File-level commenting

• US 10,482,152 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2016
• Issued: 11/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Carriero, Thomas, Delamere, Mark, Rha, Phil, Vincent, Jon, Jayakar, Sujay
• Primary Examiner(s): Bhargava, Anil K
• Application Number:
  US15/345,377
• Publication Number:
  US 20170052969A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,107 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Various embodiments provide a commenting system for multiple users to provide and share comments to shared content items. For example, users can share a web link to a collection of content items, such as documents, spreadsheets, photos, and any other media, with other users stored in an online content management system. To enable such functionality, the online content management system can expose an application programming interface to enable third-party service providers to develop and attach a comment interface to content items. Accordingly, such a commenting system can provide a comment interface for concurrent display alongside a respective content item in which users can provide comments to shared content items or to use as notes for their personal content items.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

providing a content item for display on a first computing device, the content item being accessible to the first computing device and at least one second computing device through an account with a content management system;

providing a comment interface associated with the content item for concurrent display with the content item, the comment interface interfacing with the content management system; and

synchronizing, in response to a comment provided to the comment interface on the first computing device, the comment with a copy of the content item that is locally stored on both the first computing device and the at least one second computing device, wherein the synchronizing attaches the comment to both copies of the content item stored on the first computing device and the at least one second computing device without altering data in the content item stored on either the first computing device or the at least one second computing device, and wherein the synchronizing results in a synchronized version of the content item at the first computing device and the at least one second computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the copies of the content item is a read-only copy of the content item, wherein the synchronizing comprises synchronizing the comment with the read-only copy of the content item.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the comment interface is provided by a service provider separate from the content management system.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the comment to the content item is received through the comment interface, and wherein the comment interface is associated with the content management system.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content item is displayed on a webpage and the comment interface is associated with a browser plug-in.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the comment interface is scrollable independently of the content item.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content item is at least one of a word processing document, a spreadsheet, a presentation, a video, streaming content, or an image.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

selectably providing the comment interface to be displayed or hidden from concurrent display with the content item.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to:

receive a comment to a content item stored in an account with a content management system, with the content item being accessible via the account by at least two computing devices, and wherein a copy of the content item is stored locally on the at least two computing devices;

assign the comment to the content item, wherein the content item is synchronized with the at least two computing devices; and

cause the comment to be synchronized with the copy of the content item that is locally stored on the at least two computing devices, wherein synchronizing attaches the comment to both copies of the content item stored on the first computing device and the at least one second computing device without altering data in the content item stored on the at least two computing devices, and wherein the synchronizing results in a synchronized version of the content item at the first computing device and the at least one second computing device.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

provide, by the content management system, an application programming interface (API), which is available to a third-party service provider.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein an application programming interface (API) interfaces with the content item via metadata associated with the content item.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

provide, by the content management system, the content item for display; and

selectably provide the comment to be displayed concurrently with the content item or hidden from view.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the content item is displayed on a webpage and the comment is displayed on an interface associated with a browser plug-in.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the content item is displayed with a comment interface provided by a third-party service provider and, wherein the comment interface interfaces with the content item through an application programming interface (API).

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the comment is displayable with the content item across a plurality of different computing devices types and across a plurality of different platform types for a plurality of different content item types.

16. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to;

provide a content item for display on a first computing device, the content item being accessible at the first computing device and at least one second computing device through an account with a content management system;

receive a comment to the content item; and

cause the comment to be synchronized with the first computing device and the at least one second computing device, wherein synchronizing attaches the comment to both copies of the content item stored on the first computing device and the at least one second computing device without altering data in the content item stored on either the first computing device or the at least one second computing device, and wherein the synchronizing results in a synchronized version of the content item at the first computing device and the at least one second computing device.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further enable the computing device to:

provide, by the content management system, an application programming interface (API) that is available to a third-party service provider, wherein the comment is received in a comment interface provided by the third-party service provider.

18. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the comment is synchronized and attached to the copy of the content item stored locally on both the first computing device and at least one second computing device.

19. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further enable the computing system to:

selectably provide the comment to be displayed concurrently with the content item or hidden from view.

20. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the comment to the content item is received through an interface associated with the content management system.