System and Method for Providing Offline Access in a Hosted Document Service

• US 20130054514A1
• Filed: 07/30/2012
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Barrett-Kahn, David, Coukouma, Nikolas Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 9,361,395 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/608
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

A request for a document is received at a user device while in an offline state. The request includes a public uniform resource locator (URL) corresponding to a location remote from the user device. The user device launches an application that intercepts the request and selects one of multiple local caches based on the public URL. Each of the multiple local caches is associated with a private URL. The user device accesses the selected local caches via a corresponding private URL to retrieve an editor. The user device modifies a URL history to replace the private URL with a public URL and provides the document, via the editor, to the user device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a user device while in an offline state, a request for a document, the request comprising a public uniform resource locator corresponding to a location remote from the user device;

launching an application that intercepts the request;

selecting one of a plurality of local caches based on the public uniform resource locator, each of the plurality of local caches being associated with a private uniform resource locator;

accessing the selected local cache via a corresponding private uniform resource locator to retrieve an editor;

modifying a uniform resource locator history to replace the private uniform resource locator with the public uniform resource locator; and

providing the document, via the editor, to the user device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the private uniform resource locator comprises an address of an Internet page with a durable locally cached copy.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the document is stored at a database on the user device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

in response to determining that the user device is in an online state, launching a second editor application configured to communicate with a server at the location remote from the user device.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

storing edits made to the document at the user device; and

transmitting the changes to the server.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

transmitting a request to the server to poll for updates to the document; and

in response to polling the server for updates to the document, receiving the updates.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

retrieving information about the document and the user device from storage.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions, which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving, at a user device while in an offline state, a request for a document, the request comprising a public uniform resource locator corresponding to a location remote from the user device;

launching an application that intercepts request;

selecting one of a plurality of local caches based on the public uniform resource locator, each of the plurality of local caches being associated with a private uniform resource locator;

accessing the selected local cache via a corresponding private uniform resource locator to retrieve an editor;

modifying a uniform resource locator history to replace the private uniform resource locator with the public uniform resource locator; and

providing the document, via the editor, to the user device.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the private uniform resource locator comprises an address of an Internet page with a durable locally cached copy.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the location remote from the user device is accessible via a network.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the document is stored at a database on the user device.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 further comprising instructions defining the step of:

in response to determining that the user device is in an online state, launching a second editor application configured to communicate with a server at the location remote from the user device.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions defining the steps of:

storing edits made to the document at the user device; and

transmitting the changes to the server

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 further comprising instructions defining the steps of:

transmitting a request to the server to poll for updates to the document; and

in response to polling the server for updates to the document, receiving the updates.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 further comprising instructions defining the step of:

retrieving information about the document and the user device from storage.