Contextually triggered entry point

• US 10,262,006 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2016
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Rawat, Anshul, Jain, Raju, Vellaiappan, Thirumanjunathan, Novak, Michael John, Samji, Mohammed Amirali
• Primary Examiner(s): Casillas, Roland J
• Application Number:
  US15/267,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20170316031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• 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 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Providing contextual messages from a service to a user in a native application on a system. Embodiments determine a user specific context within the general context of the native application on a first device and provide in a user interface to the user information about the user specific context.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon executable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, configure the computer system to control interactions between a cloud storage service and a native application that is integral to an operating system of a user device in order to identify on line services of the cloud storage service useful to the user based on the context of the native application detected by the cloud storage service, and wherein the computer system as configured performs at least the following;

at the cloud storage service, detects that the user device has launched the native application that is integral to the operating system, and has accessed the cloud storage system;

at the cloud storage service determines a user specific context within a general context of the native application launched on the user device;

at the cloud storage service, sends a message to the operating system of the user device that the cloud storage service is being accessed by the native application, wherein the message comprises the specific context within the general context of the native application;

at the operating system of the device, in response to receiving the specific context within the general context of the native application, the operating system of the user device determining one or more on line services of the cloud storage service that relate to one or more files being accessed at the cloud storage service; and

in response to the on line services of the cloud storage service determined by the operating system of the user device, the native application displaying a user interface allowing the user to select one or more of the determined on-line services of the cloud storage service.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein in response to the specific context contained in the message received at the operating system of the user device, the operating system of the user device also determining one or more additional applications that can be used to open particular file types being viewed by a user.

3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the one or more additional applications comprise additional applications that can be obtained by the user on a different user device.

4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the determined on-line services of the cloud storage service comprise one or more subscription services that can be obtained that correspond to file types that are displayed in the native application.

5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer-readable media have stored thereon instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to configure the computer system to:

based on the specific context within the general context of the native application, determine collaboration context within the specific context; and

display in the user interface information about the collaboration context.

6. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the collaboration context comprises workflow context.

7. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the collaboration context comprises information identifying one or more other users working on or having the ability to work on one or more files or data within the specific context.

8. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the collaboration context comprises information identifying actions performed by other users on one or more files or data within the specific context and awaiting user interaction for the current user in the specific context.

9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the native application comprises a native file manager.

10. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the determined one or more additional applications or on-line services of the cloud storage service comprise upsell information for the determined additional applications or on-line services.

11. A computer implemented method of controlling interactions between a cloud storage service and a native application that is integral to an operating system of a user device in order to identify on line services of the cloud storage service useful to the user based on the context of the native application detected by the cloud storage service, the method comprising:

at the cloud storage service, detecting that the user device has launched the native application that is integral to the operating system, and has accessed the cloud storage service;

at the cloud storage service determining a user specific context within a general context of the native application launched on the user device;

at the cloud storage service, sending a message to the operating system of the user device that the cloud storage service is being accessed by the native application, wherein the message comprises the specific context within the general context of the native application;

at the operating system of the device, in response to receiving the specific context within the general context of the native application, the operating system of the user device determining one or more on line services of the cloud storage service that relate to one or more files being accessed at the cloud storage service; and

in response to the on line services of the cloud storage service determined by the operating system of the user device, the native application displaying a user interface allowing the user to select one or more of the determined on-line services of the cloud storage service.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein in response to the specific context contained in the message received at the operating system of the user device, the operating system of the user device also determining one or more additional applications that can be used to open particular file types being viewed by a user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more additional applications comprise additional applications that can be obtained by the user on a different user device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the determined on-line services of the cloud storage service comprise one or more subscription services that can be obtained that correspond to file types that are displayed in the native application.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

based on the specific context within the general context of the native application, determining collaboration context within the specific context; and

displaying in the user interface information about the collaboration context.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the collaboration context comprises workflow context.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the collaboration context comprises information identifying one or more other users working on or having the ability to work on one or more files or data within the specific context.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the collaboration context comprises information identifying actions performed by other users on one or more files or data within the specific context and awaiting user interaction for the current user in the specific context.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the native application comprises a native file manager.

20. A computing system comprising:

an operating system of a user device;

one or more processors;

one or more computer readable storage media having stored thereon executable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, configure the operating system of the user device to identify on line services of the cloud storage service useful to the user based on context of a native application launched at the user device and detected by a cloud storage service, and wherein the operating system of computer system as configured performs at least the following acts;

receives a message from the from the cloud storage service that the native application launched at the user device has accessed the cloud storage service, and wherein the message comprises a user specific context within a general context of the native application as determined at the cloud storage service;

in response to receiving the specific context within the general context of the native application, determines one or more additional on line services of the cloud storage service that relate to one or more files being accessed at the cloud storage service; and

in response to the determined one or more additional on line services of the cloud storage service, the native application displays a user interface allowing the user to select the one or more of the determined additional on line services of the cloud storage service.