DESKTOP APPLICATION FOR ACCESS AND INTERACTION WITH WORKSPACES IN A CLOUD-BASED CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND SYNCHRONIZATION MECHANISMS THEREOF

• US 20130013560A1
• Filed: 10/26/2011
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Goldberg, Arnold, Lee, David T., Asok, Satish
• Granted Patent: US 9,652,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/634
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

Systems and methods for synchronizing workspaces in a web-based collaboration environment with local folders on computers of collaborators of the workspaces are disclosed. Collaborators of a workspace can edit copies of work items either at the collaboration environment server or at the computer. Updates to all synchronized folders are automatically performed. Conflicts between edits made by different collaborators to the same file are flagged, and a notification is sent to the author attempting to make edits to a version of a file that has already been updated by another collaborator.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

maintaining a workspace in a web-based collaborative environment for a plurality of collaborators, wherein one or more of the collaborators of the workspace perform activities on one or more work items within the workspace;

if one or more of the collaborators has a synchronization permission for the workspace, permitting each of the one or more of the collaborators to enable synchronization to occur between the workspace and a local sync folder on each of the one or more of the collaborators'"'"' computers when a change is detected at the workspace or at the local sync folder.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein requirements for the synchronization permission for the workspace is determined by a creator or administrative user of the workspace.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an event notification from an editing collaborator'"'"'s computer of a new change in an editing collaborator'"'"'s local sync folder;

copying the new change from the editing collaborator'"'"'s local sync folder to the workspace.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

sending a notification of the new change to the workspace to selected collaborators of the workspace.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the notification is made in real time or near real time to when the copying occurred.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the selected collaborators are selected based on permissions configured for the workspace.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a set of synchronized electronic folders, wherein the set of synchronized electronic folders includes the workspace, a first local sync folder stored on a first electronic device of a first collaborator, and a second local sync folder stored on a second electronic device of a second collaborator;

wherein the first collaborator and the second collaborator are collaborators of the workspace.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving at the first electronic device a first event notification of a first change to a work item in the workspace;

receiving at the first electronic device a second event notification of a second change to a local copy of the work item in the first local sync folder;

accessing a rule engine to determine a first action for handling synchronization of the work item in the first local sync folder and the workspace.

9. The method of claim 8, if the first change and the second change are a hard conflict, the first action comprises:

creating a first copy of the local copy of the work item in the first local sync folder;

renaming the first copy, wherein a new name of the first copy includes an identification of the first collaborator;

downloading the work item from the workspace to the first local sync folder;

uploading the renamed first copy to the workspace;

notifying the first collaborator that the second change was not merged into the work item in the workspace.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending a first notification of the uploaded first copy to the workspace to selected collaborators of the workspace.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first notification is made in real time or near real time to when the uploading occurred.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving at the second electronic device a third event notification of the first change to the work item in the workspace;

receiving at the second electronic device a fourth event notification of the uploading of the renamed first copy to the workspace;

downloading the work item with the first change from the workspace to the first local sync folder.

13. The method of claim 8, if the first change and the second change are a soft conflict, the first action comprises:

downloading the work item from the workspace to the first local sync folder;

merging the second change with the downloaded work item.

merging the second change with the work item in the workspace.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

sending a second notification of the work item with the merged second change to the workspace to selected collaborators of the workspace.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second notification is made in real time or near real time to when the uploading occurred.

16. A system, comprising:

a triggering event module configured to receive notifications about changes made to a server sync folder and a local sync folder synchronized to the server sync folder, wherein the server sync folder is stored in a web-based collaborative platform, and further wherein the local sync folder is stored at a computer of a collaborator of the server sync folder who has synchronization permission;

a copying manager configured to copy a change in one of the synchronized folders to the other synchronized folder.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a notification server configured to send a notification to selected collaborators of the server sync folder when the server sync folder is synchronized to the local sync folder.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a conflicts manager configured to identify a conflict if a work item has been changed in the server sync folder and the local sync folder and to determine an action to be performed in response to the conflict.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a rules engine configured to receive information about the conflict and to search among pre-defined rules for the action to be performed.

20. A system, comprising:

means for maintaining a workspace in a web-based collaborative environment, wherein one or more of the collaborators of the workspace perform activities on one or more work items within the workspace;

if one or more of the collaborators has a synchronization permission for the workspace, permitting each of the one or more of the collaborators to enable synchronization to occur between the workspace and a local sync folder on each of the one or more of the collaborators'"'"' computers when a change is detected at the workspace or at the local sync folder.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

means for receiving an event notification from an editing collaborator'"'"'s computer of a new change in the editing collaborator'"'"'s local sync folder;

means for copying the new change from the editing collaborator'"'"'s local sync folder to the workspace;

means for sending a notification of the new change to the workspace to selected collaborators of the workspace.