Managing presence among devices accessing shared and synchronized content

• US 10,440,110 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2018
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Larabie-Belanger, Maxime
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Nam T
• Application Number:
  US16/195,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20190089783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 323 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/52 Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A content management system receives presence information from a client application on a device indicating interaction information of a user relative to a content item synchronized to the content management system. The interaction information includes presence information describing presence information of a native application interacting with the content item. The presence information indicates whether the native application opened, is viewing, or is editing the content item. The presence information may specify a user interface element and process associated with the presence information. The content management system stores presence records describing the presence information and uses the presence records to generate and transmit a presence status associated with a user. When a new version of a content item is received, the content management system may also use the presence records to determine an action to perform with the user interface window associated with the prior version.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a content management system from a presence application on a device associated with a user account, presence information describing user interactions with a user interface element associated with a native process of a native application different from and monitored by the presence application, the native process accessing a content item stored on the device and synchronized with the content management system, the presence application configured to simultaneously monitor user interface elements each associated with a different native application of a plurality of native applications, the presence application and the native application both stored at and executed by the device;

updating a set of presence records corresponding to the content item synchronized with the content management system based on the received presence information, each presence record identifying a presence status and an identifier of a monitored user interface element on the device interacting with the content item synchronized with the content management system;

determining that a user of the device associated with the user account interacted with the content item synchronized with the content management system via the user interface element based on the set of presence records corresponding to the content item; and

notifying an additional device that maintains a synchronized local copy of the content item that the user of the device interacted with the content item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein notifying the additional device comprises causing the additional device to generate for display presence status for the user account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of presence records includes presence records of the user account associated with a plurality of different monitored user interfaces, and wherein the presence status is determined for the user account from the set of presence records.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein notifying comprises notifying the additional device that the user of the device edited the content item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein notifying the comprises notifying the additional device that the user of the device opened the content item.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein notifying the additional device comprises notifying the additional device that the user of the device viewed the content item.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a presence status of the device has changed based on the received presence information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the presence status is not changed if other presence information relating to the content item indicates the user is interacting with the content item.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the received presence information includes a chat message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the received presence information describes an edit made to the content item.

11. A system comprising:

at least one processor configured to execute instructions;

a non-transitory storage medium containing instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the at least one processor to perform the steps of;

receiving, by a content management system from a presence application on a device associated with a user account, presence information describing user interactions with a user interface element associated with a native process of a native application different from and monitored by the presence application, the native process accessing a content item stored on the device and synchronized with the content management system, the presence application configured to simultaneously monitor user interface elements each associated with a different native application of a plurality of native applications, the presence application and the native application both stored at and executed by the device;

updating a set of presence records corresponding to the content item synchronized with the content management system based on the received presence information, each presence record identifying a presence status and an identifier of a monitored user interface element on the device interacting with the content item synchronized with the content management system;

determining that a user of the device associated with the user account interacted with the content item synchronized with the content management system via the user interface element based on the set of presence records corresponding to the content item; and

notifying an additional device that maintains a synchronized local copy of the content item that the user of the device interacted with the content item.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein notifying the additional device comprises causing the additional device to generate for display presence status for the user account.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of presence records includes presence records of the user account associated with a plurality of different monitored user interfaces, and wherein the presence status is determined for the user account from the set of presence records.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein notifying the additional device comprises notifying the additional device that the user of the device edited the content item.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein notifying the additional device comprises notifying the additional device that the user of the device opened the content item.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein notifying additional device comprises notifying the additional device that the user of the device viewed the content item.

17. The system of claim 11, further comprising determining whether a presence status of the device has changed based on the received presence information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the presence status is not changed if other presence information relating to the content item indicates the user is interacting with the content item.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the received presence information includes a chat message or describes an edit made to the content item.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, when executed by at least one hardware processor, cause the at least one hardware processor to perform steps comprising:

receiving, by a content management system from a presence application on a device associated with a user account, presence information describing user interactions with a user interface element associated with a native process of a native application different from and monitored by the presence application, the native process accessing a content item stored on the device and synchronized with the content management system, the presence application configured to simultaneously monitor user interface elements each associated with a different native application of a plurality of native applications, the presence application and the native application both stored at and executed by the device;

updating a set of presence records corresponding to the content item synchronized with the content management system based on the received presence information, each presence record identifying a presence status and an identifier of a monitored user interface element on the device interacting with the content item synchronized with the content management system;

determining that a user of the device associated with the user account interacted with the content item synchronized with the content management system via the user interface element based on the set of presence records corresponding to the content item; and

notifying an additional device that maintains a synchronized local copy of the content item that the user of the device interacted with the content item.