FILE-LEVEL COMMENTING

• US 20150135097A1
• Filed: 11/14/2013
• Published: 05/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: CARRIERO, Thomas, DELAMERE, Mark, RHA, Phil, VINCENT, Jon, JAYAKAR, Sujay
• Granted Patent: US 9,519,525 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Various embodiments provide a commenting system for multiple users to provide and share comments to shared content items. For example, users can share a web link to a collection of content items, such as documents, spreadsheets, photos, and any other media, with other users stored in an online content management system. To enable such functionality, the online content management system can expose an application programming interface to enable third-party service providers to develop and attach a comment interface to content items. Accordingly, such a commenting system can provide a comment interface for concurrent display alongside a respective content item in which users can provide comments to shared content items or to use as notes for their personal content items.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

providing a content item for display on a first computing device, the content item being viewable between the first computing device and at least one second computing device through an account with an online content management system;

providing a comment interface associated with the content item for concurrent display with the content item, the comment interface interfacing with the content item through an application programming interface (API) provided by the online content management system; and

causing, in response to a comment provided to the comment interface on the first computing device, the comment to be synchronized with a copy of the content item stored locally on the first computing device and at least one second computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the comment provided to the comment interface is received through the API.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the comment interface is provided by a service provider separate from the online content management system.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content item is displayed on a webpage and the comment interface is associated with a browser plug-in.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the comment interface is at least one of scrollable independently of the content item or each comment is linkable to a location in the content item.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content item is at least one of a word processing document, a spreadsheet, a presentation, a video, streaming content, or an image.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

selectably providing the comment interface to be displayed or hidden from concurrent display with the content item.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to:

receive a comment to a content item stored in an online content management system, the comment being received through an application programming interface (API) provided by the online content management system;

assign the comment to the content item, wherein the content item is synchronized with at least one computing device; and

cause the comment to be synchronized with the at least one client device.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

provide, by the online content management system, the API to be available to a third-party service provider.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the API interfaces with the content item via metadata associated with the content item.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

provide, by the online content management system, the content item for display; and

selectably provide the comment to be displayed concurrently with the content item or hidden from view.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the content item is displayed on a webpage and the comment is displayed on an interface associated with a browser plug-in.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the content item is displayed with a comment interface provided by a third-party service provider and, wherein the comment interface interfaces with the content item through the API.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the comment is displayable with the content item across a plurality of different computing devices types and across a plurality of different platform types for a plurality of different content item types.

16. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to;

provide a content item for display on a first computing device, the content item being viewable between the first computing device and at least one second computing device through an account with an online content management system;

receive a comment to the content item, the comment being received through an application programming interface (API) provided by the online content management system; and

cause the comment to be synchronized with the first computing device and the at least one second computing device.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further enable the computing device to:

provide, by the online content management system, the API to be available to a third-party service provider, wherein the comment is received in a comment interface provided by the third-party service provider.

18. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the API interfaces with the content item via metadata associated with the content item.

19. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further enable the computing device to:

selectably provide the comment to be displayed concurrently with the content item or hidden from view.

20. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the content item is displayed concurrently with a comment interface provided by a third-party service provider and, wherein the comment interface interfaces with the content item through the API.