Display of a plurality of files from multiple devices

• US 10,209,865 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Patel, Vivek, Dixon, Mark C., Thomas, Gibu, Chordia, Ashish, Gabriel, Nichole C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bhargava, Anil K
• Application Number:
  US14/872,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20160041705A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/07 Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

In a synchronization or back-up system that synchronizes and/or back-ups files from multiple computing devices, the present invention provides a method for (1) displaying files from multiple computing devices in a multi-view user interface and (2) enabling content and file operations to be performed on such files through the user interface. The multi-view interface includes a file-system view and one or more media-specific views. In the file-system view files are organized in the same way in which they are organized on the devices on which they are stored. The file-system view in the interface looks essentially the same as the file-system view on client devices. In the file-system view, users can perform file operations on files. In the media-specific view files are organized by media category. In one embodiment of the media-specific view, files are organized by metadata that relates to the files content. In the media-specific view, users can perform content operations on the files.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, on a client device, a graphical user interface that allows a user to interact with files synchronized between a synchronization server and a plurality of client devices, the graphical user interface comprising;

a selectable file-system view icon corresponding to a particular client device; and

a selectable media-specific view icon associated with a specific media type;

in response to detecting a selection of the media-specific view icon, identifying a plurality of files having the specific media type associated with the media-specific view icon, wherein the plurality of files is located on a combination of the synchronization server and the plurality of client devices;

displaying, within the graphical user interface on the client device, a media-specific view comprising file indicators associated with the plurality of files having the specific media type; and

receiving, by the client device, a file operation associated with a file indicator of the file indicators within the media-specific view.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to receiving the file operation associated with the file indicator, notifying the synchronization server that the file operation has been performed.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to a user selection of the file-system view icon, displaying, on the client device, a file-system view in the graphical user interface comprising one or more file indicators corresponding to a local file system on a given client device of the plurality of client devices, wherein the one or more file indicators within the file-system view are organized in a same way as the one or more file indicators are organized in the local file system of the given client device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the file-system view is device-specific and the one or more file indicators represent only files stored on the given client device.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving a file operation associated with a given file indicator of the one or more file indicators within the file-system view, wherein the file operation associated with the given file indicator is at least one of deleting a file, copying a file, pasting a file, or moving a file.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

notifying the synchronization server that the file operation associated with the given indicator has been performed; and

wherein notifying the synchronization server causes the synchronization server to propagate the file operation associated with the given indicator to client devices of the plurality of client devices that are registered to receive notices of changes to a given file represented by the given file indicator.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein:

receiving, by the client device, the file operation associated with the file indicator comprises receiving a content-specific operation; and

notifying the synchronization server that the file operation has been performed comprises notifying the synchronization server that the content-specific operation has been performed to cause the synchronization server to propagate the content-specific operation to client devices of the plurality of client devices registered to receive notices of changes to a file represented by the file indicator.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a user application on the client device, wherein the user application provides the graphical user interface.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a file corresponding to the file indicator is not stored on the client device.

10. A system for displaying a plurality of files, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

provide, on a client device, a graphical user interface that allows a user to interact with files synchronized between a synchronization server and a plurality of client devices, the graphical user interface comprising;

a selectable file-system view icon corresponding to a particular client device; and

a selectable media-specific view icon associated with a specific media type;

in response to detecting a selection of the media-specific view icon, identify a plurality of files having the specific media type associated with the media-specific view icon, wherein the plurality of files are located on a combination of the synchronization server and the plurality of client devices;

provide, within the graphical user interface on the client device, a media-specific view comprising file indicators associated with the plurality of files having the specific media type; and

receive a file operation associated with a file indicator of the file indicators within the media-specific view.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to notify the synchronization server that the file operation has been performed.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to, in response to detecting a selection of the file-system view icon, display on the client device, a file-system view in the graphical user interface comprising one or more file indicators corresponding to a local file system on a given client device of the plurality of client devices, wherein the one or more file indicators within the file-system view are organized in a same way as the one or more file indicators are organized in the local file system of the given client device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the file-system view is device-specific and the one or more file indicators represent only files stored on the given client device.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to receive a file operation associated with a given file indicator of the one or more file indicators within the file-system view, wherein the file operation associated with the given file indicator is at least one of deleting a file, copying a file, pasting a file, or moving a file.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to propagate the file operation associated with the given file indicator of the one or more file indicators within the file-system view to client devices registered to receive notices of changes to a given file represented by the given file indicator.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein:

receiving the file operation associated with the file indicator comprises receiving a content-specific operation; and

notifying the synchronization server that the file operation has been performed comprises notifying the synchronization server that the content-specific operation has been performed to cause the synchronization server to propagate the content-specific operation to client devices of the plurality of client devices registered to receive notices of changes to a file represented by the file indicator.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the file indicators are associated with metadata.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein a file corresponding to the file indicator is not stored on the client device.

19. A method comprising:

providing, by the synchronization server, a user interface enabling a user to interact with files synchronized between a synchronization server and a plurality of client devices, the user interface comprising;

a selectable file-system view icon corresponding to a particular client device; and

a selectable media-specific view icon associated with a specific media type;

in response to detecting a selection of the media-specific view icon, identifying a plurality of files having the specific media type associated with the media-specific view icon, wherein the plurality of files is located on a combination of the synchronization server and the plurality of client devices;

providing, by the synchronization server, a media-specific view comprising file indicators associated with the plurality of files having the specific media type; and

receiving, by the synchronization server, a content-specific operation associated with a file indicator of the file indicators within the media-specific view.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the user interface comprises a web interface.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising, in response to detecting a selection of the file-system view icon, providing a file-system view comprising one or more of file indicators, the file-system view corresponding to a local file system on a given client device of the plurality of client devices, wherein the one or more file indicators within the file-system view are organized in a same way as the one or more file indicators stored on the given client device.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the file-system view is device-specific and the one or more file indicators represent files stored on the given client device.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising receiving a file operation associated with a given file indicator of the one or more file indicators within the file-system view, wherein the file operation is at least one of deleting a file, copying a file, pasting a file, or moving a file.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising propagating, by the synchronization server, the file operation to client devices of the plurality of client devices registered to receive notices of changes to a given file represented by the given file indicator.

25. The method of claim 19, further comprising propagating the content-specific operation to client devices of the plurality of client devices registered to receive notices of changes to a file represented by the file indicator.

26. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computer device to:

provide, on a client device, a graphical user interface that allows a user to interact with files synchronized between a synchronization server and a plurality of client devices, the graphical user interface comprising;

a selectable file-system view icon corresponding to a particular client device; and

a selectable media-specific view icon associated with a specific media type;

in response to detecting a selection of the media-specific view icon, identify a plurality of files having the specific media type associated with the media-specific view icon, wherein the plurality of files are located on a combination of the synchronization server and the plurality of client devices;

provide a media-specific view comprising the file indicators associated with the plurality of files having the specific media type; and

receive a file operation associated with a file indicator of the file indicators within the media-specific view.

27. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a web interface.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 26, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer device to, in response to detecting a selection of the file-system view icon, provide a file-system view comprising one or more file indicators corresponding to a local file system on a given client device of the plurality of client devices, wherein the one or more file indicators within the file-system view are organized in a same way as the file indicators are organized on the given client device.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the file-system view is device-specific and the one or more file indicators represent files stored on the given client device.

30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer device to receive a file operation associated with a given file indicator of the one or more file indicators within the file-system view, wherein the file operation is at least one of deleting a file, copying a file, pasting a file, or moving a file.

31. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 30, further comprising:

a synchronization module configured to propagate the file operation to all client devices registered to receive notices of changes to a file represented by the file indicator.

32. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 26, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer device to, in response to receiving a content-specific operation associated with a file indicator of the file indicators, propagate the content-specific operation to client devices of the plurality of client devices registered to receive notices of changes to a file represented by the file indicator.