SHARING AND SYNCHRONIZING ELECTRONICALLY STORED FILES

• US 20130282790A1
• Filed: 04/23/2012
• Published: 10/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Procopio, Michael Jeffrey, Catmull, David, Cheong, Hwi, Mirestean, Andrei, Mueller, Hendrik, Pape, Frank, Sorvillo, Michael, Wurtz, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,529,818 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1844 Management specifically adapted to replicated file systems

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to architectures, methods and systems and structures that facilitate the sharing and synchronization of electronically stored files among and between cloud entities and a number of computers, systems, devices and/or users. One particular exemplary architectural aspect includes the concurrent determination of file system changes within a cloud file system and a client file system, the serial ordering of necessary file system operations in response to the determined file system changes, and the concurrent execution of file system operations such that the cloud file system and the client computer file system are synchronized.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of transferring files and providing access to files stored in a cloud comprising the steps of:

detecting at a client computer system a relevant change made to a file residing in a cloud file system;

determining by the client computer system whether the file originated via cloud computing services and whether the file has a file type that is associated with a cloud application;

if the file originated via cloud computing services and the file has a file type that is associated with a cloud application, then storing in the client computer'"'"'s local file system a linking file comprising a link to the file residing in the cloud file system and not storing a copy of the file residing in the cloud system in the client computer'"'"'s local file system;

wherein the linking file appears as a file having a file type that is associated with said cloud application; and

wherein the link within the linking file operates such that attempting to open said linking file causes the file residing in the cloud file system to be opened by said cloud application from the cloud file system; and

otherwise, storing in a local file system of the client computer system a copy of the file residing in the cloud file system.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the link is usable by a browser to access to the file electronically stored in the cloud file system.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3 wherein the link comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein the link comprises a resourceID of the file electronically stored in the cloud file system.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 5 wherein said file residing in the cloud file system exhibits a type selected from the group consisting of:

documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms and cloud sites.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7 wherein said cloud computing services include applications selected from the group consisting of:

word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, and calendar.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein said file residing in the cloud file system is originated by a third-party application in conjunction with cloud computing services.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein said link associated with the locally stored electronically stored file permits access to a cloud site.

29. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the file type is associated with a file extension .gdoc.

30. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein if the file did not originate via cloud computing services, the file originated from the client computer system and was uploaded to the cloud file system via a drag-and-drop operation performed on the client computer system.

2. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

11. A system for transferring files and providing access to files electronically stored in a cloud storage system comprising a client computer system including a processor and a memory coupled to said processor said memory having stored thereon computer executable instructions that upon execution by the processor cause the system to:

detect a relevant change made to a first file residing in a cloud file system;

determine whether the first file originated via cloud computing services and whether the first file has a file type that is associated with a cloud application;

if the first file originated via cloud computing services and the file has a file type that is associated with a cloud application, then store in the client computer'"'"'s a local file system a linking file comprising a link to the first file, wherein the linking file appears as a second file having a file type that is associated with said cloud application and the link within the linking file operates such that attempting to open said linking file causes the first file to be opened by said cloud application from the cloud file system;

otherwise

store a copy of the first file to the client computer system.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the link may be used by a browser to access to the first file residing in the cloud file system.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the link comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the link comprises a resourceID of the first file.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein said first file exhibits a type selected from the group consisting of:

documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms and cloud sites.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein said cloud computing services include applications selected from the group consisting of:

word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, calendar, and cloud site applications.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein said first file is produced by a third-party application in conjunction with the cloud computing services.

21. The system of claim 11 wherein said first file exhibits a type indicative of generation by a third-party application in conjunction with cloud computing services.

22. The system of claim 11 wherein said link permits access to a cloud site.

31. The system of claim 11, wherein the file type is associated with a file extension .gdoc.

32. The system of claim 11, wherein if the first file did not originate via cloud computing services, the first file originated from the client computer system and was uploaded to the cloud file system via a drag-and-drop operation performed on the client computer system.

12. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

17. (canceled)

23-28. -28. (canceled)