LOADING OF SERVER-STORED USER PROFILE DATA

• US 20090172160A1
• Filed: 01/02/2008
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cloud Software Group Switzerland GmbH
• Original Assignee: Sepago GmbH (Proact IT Group AB)
• Inventors: Klein, Helge
• Granted Patent: US 7,792,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

One or more computer-implemented methods provided by computer-readable media for providing and loading user profile data from a server computer system to a client computer system may be used together with the server and client computer systems. The client computer system may be caused to initiate a login process for a user on the client computer system and to send login information to the server during the login process. After reception of the login information from the client, the server evaluates the received login information to obtain user information corresponding to a user identified in the login information. Based on the obtained user information, the server finds user profile data stored on the server computer system. Finally, metadata relating to the user profile data may be determined by the client computer system by pulling corresponding data from the server computer system.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on a processor of a client computer system, cause the client computer system to perform a method of loading user profile data from a server computer system to the client computer system, the method comprising:

initiating a login process for a user on the client computer system;

during the login process, sending login information to the server computer system; and

determining metadata relating to the user profile data.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein determining metadata comprises pulling file information corresponding to the user profile data from the server computer system and determining the metadata from the pulled information.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

completing the login process on the client computer system without reception of the complete user profile data.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

requesting partial profile data being at least a part of the user profile data from the server computer system, if an entity running on the client computer system requires access to the partial profile data; and

receiving the requested partial profile data from the server computer system.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

parsing the received metadata relating to the user profile data, wherein the user profile data comprises at least one file; and

creating a stub for each file of the user profile data identified by the parsed metadata.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the file system of the client computer system supports reparse points;

if the file system supports reparse points, creating, for each file of the user profile, a reparse point to store at least a path to the location on the server computer system containing the file; and

if the file system does not support reparse points, loading and initiating a driver simulating the functionality of reparse points.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether an application on the client computer system requests access to a file of the user profile data; and

determining whether only a stub exists for the requested file;

if only a stub exists for the requested file;

pausing the request; and

downloading the remaining file data for the requested file from the server computer.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

downloading, from the server computer system, remaining file data for each user profile file represented by a stub.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

detecting that the client computer system is idle;

wherein downloading remaining file data comprises downloading, from the server computer system, remaining file data for each user profile file represented by a stub while the client is idle.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein sending login information comprises sending, to the server computer, an indication that only the metadata relating to the user profile data is to be sent, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving metadata relating to the user profile data from the server computer system;

wherein determining metadata comprises determining metadata relating to the user profile data from the received metadata.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the user is having a server-stored user profile;

if the user is having a server-stored user profile, requesting the metadata relating to the user profile data; and

if the user is not having a server-stored user profile, loading user profile data stored local to the client computer system.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

uploading, to the server computer system, the user profile data of the client computer system, if the user profile data has been modified on the client computer system.

13. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a server computer system, cause the server computer system to perform a method of providing user profile data from the server computer system to a client computer system, the method comprising:

receiving login information from the client computer system;

evaluating the received login information to obtain user information corresponding to a user identified in the login information;

finding user profile data stored on the server computer system based on the obtained user information; and

providing data relating to the user profile data to the client computer system to determine metadata relating to the user profile data.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein evaluating the received login information comprises determining whether the login information contains an indication to only provide metadata relating to the user profile data, and wherein the method further comprises:

sending metadata to the client computer system, if the login information does include an indication to only provide metadata; and

sending complete user profile data to the client computer system, if the login information does not include an indication to only provide metadata.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the user profile data comprises at least one file, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from the client computer system, a request for at least one complete file of the user profile data; and

sending the at least one complete file to the client computer system.

16. A client computer system for loading user profile data from a server computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory operatively coupled to the processor;

a network interface configured to establish a connection to another computer system via a network;

a login module configured to allow a user to log in to the client computer system, and to send login information to a server computer system during the login process; and

a service module executed by the processor and configured to determine metadata relating to the user profile data.

17. The client computer system of claim 16, wherein the user profile data comprises at least one file, and wherein the client computer system further comprises:

a metadata parser configured to parse the received metadata relating to the user profile data; and

wherein the service module is operatively coupled to a file system of the client computer system, the service module configured to create a stub in the file system for each file of the user profile data identified by the parsed metadata.

18. The client computer system of claim 16, further comprising:

a program, executed by the processor, configured to access partial profile data being at least a part of the user profile data;

wherein the service module is further configured to request the partial profile data from the server computer system, and wherein the service module is further configured to receive the requested partial profile data and replace the stub with the received partial profile data.

19. A server computer system for maintaining user profile data, comprising:

a processor;

a memory operatively coupled to the processor;

a network interface configured to establish a connection to another computer system via a network;

a user profile store configured to store at least one user profile; and

a service module executed by the processor and configured to request user profile data from the user profile store, wherein the service module is further configured to provide, via the network link, data relating to the requested user profile data to a client computer system to determine metadata relating to the user profile data.

20. The server computer system of claim 19, wherein the service module is further configured to receive login information from the client computer system prior to requesting the user profile data, and wherein the service module is further configured to determine the user profile data based on the login information.