Content-item relationship messaging system

• US 10,243,899 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2013
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Homsany, Ramsey
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Karen C
• Application Number:
  US13/906,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20140359023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,126 Days
• Field of Search: 709205, 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments

Abstract

A message can be selectively provided to users of an online content management service based at least in part on a user relationship between the users and a shared content item. Users having the user relationship associated with the message can be shown the message, where users without the user relationship are not shown the message. For example, a message can be configured to be shown upon the first time a content item is opened by a user, but not on subsequent openings of the content item.

Claims

1. A method executable at one or more servers, the method comprising:

associating, at a server, a set of users with a first content item in a shared content management system, the set of users including a first user and at least one other user, wherein user relationships of each user within the set of users are stored on the server, the user relationships based on an interaction relationship of the set of users with the content item and based on a status relationship of the set of users, the status relationship based on permissions granted to each user within the set of users with respect to the first content item, the interaction relationship based on each user'"'"'s interactions with the first content item;

receiving, by the server, a request from a first client device operated by the first user to selectively send a message composed by the first user operating the first client device to one or more target users among the set of users, wherein the one or more target users are defined by reference to a specified relationship with the first content item, wherein the specified relationship is specified in the request and is based at least on an interaction of the one or more target users with the first content item, and wherein the request includes the message to be sent;

determining, by the server, for each one of the at least one other user in the set of users and based on the user relationships, whether one of the at least one other user has the specified relationship with the first content item, thereby identifying the one or more target users;

providing, by the server, a first version of the first content item to the one or more target users based on the user relationships, wherein the first version including a redline marked up version showing a difference between a current version and a previous version of the first content item;

providing, by the server, a second version of the first content item to at least one of the at least one other user based on the user relationships, wherein the second version is a clean version showing the current version of the first content item; and

providing, by the server, the message to the one or more target users, wherein the message is not provided to at least one of the at least one other user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified relationship is further based on whether the other user has a specified relationship with a second content item in the shared content management system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the set of users with the first content item includes granting a permission to access the first content item to each user in the set of users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is provided through one or more of email, instant messaging, or text-message.

5. The method of claim 1, the receiving step comprising:

receiving, from the first user, a specified relationship between one or more target users with the first content item, wherein the specified relationship is based on an interaction relationship of the one or more target users with the first content item and based on a status relationship of the one or more target users.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the editing interactions include editing the first content item.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the permissions include reading permissions, a group of author permissions and editing permissions.

8. The method of claim 1, the interaction relationships based on commenting interactions each user in the set of users has had the first content item in the past.

9. The method of claim 1, the interaction relationships based on reading interactions each user in the set of users has had the first content item in the past.

10. A method executable at one or more servers, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server, from a first client under direction of a first user, a message composed by the first user and a request to associate the message with a content item in a shared content management system, the request further identifying a relationship criterion usable to determine whether the message should be presented to another user with the content item, wherein existing user relationships of the other user are stored on the server, the existing user relationships based on an interaction relationship and a status relationship, the status relationship based on permissions granted to the other user with respect to the content item, the interaction relationship based on the other user'"'"'s interactions with the content item including whether the other user previously opened the content item or whether the content item has changed since the other user last viewed the content item;

storing, by the server, the message as associated with the relationship criterion and the content item;

receiving, by the server, a request from a second client to access the content item, the second client being under direction of a second user;

determining, by the server and based on existing user relationships of the second user, in response to the request, a relationship of the second user to the content item;

determining, by the server, whether the message should be provided to the second client based at least on whether the determined relationship of the second user to the content item satisfies the relationship criterion;

determining, by the server, whether a first version or a second version of the content item should be provided to the second client based at least on whether the determined relationship of the second user to the content item satisfies the relationship criterion, wherein the first version including a redline marked up version showing a difference between a current version and a previous version of the content item, and wherein the second version is a clean version showing the current version of the content item;

providing, by the server, the message and determined version of the content item to the second client in response to determining that the message should be provided; and

providing, by the server, the determined version of the content item without the message to the second client in response to determining that the message should not be provided.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determination whether the message should be provided to the second client is based on whether the determined relationship of the second user to the content item satisfies the relationship criterion and further based on a determined relationship of the second user to the first user.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the relationship criterion includes one or more of:

whether the other user has previously opened the content item;

whether the other user has previously edited the content item;

whether the other user has rights to edit the content item;

or

whether the other user has viewed the content item subsequently to a modification being made to the content item.

13. A computer system comprising:

a data storage medium configured to store a set of messages associated with a plurality of content items, at least a subset of the set of messages being associated with one or more user relationships between each content item and a plurality of users;

a network interface to communicate with a plurality of clients including a first client operated by a first user and a second client operated by a second user, wherein the first and second users are of the plurality of users;

a processor coupled to the data storage medium and the network interface, the processor configured to;

receive, from the first client via the network interface, a message composed by the first user and a request to attach the message to a content item, the request further identifying a relationship criterion usable to determine whether the message should be presented with the content item, wherein existing user relationships of the plurality of users are stored on the server, the existing user relationships based on an interaction relationship and a status relationship, the status relationship based on permissions granted to the other user with respect to the content item, the interaction relationship based on the other user'"'"'s interactions with the content item including whether the other user previously opened the content item or whether the content item has changed since the other user last viewed the content item;

store the message in the data store and associate the message with the relationship criterion;

receive, via the network interface, a request from a second client to access the content item, the second client being operated by a second user;

determine, based on existing user relationships of the second user and in response to the request, a relationship of the second user to the content item;

determine whether the message should be provided to the second client based at least on whether the determined relationship of the second user to the content item satisfies the relationship criterion;

determine whether a first version or a second version of the content item should be provided to the second client based at least on whether the determined relationship of the second user to the content item satisfies the relationship criterion, wherein the first version including a redline marked up version showing a difference between a current version and a previous version of the content item, and wherein the second version is a clean version showing the current version of the content item;

provide the message and determined version of the content item to the second client in response to determining that the message should be provided; and

provide determined version of the content item without the message to the second client via the network interface in response to determining that the message should not be provided.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein storing the message in the data store and associating the message with the relationship criterion includes storing the message, an association of the message with the relationship criterion, and the relationship criterion in a metadata object associated with the content item.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein determining whether to provide the message to the second client includes:

retrieving the metadata object from the metadata store based on the association of the metadata object to the content item;

determining whether the relationship criterion stored in the metadata object matches the determined relationship of the second user to the content item.

16. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the content item is a word processing document;

wherein the message comprises alterations to the word processing document; and

wherein providing the message and the content item to the second client includes providing a markup of the word processing document to the second client based at least on the message.

17. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to execute a method comprising:

selecting a content item from a shared content management system, wherein existing user relationships of a set of users are stored on the share content management system, and wherein the existing user relationships are based on an interaction relationship of the and a status relationship, the status relationship based on permissions granted to other user with respect to the content item, the interaction relationship based on the other user'"'"'s interactions with the content item including whether the other user previously opened the content item or whether the content item has changed since the other user last viewed the content item;

selecting a relationship to the content item, the relationship based at least on interactions of users in the set of users with the content item;

determining whether to provide a first version of the content item or a second version of the content item based on the existing user relationships, wherein the first version including a redline marked up version showing a difference between a current version and a previous version of the content item, and wherein the second version is a clean version showing the current version of the content item;

providing a message to associate with the determined version of the content item and the relationship, the message being composed by a user of the computer system; and

sending, to a server of the shared content management system, the message and a request that the message be provided with the determined version of the content item to selected users in the set of users who have the selected relationship to the content item.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the interactions of other users with the content item include an interaction prior to sending of the message and the request to the server.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the interaction of other users with the content item include an interaction subsequent to sending of the message and the request to the server wherein the subsequent interaction triggers display of the message.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the relationship to the content item is selected in response to user input.