Systems and methods for configuring event-based automation in cloud-based collaboration platforms

• US 10,509,527 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2013
• Issued: 12/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Pearl, Annie, Duvall, Matthew Taro, Ebertz, Joy, Valdez, Victor, Cipolla, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Tam T
• Application Number:
  US14/075,849
• Publication Number:
  US 20150082197A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,230 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Scalable architectures, systems, and services are provided herein for generating jobs by applying user-specified rules to events in an action log framework (ALF) stream is disclosed. More specifically, collaboration environments can include features or mechanisms that allow end-users or collaborators to perform a variety of actions such as, for example, file uploads and previews, or collaboration operations such as, for example, task assignment and comments. These actions can be captured or logged by an action log framework and, as described herein, automatically translated into one or more jobs by applying customizable user-specified rules.

Claims

1. A method of configuring event-based automation in a collaborative cloud-based environment involving a front-end system and a back-end system, the method comprising:

receiving, by the front-end system of the collaborative cloud-based environment, a selection indicating a request to automate an operation in the collaborative cloud-based environment, wherein the front-end system communicates with client systems via a first network for receiving events via the first network, wherein the front-end system communicates with the back-end system via a second network, wherein the collaborative cloud-based environment includes a plurality of workspaces, and wherein each of the workspaces is accessible to a plurality of collaborators;

responsive to receiving the selection indicating a request to automate an operation in the collaborative cloud-based environment, providing, by the front-end system, a graphical user interface for electronic display to a user, the graphical user interface comprising an event field providing options for identifying an event of a plurality of events related to one or more work items in the collaborative cloud-based environment the plurality of event comprising upload of a work item by another user, download of a work item by another user, move of a work item by another user, copy of a work item by another user, and share of a work item by another user, a qualifying criteria field providing options for defining criteria of the one or more work items, and an action field providing options for defining an action performed on the work item when a selected event related to a work item has occurred and a selected qualifying criteria of the work item is satisfied, and wherein the options provided by the qualifier field and the options provided by the action field change based on a selection made in the event field;

receiving, by the front-end system, through the event field of the graphical user interface, a selection of an event with respect to a work item hosted in a particular workspace of the plurality of workspaces of the collaborative cloud-based environment, wherein the event is related to an activity performed by one or more of the plurality of collaborators with respect to the work item;

updating, by the front-end system, the options provided by the qualifying criteria field of the graphical user interface and the options provided by the action field of the graphical user interface based on the selected event;

receiving, by the front-end system, through the updated qualifying criteria field of the graphical user interface, a selection of qualifying criteria associated with the event;

receiving, by the front-end system, through the updated action field of the graphical user interface, a selection of the action to be automatically executed with respect to the work item hosted in the collaborative cloud-based environment responsive to the occurrence of the event with the qualifying criteria; and

transmitting, by the front-end system, information associated with the selected event, selected qualifying criteria, and selected action, to the back-end system for use in generating an automation rule;

wherein the generated automation rule is accessed by the back-end system to generate an automated job to execute the selected action on the work item in response to parsing, by the back-end system, an event received via the front-end system, to identify an event criteria of the received event that matches the qualifying criteria of the generated automation rule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the automation rule comprises a policy.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the automation rule comprises a workflow automation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the front-end system, a selection identifying the work item in the collaborative cloud-based environment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the occurrence of the qualifying criteria comprises the qualifying criteria evaluating in the affirmative.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising triggering execution of the selected action in the collaborative cloud-based environment when the event occurs with the qualifying criteria with respect to the work item.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising tracking the execution of the action in a log file.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to receiving the selection indicating a request to automate an operation, providing, by the front-end system, an administrator console graphical interface for electronic display to the user, wherein the administrator console graphical interface indicates multiple panel selections.

9. A system for configuring event-based automation in a collaborative cloud-based environment, the system including a front-end system and a back-end system, wherein the front-end system communicates with client systems via a first network for receiving events via the first network, and wherein the front-end system communicates with the back-end system via a second network, the front-end system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory unit having instructions stored thereon which when executed by the one or more processors, causes the front-end system to;

receive a user selection indicating a request to automate an operation in the collaborative cloud-based environment, wherein the collaborative cloud-based environment includes a plurality of workspaces, and wherein each of the workspaces is accessible to a plurality of collaborators;

responsive to receiving the selection indicating a request to automate an operation in the collaborative cloud-based environment, provide a graphical user interface for electronic display to a user, the graphical user interface comprising an event field providing options for identifying an event of a plurality of events related to one or more work items in the collaborative cloud-based environment the plurality of event comprising upload of a work item by another user, download of a work item by another user, move of a work item by another user, copy of a work item by another user, and share of a work item by another user, a qualifying criteria field providing options for defining criteria of the one or more work items, and an action field providing options for defining an action performed on the work item when a selected event related to a work item has occurred and a selected qualifying criteria of the work item is satisfied, and wherein the options provided by the qualifier field and the options provided by the action field change based on a selection made in the event field;

receive, through the event field of the graphical user interface, a selection of an event with respect to a work item hosted in a particular workspace of the plurality of workspaces of the collaborative cloud-based environment, wherein the event is related to an activity performed by one or more of the plurality of collaborators with respect to the work item;

update the options provided by the qualifying criteria field of the graphical user interface and the options provided by the action field of the graphical user interface based on the selected event;

receive, through the updated qualifying criteria field of the graphical user interface, a selection of qualifying criteria associated with the event in response to the provided option;

receive, through the updated action filed of the graphical user interface, a selection of the action to be automatically executed with respect to the work item hosted in the collaborative cloud-based environment responsive to the occurrence of the event with the qualifying criteria with; and

transmit information associated with the selected event, selected qualifying criteria, and selected action, to the back-end system for use in generating an automation rule;

wherein the generated automation rule is accessed by the back-end system to generate an automated job to execute the selected action on the work item in response to parsing, by the back-end system, an event received via the front-end system, to identify an event criteria of the received event that matches the qualifying criteria of the generated automation rule.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the automation rule comprises a policy or a workflow automation.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the front-end system to receive a selection identifying the work item hosted in the collaborative cloud-based environment.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the occurrence of the qualifying criteria comprises the qualifying criteria evaluating in the affirmative.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the back-end system includes instructions to trigger execution of the selected action in the collaborative cloud-based environment when the event occurs with the qualifying criteria with respect to the work item.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the back-end system includes further instructions to track the execution of the action in a log file.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the front-end system to, prior to receiving the user selection, provide an administrator console graphical interface for electronic display to the user, wherein the administrator console graphical interface indicates multiple panel selections.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including executable instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, causes a front-end system of a collaborative cloud-based environment to:

receive a user selection indicating a request to automate an operation in the collaborative cloud-based environment, wherein the collaborative cloud-based environment includes a plurality of workspaces, and wherein each of the workspaces is accessible to a plurality of collaborators;

responsive to receiving the selection indicating a request to automate an operation in the collaborative cloud-based environment, provide a graphical user interface for electronic display to a user, the graphical user interface comprising an event field providing options for identifying an event of a plurality of events related to one or more work items in the collaborative cloud-based environment the plurality of event comprising upload of a work item by another user, download of a work item by another user, move of a work item by another user, copy of a work item by another user, and share of a work item by another user, a qualifying criteria field providing options for defining criteria of the one or more work items, and an action field providing options for defining an action performed on the work item when a selected event related to a work item has occurred and a selected qualifying criteria of the work item is satisfied, and wherein the options provided by the qualifier field and the options provided by the action field change based on a selection made in the event field;

receive, through the event field of the graphical user interface, a selection of an event with respect to a work item hosted in a particular workspace of the plurality of workspaces of the collaborative cloud-based environment, wherein the event is related to an activity performed by one or more of the plurality of collaborators with respect to the work item;

update the options provided by the qualifying criteria field of the graphical user interface and the options provided by the action field of the graphical user interface based on the selected event;

receive, through the updated qualifying criteria field of the graphical user interface, a selection of qualifying criteria associated with the event in response to the provided option;

receive, through the updated action filed of the graphical user interface, a selection of the action to be automatically executed with respect to the work item hosted in the collaborative cloud-based environment responsive to the occurrence of the event with the qualifying criteria with; and

transmit information associated with the selected event, selected qualifying criteria, and selected action, to a back-end system of the collaborative cloud-based environment for use in generating an automation rule, wherein the front-end system communicates with client systems via a first network for receiving events via the first network, wherein the front-end system communicates with the back-end system via a second network, and wherein the generated automation rule is accessed by the back-end system to generate an automated job to execute the selected action on the work item in response to parsing, by the back-end system, an event received via the front-end system, to identify an event criteria of the received event that matches the qualifying criteria of the generated automation rule.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the automation rule comprises a policy.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the automation rule comprises a workflow automation.