EXTENDED APPLICATIONS OF MULTIMEDIA CONTENT PREVIEWS IN THE CLOUD-BASED CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20130198600A1
• Filed: 08/17/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Lockhart, Kimber, Seibert, Jeffrey H. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 11,232,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/116 Details of conversion of file system types or formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/172 Caching, prefetching or hoarding of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing previews of files stored in an online content management system with collaboration environment and permitting a user to annotate the previews are disclosed. The system further tracks the frequency of access of content in previewed documents and provides a visual representation of the frequency with which sections in a document was viewed.

Claims

1-37. -37. (canceled)

38. A computer-implemented method of providing an annotatable preview of a file, comprising:

generating for display a preview of a file in a requesting user'"'"'s browser, wherein the file is stored in a workspace in a web-based collaboration environment;

superimposing a transparent layer over the generated preview;

receiving a command from the requesting user to annotate the preview; and

converting the command into annotation data, wherein the annotation data has a format suitable for rendering on the transparent layer.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising storing the annotation data in a memory.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein storing the annotation data in a memory occurs when the requesting user saves the previewed file.

41. The method of claim 38, further comprising notifying authorized collaborators of the workspace when the command is received.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein notification occurs by one or more of the following methods:

email, including annotation details in a metadata associated with the file, in an event stream associated with the file.

43. The method of claim 38, wherein the requesting user is an authorized collaborator of the workspace.

44. The method of claim 38, wherein the requesting user uploaded the file to the web-based collaboration environment.

45. The method of claim 38, wherein Adobe Flash is used to superimpose the transparent layer over the displayed preview.

46. The method of claim 38, wherein HTML5 is used to superimpose the transparent layer over the displayed preview.

47. The method of claim 38, wherein the format of the annotation data is simple vector graphics (SVG).

48. The method of claim 39, wherein the stored annotation data is stored separately from the file.

49. The method of claim 38, wherein an authorized collaborator of the workspace can view the file with the annotation data rendered on the transparent layer in near real-time.

50. The method of claim 38, wherein an authorized collaborator of the workspace can view the file without the annotation data while the requesting user is annotating the file.

51. The method of claim 38, further comprising upon receiving from the requesting user a delete command for a particular annotation, deleting the particular annotation from the transparent layer.

52. The method of claim 38, wherein the command comprises mouse and keyboard commands.

53. The method of claim 38, wherein storing the format per file version, wherein previous versions of the file are accessible, viewable, printable, and can be set as a current version of the file.

54. The method of claim 38, further comprising storing a printable composite version of the file in a PDF format, wherein the composite file includes the annotations.

55. A method comprising:

providing a preview of a file stored in a web-based collaboration environment to one or more requesting users;

tracking the one or more requesting users'"'"' interaction with the preview of the file to determine a frequency of access of a plurality of sections of the file; and

upon receiving a request by an evaluating user, providing a visual representation of how frequently the one or more requesting users access the plurality of sections of the file.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the tracking initiates when the one or more requesting users first interact with the preview.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein interacting with the preview includes clicking on or scrolling the preview.

58. The method of claim 55, wherein the tracking initiates when the one or more requesting users maintain a pointer over the preview for a minimum duration.

59. The method of claim 55, wherein the visual representation is a heat map, and further wherein the plurality of sections of the file are highlighted using a plurality of colors that indicate the frequency of access of each section.

60. A method comprising:

providing a preview of a video file stored in a web-based collaboration environment to one or more requesting users;

tracking the one or more requesting users'"'"' interaction with the review of the video file to determine a duration of access of a plurality of sections of the video file; and

upon receiving a request by an evaluating user, providing a duration map of how long the one or more requesting users view the plurality of sections of the video file.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein the tracking initiates when the one or more requesting users first interact with the preview.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein interacting with the preview includes clicking on or scrolling the preview.

63. The method of claim 60, wherein the tracking initiates when the one or more requesting users maintain a pointer over the preview for a minimum duration.

64. The method of claim 60, wherein the duration map shows a visual representation of the plurality of sections of the video file, and each of the sections is associated with a duration using a plurality of colors or a plurality of other kinds of distinguishing representations.

65. A system comprising:

a display module configured to display a preview of a file in a requesting user'"'"'s browser; and

an annotation module configured to;

convert an annotation command to a graphics language format annotation;

superimpose a transparent layer over the preview; and

render the annotation on the transparent layer.

66. The system of claim 65, wherein the transparent layer and annotation rendering are performed using Flash.

67. The system of claim 65, wherein the transparent layer and annotation rendering are performed using HTML5.

68. A system, comprising:

a tracking module configured to track one or more requesting users'"'"' interactions with a plurality of sections of a file, wherein the file is stored in a web-based collaboration environment; and

a presentation module configured to present a visual representation of information obtained by the tracking module.

69. The system of claim 68, wherein the tracking module tracks a frequency of users'"'"' access of the plurality of sections of the file, and further wherein the visual representation shows how frequently the one or more requesting users accessed the plurality of sections of the file.

70. The system of claim 68, wherein the file is a video file, and the tracking module tracks a duration of users'"'"' access of the plurality of sections of the video file, and further wherein the visual representation shows how long the one or more requesting users accessed the plurality of sections of the video file.

71. A system, comprising:

means for providing a preview of a file stored in a web-based collaboration environment to one or more requesting users;

means for tracking the one or more requesting users'"'"' interaction with the preview of the file to determine a frequency of access of a plurality of sections of the file; and

upon receiving a request by an evaluating user, means for providing a visual representation of how frequently the one or more requesting users access the plurality of sections of the file.

72. A computer-implemented method of permitting a plurality of users to collaborate by annotating a file, comprising:

superimposing a plurality of independent transparent layers over a generated preview for display on each of the plurality of users'"'"' browsers, wherein the file is stored in a workspace in a web-based collaboration environment, and further wherein a unique transparent layer of the plurality of independent transparent layers is associated with each of the plurality of users;

receiving commands from the plurality of users to annotate the preview; and

converting each command into annotation data, wherein the annotation data has a format suitable for rendering on the transparent layers, and wherein the annotation data is rendered on the unique transparent layer associated with the user who provided the command.

73. The method of claim 72, wherein the annotation data rendered on each independent transparent layer is stored in a separate file.