or more pending operations corresponding to the one or more actions taken on the content item using the local ID in an operations queue and one or more data structures stored on the user device so as to seamlessly preserve a state of the content item between the user device and the content management system.

20. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
identify a content item to upload to a user account on a content management system:
in response to identifying the content item to upload to the user account, provide a request for a global identification (ID) associated with the content item;
prior to receiving the global ID from the content management system;
create a local ID for the at least one content item; and
reference one or more user actions taken on the content item using the local ID;

receive, from the content management system, the global ID associated with the content item;
store, in response to receiving the global ID from the content management system, the global ID in an association with the local ID; and
replace the local ID with the global ID in reference to one or more pending operations corresponding to the one or more actions taken on the content item using the local ID.

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Poletto Stephen
• Welinder Nils Peter
• Grue Anthony

Classifications

• H04L67/16

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F17/30165

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L67/1095

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

• H04L67/142 Primary

  Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms · CPC title

• H04L67/42

  Electricity · mapped topic