CONTENT-ITEM RELATIONSHIP MESSAGING SYSTEM

• US 20140359023A1
• Filed: 05/30/2013
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Homsany, Ramsey
• Granted Patent: US 10,243,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments

Abstract

A message can be selectively provided to users of an online content management service based at least in part on a user relationship between the users and a shared content item. Users having the user relationship associated with the message can be shown the message, where users without the user relationship are not shown the message. For example, a message can be configured to be shown upon the first time a content item is opened by a user, but not on subsequent openings of the content item.

Claims

1. A method executable at a server, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a first client for access to a shared content item in a shared content management system, the shared content item being shared by a plurality of users, including a first user of the first client;

accessing metadata for the shared content item, the metadata including a record of interactions of the plurality of users with the shared content item and a set of user-generated messages, each message associated with one or more of a plurality of user relationships to the shared content item;

determining a user relationship of the first user to the shared content item based at least in part on the record of interactions;

selecting a message from the set of user-generated messages based at least in part on the determined user relationship; and

transmitting, to the first client, the first content item with the selected message included within a message area of the first content item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user relationship is based at least in part on the first user having viewed the content item, first user having edited the content item or a user not having viewed the content item.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of user-generated messages includes edits to the content item.

4. A method executable at a server, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a first client for access to a first shared content item in a shared content management system;

accessing metadata for the first shared content item, the metadata including a set of user-generated messages, each message associated with one or more of a plurality of user relationships to the first shared content item;

determining a first user relationship of a first user of the first client to the first shared content item;

selecting a first message from the set of user-generated messages based at least in part on the determined first user relationship; and

transmitting, to the first client, the first shared content item with the selected first message.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a second user relationship of the first user to a second shared content item in the shared content management system; and

wherein selecting the message from the set of user generated messages further comprises selecting the message from the set of user generated messages based at least in part on a message setting that requires both the determined second user relationship and the determined user relationship in order to be transmitted to the first client.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first shared content item is a document comprising a designated area for insertion of the one or more user generated messages based at least in part on the determined user relationship to the document;

and

wherein transmitting, to the first client, the first shared content item with the selected message further comprises inserting the one or more user generated messages into the designated area of the document.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a second user relationship of the first user to an author of the one or more user generated messages; and

wherein selecting the message from the set of user-generated messages further comprises selecting the message from the set of user generated messages based at least in part on the association of the message with determined first user relationship to the first shared content item and second user relationship to the author.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a second user relationship of the first user to the first shared content item; and

selecting a second message from the set of user generated messages based at least in part on the determined second user relationship;

wherein transmitting, to the first client, the first shared content item with the selected first message further includes transmitting the selected second message.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the user relationship of the first user to the first shared content item further comprises determining the user relationship based at least in part on a interaction of the first user with the first shared content item.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the user relationship of the first user to the first shared content item further comprises determining a number of times the first shared content item has been opened by the user.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the user relationship of the first user to the first shared content item further comprises determining that the first user has not viewed the first shared content item since the first message was enabled for transmission with the content item.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the user relationship of the first user to the first shared content item further comprises determining that the first message has not yet been transmitted with the first shared content item to the first user.

13. A method executable at one or more servers, the method comprising:

associating a set of users with a first content item in a shared content management system;

defining a set of relationships of the users with the first content item based at least in part on interactions with the first content item;

receiving a request from a first client to selectively send a message to a subset of the set of users, the request indicating that the subset should be selected based at least in part on whether the user has a specified relationship with the first content item;

selecting the subset of the set of users based at least in part on whether each user of the subset of the set of users has the specified relationship; and

providing the message to the subset of the set of users.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein selecting the subset of the set of users further comprises determining the subset of the set of users based at least in part on whether the user has a specified relationship with the first content item and a second content item.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein associating a set of users with the first content item further comprises granting a permission to access the first content item to the set of users.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the message is provided through one or more of email, instant messaging, or text-message.

17. A method executable at one or more servers, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a first client under direction of a first user to associate a message with a relationship to a content item in a shared content management system;

storing the message as associated with the relationship to the content item;

receiving a request from a second client to access the content item;

determining whether the message should be provided to the second client based at least in part on a determined relationship of a second user of the second client to the content item; and

providing the message and content item to the second client in response to determining that the message should be provided.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the determination whether the message should be provided to the second client is based at least in part on a determined relationship of the second user of the second client to the content item and a determined relationship of the second user of the second client to the first user.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein receiving the request from the first client to associate the message with the relationship to a content item further comprises selecting the relationship as a user status with respect to the content item.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein receiving the request from the first client to associate the message with the relationship to a content item further comprises selecting the relationship based on user interactions with respect to the content item.

21. A computer system comprising:

a data storage medium configured to store a set of messages associated with a content item, at least a subset of the set of messages being associated with one or more user relationships;

a processor coupled to the data storage medium and configured to;

receive a request from a first client to attach a message to a content item, the message being associated with a specified user relationship;

store the message in the data store and associate the message with the specified user relationship;

receive a request from a second client to access the content item;

determine whether the message should be disclosed to the second client based at least in part on whether a determined user relationship of a user of the second client to the content item matches the specified user relationship; and

provide the message and content item to the second client.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein storing the message in the data store and associating the message with the requested user relationship further comprises storing the message, an association of the message with the requested user relationship and user relationship in a metadata object.

23. The computer system of claim 22, wherein determining to disclose the message to the second client further comprises:

retrieving the metadata object from the metadata store based on the association of the metadata object to the content item;

determining the requested user relationship stored in the metadata object matches the determined user relationship of the user of the second client to the content item.

24. The computer system of claim 21,

wherein the content item is a word processing document;

wherein the message comprises alterations to the word processing document; and

wherein providing the message and content item to the second client further comprises providing a markup of the word processing document to the second client based at least in part on the message.

25. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to execute a method comprising:

selecting a content item from a shared content management system;

selecting a relationship to the content item, the relationship based at least in part on interaction of other users with the content item;

providing a message to associate with the content item and the relationship; and

requesting the message be provided with the content item to a set of users that meet the selected relationship to the content item.

26. The computer-readable storage media of claim 25, wherein the interaction of other users with the content item are prior interactions.

27. The computer-readable storage media of claim 25, wherein the interaction of other users with the content item are interactions that trigger display of the message.