Content Item Synchronization By Block

• US 20150207844A1
• Filed: 01/23/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Tataroiu, Bogdan-Cristian, Koorapati, Nipunn
• Granted Patent: US 9,509,747 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/278 Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access details of content or meta data based information retrieval of video data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/83 Generation or processing of protective or descriptive data associated with content; Content structuring

Abstract

A content management system synchronizes content items across client computing systems. The content items are transmitted to the content management system and managed as blocks of data with a fixed size. When a new content item is added to synchronized data at a client, the client transmits the blocks and a blocklist to the content management system. The content management system uses the blocklist to determine blocks expected to be received at the content management system and the client begins to transmit blocks of the content item to the content management system. When blocks received at the content management system match expected blocks, the content management system notifies receiving clients to begin receiving blocks for the content item, prior to receipt of all blocks on the blocklist at the content management system. This enables content items to begin synchronization across clients prior to actual entry of the content item into the content management system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at an online content management system from a remote uploading client computer via a network, a blocklist of block identifiers for a content item and a first block corresponding to a first block identifier in the blocklist;

identifying, by the online content management system, a remote receiving client computer to receive the content item; and

prior to receipt, by the online content management system, of all blocks corresponding to the blocklist of block identifiers, transmitting, by the content management system, the blocklist and the first block to the remote receiving client computer via the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a remote receiving client computer comprises identifying a client computer based on a namespace associated with the content item.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

maintaining a namespace table storing associations between namespaces and client computers, wherein each namespace in the namespace table is assigned a namespace identifier; and

obtaining a namespace identifier associated with the content item;

wherein identifying the receiving client comprises identifying a client associated with the namespace using the namespace table and the namespace identifier.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein obtaining the namespace identifier comprises receiving the namespace identifier from the uploading client computer.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a second block corresponding to a second block identifier in the blocklist and transmitting the second block to the receiving client via the network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the blocklist defines an order for reassembling blocks of data into the content item.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

prior to transmitting the blocklist and the first block, notifying the receiving client computer that the first block has been received.

8. A content management system comprising:

a processor;

a metadata server stored in a memory and executed by the processor and configured to receive a blocklist for a content item from a remote uploading client computer via a network, the blocklist identifying a list of block identifiers for a plurality of blocks for the content item;

a block server stored in the memory and executed by the processor and configured to store received blocks of data and alert the metadata server when a block is received, and transmit stored blocks to a remote receiving client computer via the network; and

a notification server stored in the memory and executed by the processor and configured to notify the receiving client computer that a block of data has been received, wherein notifying the receiving client computer occurs prior to receipt by the block server of all blocks corresponding to the blocklist;

wherein the metadata server is further configured to, in response to an alert from the block server, determine whether the received block corresponds to a block identifier in the blocklist.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising

a namespace table storing associations between namespaces and client computers;

and

wherein the metadata server is further configured to obtain a namespace identifier for the content item, and identify the receiving client computer based on the namespace using the namespace table and the namespace identifier.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein determining whether the received block corresponds to a block identifier in the blocklist comprises computing a hash value for the block and identifying the hash value in the blocklist.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the block server is further configured to transmit blocks to the receiving client computer after receiving a request for the blocks from the receiving client computer.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the notification server is further configured to notify the receiving client computer as each block of data is received.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to execute the steps of:

receiving, at an online content management system from a remote uploading client computer via a network, a blocklist of block identifiers for a content item and a first block corresponding to a first block identifier in the blocklist;

identifying, by the content management system, a remote receiving client computer to receive the content item from a namespace associated with the content item;

prior to receipt of all of the blocks by the content management system from the uploading client computer that correspond to the blocklist of block identifiers, notifying, by the content management system, the receiving client computer that the first block has been received; and

transmitting, by the content management system, the blocklist and the received block of data to the receiving client via the network.

14. The medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions to determine whether the block of data corresponds to a block identifier comprises determining a hash value of the block of data.

15. The medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to maintain a namespace database storing associations between namespaces and client computers;

and receive a namespace associated with the content item from the uploading client computer;

wherein identifying the receiving client comprises identifying a client associated with the namespace using the namespace database.

16. The medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to receive additional blocks of data corresponding to a block identifier in the blocklist and notify the receiving client that the additional blocks have been received.

17. A method for synchronizing content items by a client device with a content management system, comprising:

receiving, by the client device from the content management system via a network, a notification that a block of data is available for a content item;

receiving, by the client device, a blocklist identifying a list of block identifiers for a plurality of blocks constituting the content item, each block identifier comprising

a hash value corresponding to a block in the plurality of blocks;

receiving, by the client device from the content management system, the block of data;

determining that the block of data corresponds to a block identifier on the list of block identifiers;

reconstructing, by the client device, a portion of the content item prior to receipt of all blocks designated by the list of block identifiers.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the file is a media file.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the portion of the content item is usable by an application executing on the client device.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the remaining blocks identified by the blocklist are received and the full content item is reconstructed.