CLIENT APPLICATION FILE ACCESS

• US 20130132463A1
• Filed: 11/21/2011
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Boehm, Joshua Adam Alpern, O'Mahony, Allison, Akmal, Mona, Lueder, Roger Allen, Bose, Miko Arnab Sakhya Singha, Balasubramanyan, Balaji, Garcia-Ascanio, Francisco, Diffenbaugh, David, Fiordalis, Daniel Vincent, Wiggs, Joseph, Irwin, Alyssa, Signer, Denise Elisabeth, Linkon, Adam
• Granted Patent: US 9,355,115 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/172 Caching, prefetching or hoarding of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for providing a client application with access to a file based upon a local offline version of the file and/or web online version of the file. That is, a file may be shared/synchronized from a remote source, such as a web storage service. A web online version of the file may be maintained by the web storage service, while local offline versions of the file may be stored at client devices. A sync module comprising knowledge of the local and/or web versions of the file may provide a client application with access to the file based upon the local and/or web version of the file. The sync module may also delegate synchronization authorization to the client application given that the client application may comprise sophisticated file handling functionality.

Claims

1. A method for providing a client application with access to a file, comprising:

receiving a request from a client application to access a file;

if a local offline version of the file is stored locally, then providing the client application with access to the local offline version as the file; and

if a web online version of the file is stored remotely, then providing the client application with access to the web online version of the file as the file.

2. The method of claim 1, the providing the client application with access to the local offline version comprising providing the client application with a local file path associated with the local offline version of the file, and the providing the client application with access to the web online version comprising providing the client application with a URL associated with the web online version.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

providing the client application with access to both the local offline version of the file and the web online version of the file as the file.

4. The method of claim 3, comprising:

synchronizing the file, the local offline version of the file, and the web online version of the file while the client application accesses the file.

5. The method of claim 3, comprising:

enabling co-authoring of the file between the client application and a remote client application accessing a corresponding file, the file and the corresponding file synchronized through the web online version of the file.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising:

providing a notification to the client application of a modification to the web online version of the file; and

instructing the client application to synchronize the file and the web online version of the file.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

providing the client application with a local file path associated with the local offline version of the file; and

delegating synchronization authorization to the client application to synchronize the file and the local offline version of the file using the local file path.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

providing the client application with a URL associated with the web online version of the file; and

delegating synchronization authorization to the client application to synchronize the file and the web online version of the file using the URL.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

providing the client application with access to the local offline version of the file while access to the web online version of the file is not available.

10. The method of claim 1, the request comprising a URL associated with the web online version of the file, and the providing the client application with access to the local offline version as the file comprising providing the client application with a local file path associated with the local offline version of the file, the local file path determined based upon the URL.

11. The method of claim 1, the request comprising a local file path associated with the local offline version of the file, and the providing the client application with access to the web online version as the file comprising providing the client application with a URL associated with the web online version of the file, the URL determined based upon the local file path.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying the client application based upon a registry key within an operating system registry, the identifying comprising at least one of;

identifying an installation of the client application, identifying an un-installation of the client application, identifying a modification to the client application and identifying a file type associated with the client application.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising:

providing a notification to the client application that the web online version of the file is modified; and

instructing the client application to synchronize the web online version of the file and at least one of the file and the local offline version of the file.

14. The method of claim 1,

identifying a file type understandable by the client application;

and

providing the client application with access to the file based upon the file comprising a file type corresponding to the identified file type.

15. A method for delegating synchronization authorization to a client application, comprising:

identifying a client application configured to interact with a file type of a file; and

delegating synchronization authorization to the client application to synchronize the file and at least one of a local offline version of the file and a web online version of the file.

16. The method of claim 15, the delegating comprising:

providing the client application with a local file path associated with the local offline version of the file; and

delegating synchronization authorization to the client application to synchronize the file and the local offline version of the file using the local file path.

17. The method of claim 15, the delegating comprising:

providing the client application with a URL associated with the web online version of the file; and

delegating synchronization authorization to the client application to synchronize the file and the web online version of the file using the URL.

18. The method of claim 15, comprising:

providing the client application with a local file path associated with the local offline version of the file and a URL associated with the web online version of the file; and

delegating synchronization authorization to the client application to synchronize the local offline version of the file and the web online version of the file using the local file path and the URL.

19. A method for providing a client application with offline access to a file, comprising:

receiving a request from a client application to access a file;

determining a web online version of the file is not available; and

providing the client application with access to a local offline version of the file.

20. The method of claim 19, the request comprising a URL associated with the web online version of the file, and the providing the client application with access to the local offline version as the file comprising providing the client application with a local file path associated with the local offline version of the file, the local file path determined based upon the URL.