PREVIEW PRE-GENERATION BASED ON HEURISTICS AND ALGORITHMIC PREDICTION/ASSESSMENT OF PREDICTED USER BEHAVIOR FOR ENHANCEMENT OF USER EXPERIENCE

• US 20130110854A1
• Filed: 08/20/2012
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Jeffrey H. Seibert Jr
• Inventors: Lockhart, Kimber, Seibert, Jeffrey H. Jr., Silva, Nicholas, Lee, David T., Mand, Arshdeep, Savage, John Brandon
• Granted Patent: US 9,098,474 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/756
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1794 Details of file format conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/483 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/739 in form of a video summary, e.g. the video summary being a video sequence, a composite still image or having synthesized frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

System and methods for determining if a preview of a file uploaded to a web-based collaborative environment is likely to be requested. For a file that is likely to be previewed, the system pre-converts the input format of the file to a target format suitable for providing the preview to minimize the time a user waits to be presented with the preview after making the request. The present disclosure includes a method of determining whether an intermediate format of a file generated during the conversion of an input format to the target format should be stored to be used later or discarded.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of determining when to pregenerate a target format of a file suitable for providing a preview of the file, the file being stored in a web-based collaboration environment, and wherein the file has an input format, the method comprising:

collecting data on user activity for a plurality of files uploaded to the web-based collaboration environment;

analyzing the collected data to determine that it is likely for a preview to be requested for a subset of the plurality of files;

determining a criteria for the subset;

upon determining that a given file meets the criteria, converting a specific input format of the uploaded file to a specific target format;

upon receiving a preview request for the given file from a requesting user, using the specific target format to provide the preview of the given file to the requesting user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria is that the specific input format matches one of the following:

a PDF format file, a video file, or a Microsoft Office format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria is that the given file was personally uploaded by a user to the web-based collaboration environment, wherein personally uploaded comprises not using an automatic synchronizing application or an application programming interface (API) to perform uploading of the given file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria is that the given file was uploaded as a single file to the web-based collaboration environment, or as part of a group of files wherein a number of files in the group is no greater than a number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting user is an authorized collaborator of the workspace.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying collaborators of the workspace that the requesting user requested the preview of the given file.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting data on how frequently a plurality of classes of input formats are previewed and determining as the criteria which of the plurality of classes of input formats to convert to the specific target format based upon the frequency data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting data on a duration it takes to generate a preview for a plurality of classes of input formats and determining as the criteria which of the plurality of classes of input formats to convert to the specific target format based upon the duration data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting data on file formats that are previewed and determining the criteria based on the collected data.

10. A computer-implemented method of determining whether to discard an intermediate version of a file having an intermediate format generated during conversion of an input version of the file having an input format to a target version of the file having a target format suitable for providing a preview, the input version of the file being stored in a web-based collaboration environment, the method comprising:

determining if a specific intermediate version of a given file meets a criteria;

if the specific intermediate version of the given file meets the criteria, storing the specific intermediate version of the given file, and upon receiving a preview request for the given file from a requesting user, using the specific intermediate version of the given file to generate a specific target version of the given file to provide the preview to the requesting user;

otherwise, discarding the specific intermediate version of the given file.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the criteria is that a preview of the given file is likely to be requested.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the criteria is that the given file is awaiting conversion to a particular format, wherein the input format of the given file is first converted to the specific intermediate format before being converted to the particular format.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the criteria is that the specific intermediate version of the given file is used for displaying the given file on a mobile device to the requesting user.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising collecting data on file formats that are previewed and determining the criteria based on the collected data.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

converting an input format of a file to a target format for providing a preview of the file, wherein the target format is obtained by converting the input format to an intermediate format, and the intermediate format is converted to the target format, and further wherein the file is stored in a web-based collaboration environment;

delivering the intermediate format to a mobile device for displaying the file to a user of the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the intermediate format is a PDF file.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the mobile device runs an operating system that can directly display the intermediate format.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the intermediate format is converted to one or more other format before being converted to the target format.

19. A system, comprising:

a first database configured to store a plurality of files in a web-based collaboration environment;

a pre-generation module configured to determine whether to convert an input format of a file to a target format suitable for providing a preview of the file to a user before the preview has been requested by the user;

a conversion module configured to convert the input format of the file to the target format;

a viewer module configured to present the target format as the preview to the user.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a second database configured to store a plurality of intermediate format files converted from the input format to an intermediate format.

21. A system for determining when to pregenerate a target format of a file suitable for providing a preview of the file, the file being stored in a web-based collaboration environment, and wherein the file has an input format, the system comprising:

means for determining if a given file meets a criteria;

if the given file meets the criteria, means for converting a specific input format to a specific target format;

upon receiving a preview request for the given file from a requesting user, means for using the specific target format to provide the preview of the given file to the requesting user.