METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SEAMLESSLY ACCESSING REMOTELY STORED FILES
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method, comprising:
- receiving, at a seamless file system (SFS) extension to an operating system running within a computer system, a file system request from a first application program executing on the computer system, wherein the file system request includes a request to access a file stored at a remote file system of a Web server reachable over the Internet;
in a network access application program running within the computer system,transforming the file system request into a network communications request conforming to a communications protocol, wherein the communications protocol is compatible with the Web server;
forwarding the network communications request to the Web server;
receiving a portion of the requested file from the Web server; and
caching, locally within the computer system, the portion of the requested file received from the Web server; and
in the SFS extension, using the portion of the cached requested file to respond to the file system request as an ordinary file system response, wherein the portion of the cached requested file is invisible via the file system of the operating system to a second application program running within the computer system other than the first application program.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method by which users via programs on one computer may seamlessly access files remotely stored on other computers that run a well known file access protocol. An operating system extension and an application level network access program are provided. The operating system extension receives file system requests for remote files from the operating system that were issued according to a well known application program interface. The operating system extension forwards the remote file system request to the network access program. The network access program reformats the request according to a well known application level network protocol extension and sends it over a network to a remote computer system.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method, comprising:
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receiving, at a seamless file system (SFS) extension to an operating system running within a computer system, a file system request from a first application program executing on the computer system, wherein the file system request includes a request to access a file stored at a remote file system of a Web server reachable over the Internet; in a network access application program running within the computer system, transforming the file system request into a network communications request conforming to a communications protocol, wherein the communications protocol is compatible with the Web server; forwarding the network communications request to the Web server; receiving a portion of the requested file from the Web server; and caching, locally within the computer system, the portion of the requested file received from the Web server; and in the SFS extension, using the portion of the cached requested file to respond to the file system request as an ordinary file system response, wherein the portion of the cached requested file is invisible via the file system of the operating system to a second application program running within the computer system other than the first application program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:
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receiving, at a seamless file system (SFS) extension to an operating system running within a computer system, a file system request from a first application program executing on the computer system, wherein the file system request includes a request to access a file stored at a remote file system of a Web server reachable over the Internet; in a network access application program running within the computer system, transforming the file system request into a network communications request conforming to a communications protocol, wherein the communications protocol is compatible with the Web server; forwarding the network communications request to the Web server; receiving a portion of the requested file from the Web server; caching, locally within the computer system, the portion of the requested file received from the Web server; and in the SFS extension, using the portion of the cached requested file to respond to the file system request as an ordinary file system response, wherein the portion of the cached requested file is invisible via the file system of the operating system to a second application program running within the computer system other than the first application program. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
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7. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor in a machine, cause the machine to perform operations for:
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an operating system; a seamless file system (SFS) plug-in in the operating system; a file system interface in the operating system; and an SFS network access program in an application level separate from the operating system; wherein the SFS plug-in is configured to; receive file-access requests from the file system interface; parse the file-access requests to determine when the file-access request is destined for a remote computer; and forward file-access requests destined for a remote computer to the SFS network access program; and wherein the SFS network access program is configured to; from each received file-access request, generate a corresponding remote request that is formatted according to an application-level protocol; and forward the remote request to the remote computer to perform the file-access operation. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method, comprising:
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in a computer, performing operations for a seamless file system (SFS) plug-in in an operating system and a SFS network access program in an application level separate from the operating system, the operations comprising; in the seamless file system (SFS) plug-in; receiving a file-access request from a file system interface in the operating system; determining when the file-access request is destined for a remote computer; and when the file-access request is destined for a remote computer, forwarding the file-access request to the SFS network access program; and in the SFS network access program; from the file-access request, generating a corresponding remote request that is formatted according to an application-level protocol; and forwarding the remote request to the operating system to be transmitted to the remote computer to perform the file-access operation. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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Specification