PROVIDING ACCESS TO A CLOUD BASED CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ON A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20150177938A1
• Filed: 04/08/2014
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Kleinpeter, Thomas, Grue, Anthony, Poletto, Stephen, Scheff, Andrew, Haven, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 10,067,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A user device has a processing module and a UI module. The processing module may have a permanent connection to the UI module, and an intermittent connection to a content management system over a data network. User requested actions are executed within the UI module. For each such action, a parallel request is sent to the content management system when network connectivity allows. Results of the user requested actions are presented within the UI module as if they had been implemented on the content management system. The user may thus interact with content as if all user requested actions have occurred substantially simultaneously with the request. When network connectivity allows, confirmation is received in the processing module from the content management system that the actions have been implemented, and the state of the user requested actions in the UI module is matched with that on the content management system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing, in response to detection of a user interaction with a content item, a local identifier assigned to the content item and the user interaction referenced by the local identifier;

registering the content item with a listener module;

presenting, in a user interface, a local representation of the user interaction with the content item as if the user interaction has been executed on a content management system,

queuing the user interaction for;

upload to the content management system, and

assignment of a system-wide identifier by the content management system; and

replacing, in response to receipt of the system-wide identifier, the local identifier with the system-wide identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing further comprises:

communicating the system-wide identifier to the listener module.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the local identifier is stored in a data structure, replacing further comprises:

updating the data structure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein further comprises

generating, locally, the local identifier for the content item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interaction comprises one or more of adding the content item to a shared virtual space, sharing the content item with at least one other user of the content management system, or modifying the content item.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the content item comprises one or more of a collection of content items, a message, a data structure, an image, a video, or a link.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the listener module comprises a database comprising a local cache representative of the state of the content management system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the database is operable to run a thread to detect any changes in that occur on the content management system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the thread continually runs as long as the user device is connected to the content management system server.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the database holds one or more of all of the user'"'"'s photos, all of the user'"'"'s rooms, or all of the contents of those rooms.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

global data comprises data that has been synchronized with the content management system; and

local data comprises data that has been generated locally but that has not yet been synchronized with the content management system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the listener module registers one or more of a rooms listener, a post listener, or a room members listener.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a processing module defines an interface for listeners to implement; and

the listener implementations are provided in the user interface module.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a user device, cause the user device to:

provide a content management system application comprising;

a user interface module and a processing and network communications module,

execute all user requested actions within the user interface module, such that no network communication is needed;

send, for each user requested action, a parallel request from the processing and network communications module to the content management system; and

present results of all user requested actions within the user interface module as if they had been implemented on the content management system;

receive, upon network connectivity exceeding a defined threshold, confirmation in the processing and network communications module from the content management system that the user requested actions have been implemented; and

match, based on the received confirmations, a state of the user requested actions in the user interface module with a state of the user requested actions on the content management system.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the user interface module is communicably connected to the processing and network communications module; and

the processing and network communications module is intermittently connected to a content management system over a data network.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the processing and network communications module includes a database comprising a local cache of the state of the content management system server.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the database is continually updated by a thread running within the processing and network communications module; and

the thread looks for any changes in the state of the content management system server.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the parallel request is sent from the processing and network communications module in response to one or more of an addition of at least one content item, an addition of at least one data structure, a detected interaction with at least one content item, or a detected interaction with at least one data structure; and

a local identifier associated with one of the at least one content item or the at least one data structure is sent with the parallel request.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the local identifier is assigned by the processing and network communications module prior to the execution of the user requested action regarding one of the at least one content item or the at least one data structure.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the receipt of confirmation from the content management system is via one or more of a push notification sent by the content management system server to the user interface module or a response from the content management system server received in the processing and network communications module.