Third-party indexable text

• US 10,031,920 B1
• Filed: 12/29/2015
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Schoeffler, Eric Benson, Lemonik, Micah, Procopio, Michael Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kim
• Application Number:
  US14/982,577
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• Field of Search: 707741, 707785
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/134 Distributed indices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Techniques are shown for enabling a network system to index data stored on a third-party server without having to access the raw data on the third-party server. Metadata consisting of one or more of indexable text or indexable html or some combination of indexable text and indexable html is associated with the data stored on a third-party server. An indexing utility processes the metadata at the network system from the third-party server and arranges the metadata on the network system in a manner that is searchable by searching functionality of the network system.

Claims

1. A network system, comprising:

a processor in communication with a data storage device and configured to;

identify a user-accessible resource associated with a third-party server, the user-accessible resource to be included in data searchable by a search component of the network system, the third-party server being separate from the network system;

communicate, to the third-party server, user-accessible resource access control information to obtain indexable metadata describing at least a portion of content of the user-accessible resource, the user-accessible resource access control information being different than access control information for the network system;

receive, from the third-party server, an amount of the indexable metadata describing at least a portion of content of the user-accessible resource; and

in response to determining that the received amount of indexable metadata is less than a threshold amount indicative of a maximum amount of indexable metadata to be stored on the network system, arrange the indexable metadata on the data storage device to cause the user-accessible resource to be included in the data searchable by the search component of the network system.

2. The network system according to claim 1, wherein the third-party server is operated by a party that is different than a party that operates the data storage device and the processor, and the content of the user-accessible resource is not searchable by the search component of the network system because the content of the user-accessible resource is in a format that is proprietary to the party that operates the third-party server.

3. The network system according to claim 2, wherein the third-party server generates the indexable metadata from the content of the user-accessible resource in response to determining that the content of the user-accessible resource is not searchable by the search component of the network system.

4. The network system according to claim 1, wherein:

the processor is further configured to record a relationship between the user-accessible resource access control information and the user-accessible resource, the user-accessible resource access control information comprising a record that a user is on an access control list for the user-accessible resource, a record that a particular third-party application is on the access control list for the user-accessible resource, and a record that the user has installed the particular third-party application.

5. The network system according to claim 1, wherein the data storage device is configured to store metadata associated with a file stored on the network system.

6. The network system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a local data storage device configured to store data created by the network system, wherein the local data storage device is separate from the data storage device.

7. The network system according to claim 1, wherein:

a plurality of third-party applications running on one or more third-party servers store data in a third-party data storage; and

the processor is further configured to store, in the data storage device, indexable application metadata corresponding to data stored in the third-party data storage, wherein the indexable application metadata is generated by an application in the plurality of third-party applications.

8. The network system according to claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to replace the indexable application metadata with new indexable application metadata generated by the application.

9. The network system according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to change the indexable application metadata stored in the data storage device in response to a change in the data stored by one of the plurality of third-party applications.

10. The network system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine whether a user is on an access control list for the user-accessible resource;

determine whether a particular third-party application is on the access control list for the user-accessible resource; and

determine whether the user has installed the particular third-party application.

11. A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:

identifying, by a processing device of a network system, a user-accessible resource associated with a third-party server, the user-accessible resource to be included in data searchable by a search component of the network system, the third-party server being separate from the network system;

communicating, to the third-party server, user-accessible resource access control information to obtain indexable metadata describing at least a portion of content of the user-accessible resource, the user-accessible resource access control information being different than access control information for the network system;

receiving, from the third-party server, an amount of the indexable metadata describing at least a portion of content of the user-accessible resource; and

in response to determining that the received indexable metadata is less than a threshold amount indicative of a maximum amount of indexable metadata to be stored on the network system, arranging the indexable metadata on a data storage device of the network system to cause the user-accessible resource to be included in the data searchable by the search component of the network system.

12. The computer-implemented method according to claim 11, further comprising:

determining user-accessible resource access control information for the user-accessible resource stored on the third-party server, wherein the user-accessible resource access control information has different permissions than access control information for the network system.

13. The computer-implemented method according to claim 12, wherein the determining user-accessible resource access control information includes:

determining whether a user is on an access control list for the user-accessible resource;

determining whether a particular third-party application is on the access control list for the user-accessible resource; and

determining whether the user has installed the particular third-party application.

14. The computer-implemented method according to claim 11, wherein the content of the user-accessible resource is not searchable by the search component of the network system because the content of the user-accessible resource is in a format that is proprietary to the party that operates the third-party server.

15. The computer-implemented method according to claim 14, wherein the third-party server generates the indexable metadata from the content of the user accessible resource in response to determining that the content of the user-accessible resource is not searchable by the search component of the network system.

16. The computer-implemented method according to claim 11, wherein:

the threshold amount of indexable metadata accepted from a third-party server is limited to 128 kilobytes of data.

17. The computer-implemented method according to claim 11, further comprising storing metadata associated with a file stored on the online storage system.

18. The computer-implemented method according to claim 11, further comprising:

replacing indexable metadata with new indexable application metadata in response to an update notification from the third-party server.

19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a network system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

identifying a user-accessible resource associated with a third-party server, the user-accessible resource to be included in data searchable by a search component of the network system, the third-party server being separate from the network system;

communicating, to the third-party server, user-accessible resource access control information to obtain indexable metadata describing at least a portion of content of the user-accessible resource, the user-accessible resource access control information being different than access control information for the network system;

receiving, from the third-party server, an amount of the indexable metadata describing at least a portion of content of the user-accessible resource; and

in response to determining that the received amount of indexable metadata is less than a threshold amount indicative of a maximum amount of indexable metadata to be stored on the network system, arranging the indexable metadata on a data storage device of the network system to cause the user-accessible resource to be included in the data searchable by the search component of the network system.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 19, the operations further comprising:

determining whether a user is on an access control list for the user-accessible data;

determining whether a particular third-party application is on the access control list for the user-accessible data; and

determining whether the user has installed the particular third-party application.