Method and system for seamlessly accessing remotely stored files

• US 20050091222A1
• Filed: 11/19/2004
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Serlet, Bertrand, Tevanian, Avadis Jr., Warner, Clark H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,693,962 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method by which users via programs on one computer may seamlessly access files remotely stored on other computers that run a well known file access protocol. An operating system extension and an application level network access program are provided. The operating system extension receives file system requests for remote files from the operating system that were issued according to a well known application program interface. The operating system extension forwards the remote file system request to the network access program. The network access program reformats the request according to a well known application level network protocol extension and sends it over a network to a remote computer system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of web servers running the distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV) enabled hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) coupled to the internet; and

a plurality of personal computers coupled to the internet, each personal computer comprising an operating system extension that forwards file system requests involving file systems stored on one of the plurality of web servers to a network access application program on the personal computer that sends the file system requests as at least one WebDAV or HTTP request to an appropriate web server.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the network access application program processes a plurality of responses to the file system requests received as WebDAV or HTTP packets and passes the responses to the operating system extension which forwards information from the responses.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the file system requests involving file systems stored on one of the plurality of web servers originate from an operating system client, and the information from the responses is forwarded to the operating system client.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the operating system client is any of a plurality of user accessible application programs.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the operating system extension and the network access application program communicate with each other via sockets.

6. A method comprising:

receiving a file system request involving a remote file system;

creating a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV) formatted request (HTTP/WebDAV formatted request);

forwarding the HTTP/WebDAV formatted request to an appropriate WebDAV enabled HTTP server;

receiving a response from the WebDAV enabled HTTP server; and

transferring an information contained in the response.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein receiving a file system request comprises:

obtaining the file system request from an operating system extension.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein receiving a file system request comprises:

obtaining at least a uniform resource identifier (URI) and a request type.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein creating comprises:

selecting an appropriate WebDAV/HTTP method responsive to the request type.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

extracting an information from the response.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein extracting comprises:

converting a WebDAV/HTTP status code to a corresponding local operating system error code.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

creating a local cache file to store at least the information.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein transferring comprises:

passing a file handle to the local cache file or at least a portion of the information.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

updating a local cache file responsive to the information.

15. A method comprising:

receiving a file system request from an application program via an application program interface;

if the file system request involves a remote file system, forwarding the file system request to a network access application program that creates a corresponding hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or distributed authoring and versioning protocol (WebDAV) formatted request (HTTP/WebDAV formatted request);

forwarding the HTTP/WebDAV formatted request to an appropriate WebDAV enabled HTTP server over the Internet;

receiving a response from the WebDAV enabled HTTP server in WebDAV or HTTP format such that the network access application program creates a reformatted response; and

transferring the reformatted response to the application program via the application program interface.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein receiving a file system request comprises:

obtaining at least a uniform resource identifier (URI) and a request type.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein receiving a response further comprises:

creating a local cache file to store an information extracted from the response.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein transferring comprises:

passing a file handle to the local cache file or at least a portion of the information.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

updating a local cache file responsive to an information extracted from the response.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

if the file system request involves a locally cached remote file system, obtaining information responsive to the file system request from a local cache file.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein receiving a file system request comprises:

extracting a file handle to the locally cached remote file system from the file system request.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein forwarding the request to a seamless file system, forwarding the HTTP/WebDAV formatted request, and receiving a response are bypassed when the file system request involves the locally cached remote file system.

23. A machine readable medium having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a processor cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a file system request from an application program via an application program interface;

if the file system request involves a remote file system, forwarding the file system request to a network access application program that creates a corresponding hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or distributed authoring and versioning protocol (WebDAV) formatted request (HTTP/WebDAV formatted request);

forwarding the HTTP/WebDAV formatted request to an appropriate WebDAV enabled HTTP server over the Internet;

receiving a response from the WebDAV enabled HTTP server in WebDAV or HTTP format such that the network access application program creates a reformatted response; and

transferring the reformatted response to the application program via the application program interface.

24. The machine readable medium of claim 23 wherein receiving a file system request comprises:

obtaining at least a uniform resource locator (URL) and a request type.

25. The machine readable medium of claim 24 wherein receiving a response comprises:

if a corresponding local cache file exists, updating the corresponding local cache file responsive to an information extracted from the response; and

if the corresponding local cache file does not exist, creating the corresponding local cache file to store the information extracted from the response.

26. The machine readable medium of claim 25 wherein transferring comprises:

passing a file handle to the corresponding local cache file or at least a portion of the information.

27. The machine readable medium of claim 23 wherein the instructions executed by the processor cause the system to perform operations further comprising:

if the file system request involves a locally cached remote file system, obtaining information responsive to the file system request from a local cache file.

28. The machine readable medium of claim 27 wherein receiving the file system request comprises:

extracting a file handle to the locally cached remote file system from the file system request.

29. The machine readable medium of claim 27 wherein forwarding the request to a seamless file system, forwarding the HTTP/WebDAV formatted request, and receiving a response are bypassed when the file system request involves the locally cached remote file system.

30. A machine readable medium having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a processor cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a file system request involving a remote file system;

creating a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV) formatted request (HTTP/WebDAV formatted request);

forwarding the HTTP/WebDAV formatted request to an appropriate WebDAV enabled HTTP server;

receiving a response from the WebDAV enabled HTTP server; and

transferring an information contained in the response.

31. The machine readable medium of claim 30 wherein receiving a file system request comprises:

obtaining the file system request from an operating system extension.

32. The machine readable medium of claim 30 wherein receiving a file system request comprises:

obtaining at least a uniform resource identifier (URI) and a request type.

33. The machine readable medium of claim 32 wherein creating comprises:

selecting an appropriate WebDAV/HTTP method responsive to the request type.

34. The machine readable medium of claim 30 wherein the instructions executed by the processor cause the system to perform operations further comprising:

extracting an information from the response.

35. The machine readable medium of claim 30 wherein extracting comprises:

converting a WebDAV/HTTP status code to a corresponding local operating system error code.

36. The machine readable medium of claim 34 wherein the instructions executed by the processor cause the system to perform operations further comprising:

creating a local cache file to store at least the information.

37. The machine readable medium of claim 36 wherein transferring comprises:

passing a file handle to the local cache file or at least a portion of the information.

38. The machine readable medium of claim 34 wherein the instructions executed by the processor cause the system to perform operations further comprising:

updating a local cache file responsive to the information.

39. A computer system comprising:

at least one application program;

an operating system providing a file system interface;

an operating system extension to receive from the file system interface of the operating system a request for a remotely stored file that initiated from the application program and to forward the request for the remotely stored file;

a network access application program to receive the request for the remotely stored file from the operating system extension, to translate a file name information specified in the request from a local file system syntax to a remote server syntax, and to package the request according to a well known protocol for communication to a user specified remote computer system over a network.

40. The computer system of claim 39 wherein the network access application program reformats a response received from the user specified remote computer system, including reverse translating any file name information from a remote server syntax to a local file system syntax, and forwards a reformatted response to the operating system extension program.

41. The computer system of claim 40 wherein the remote server syntax is the syntax of a uniform resource identifier (URI).

42. A method comprising:

receiving a file system request from an application program;

if the file system request involves a remote file system on a remote computer system, forwarding the request to a network access application program which translates a file name information specified in the request from a local file system syntax to a remote server syntax and communicates the request in a well known format to the remote computer system over a wide area network;

reformatting a response from the remote computer system forwarded by the remote access application program which reverse translates any file name information specified in the response from the remote server syntax to the local file system syntax; and

transferring the reformatted response to the application program.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein receiving comprises:

obtaining the file system request via a local file system interface of an operating system.

44. The method of claim 42 wherein the remote server syntax is the syntax of a uniform resource identifier (URI).