MONITORING ALIGNMENT OF COMPUTER FILE STATES ACROSS A GROUP OF USERS

• US 20190332596A1
• Filed: 06/04/2019
• Published: 10/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ultralight Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ultralight Technologies Inc.
• Inventors: Gammans, Charles C.
• Granted Patent: US 11,216,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1787 Details of non-transparently synchronising file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols

Abstract

A first state identifier is determined according to the state of a first file at a first time point, and a second state identifier is determined according to the state of a second file at a second time point. The first and second state identifiers are compared and an alignment indication is displayed to a user of a client device thereby making the user aware of the alignment state between the files. The files may be associated with different client devices or different users thereby showing group alignment. The files may also be associated with a single user or client device thereby showing local alignment. The state identifiers may include digest hashes of content of the first and second files, metadata, or state information regarding the files. The files may be encrypted and access check keys utilized to determine whether a client device is authorized to receive an encrypted file.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of client devices; and

a computer server coupled to each of the client devices via a network;

wherein the plurality of client devices includes a first client device operable to declare a first declared file;

in response to declaring the first declared file, the first client device is operable to determine a first state identifier and send the first state identifier to the computer server via the network, the first state identifier corresponding to a state of the first declared file at a point in time that the first declared file is declared;

the computer server is operable to store the first state identifier of the first declared file;

the plurality of client devices includes a second client device operable to declare a second declared file, a point in time that the second declared file is declared being after the point in time that the first declared file is declared;

in response to declaring the second declared file, the second client device is operable to determine a second state identifier and send the second state identifier to the computer server via the network, the second state identifier corresponding to a state of the second declared file at the point in time that the second declared file is declared;

the computer server is operable to store the second state identifier of the second declared file regardless of any differences between the second state identifier and the first state identifier;

in response to receiving the second state identifier from the second client device, the computer server is operable to compare the first state identifier and the second state identifier, and then send at least a first message to the first client device via the network, the first message including group alignment status specifying whether the first state identifier equals the second state identifier; and

the first client device is operable to automatically display a group alignment indication on a user interface of the first client device in response to receiving the group alignment status from the computer server, the first client device toggling the group alignment indication between showing an aligned and not aligned state according to the group alignment status received from the computer server, the group alignment indication thereby making a user of the first client device aware of whether the state of the first declared file matches the state of the second declared file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first state identifier includes at least a first declared hash value, and the first client device is operable to calculate the first declared hash value by running a hash function on content of the first declared file at the point in time that the first declared file is declared;

the second state identifier includes at least a second declared hash value, the second client device is operable to calculate the second declared hash value by running the hash function on content of the second declared file at the point in time that the second declared file is declared;

in response to receiving the second state identifier from the second client device, the computer server is operable to compare the first declared hash value and the second declared hash value, and then send at least the first message to the first client device via the network, the first message including the group alignment status specifying whether the first declared hash value equals the second declared hash value; and

the first client device is operable to automatically display the group alignment indication on the user interface of the first client device according to the group alignment status received from the computer server, the group alignment indication thereby making the user of the first client device aware of whether the content of the first declared file matches the content of the second declared file.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein:

in response to receiving the second state identifier from the second client device, the computer server is further operable to send a second message to the second client device via the network, the second message indicating whether the first declared hash value equals the second declared hash value; and

after receiving the second message, the second client device is operable to automatically display a group alignment indication on a user interface of the second client device showing whether the first hash declared value equals the second declared hash value thereby also making a user of the second client device aware of whether the content of the first declared file matches the content of the second declared file.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the user interface of the first client device allows the user of the first client device to declare a first working file that is accessible to the first client device as the first declared file; and

the first client device is operable to store a copy of the first working file at a time that the first working file is declared, the copy of the first working file forming the first declared file.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the first client device is further operable to upload a version of the first declared file to the computer server via the network after the first working file is declared.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the computer server is further operable to transmit the version of the first declared file from the computer server to the second client device via the network in response to receiving a download request from the second client device.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the first client device is further operable to:

calculate a first working hash value by running the hash function on the content of the first working file at a later time after the user has declared the first working file;

compare the first working hash value with the first declared hash value; and

automatically display a local alignment indication on the user interface of the first client device showing whether the first working hash value equals the first declared hash value thereby making the user of the first client device aware of whether the content of the first working file still matches the content of the first declared file.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first client device is operable to automatically display both the group alignment indication and the local alignment indication as one or more icon overlays on a file icon representing the first working file shown by a file manager running on the first client device.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the user interface of the first client device allows the user of the first client device to join the first working file to a conversation having a particular conversation identifier;

the first client device is operable to inform the computer server via the network that the first declared file formed from the first working file is associated with the particular conversation identifier; and

the computer server is operable to send the first message indicating whether the first declared hash value equals the second declared hash value only when both the first declared file and the second declared file are associated with the particular conversation identifier.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the first client device is operable to associate the first working file with the first declared file by storing file tracking data for the first working file, the file tracking data being one of an alternative data stream for the first working file, a data fork of the first working file, or an extended attribute of the first working file.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the user interface of the first client device allows the user of the first client device to add a link with at least the user of the second client device for group alignment monitoring purposes; and

the computer server is operable to send the first message only when the user of the first client device is linked to the user of the second client device for group alignment monitoring purposes.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first declared file is stored at a first storage location not accessible to the second client device; and

the second declared file is stored at a second storage location not accessible to the first client device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein neither the first storage location nor the second storage location are accessible to the computer server.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first client device is further operable to determine a plurality of first state identifiers corresponding to a plurality of first declared files, and send the plurality of first state identifiers to the computer server via the network, the first state identifiers respectively corresponding to states of the first declared files at a point in time that the first declared files are declared;

the second client device is further operable to determine a plurality of second state identifiers corresponding to a plurality of second declared files, and send the plurality of second state identifiers to the computer server via the network, the second state identifiers respectively corresponding to states of the second declared files at a point in time that the second declared files are declared;

the computer server is further operable to compare the plurality of first state identifiers and the plurality of second state identifiers, and then send at least the first message to the first client device via the network, the first message including the group alignment status specifying whether the plurality of first state identifiers are the same as the plurality of the second state identifiers; and

the first client device is further operable to automatically display the group alignment indication on the user interface of the first client device according to the group alignment status received from the computer server, the group alignment indication thereby further making the user of the first client device aware of whether the states of the first declared files match the states of the second declared files.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the user interface of the first client device further allows the user of the first client device to declare a first working folder that is accessible to the first client device as a first declared folder; and

the first client device is operable to store a copy of the first working folder at a time that the first working folder is declared, the copy of the first working folder holding the first declared files.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first client device is further operable to:

calculate a plurality of first declared hash values by running a hash function on each file in the first declared folder at the point in time when the first declared folder is declared;

calculate a plurality of first working hash values by running the hash function on each file in the first working folder at a later time after the user has declared the first working folder;

compare the plurality of first working hash values with the plurality of first declared hash values; and

automatically display a local folder alignment indication on the user interface of the first client device showing whether the plurality of first working hash values match the plurality of first declared hash values thereby making the user of the first client device aware of whether the files of the first working folder still match the files of the first declared folder.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first client device is operable to automatically display both the group alignment indication and the local folder alignment indication as one or more icon overlays on a folder icon representing the first working folder shown by a file manager running on the first client device.

18. A computer server comprising:

a network interface coupled via a network to a plurality of client devices;

a storage device; and

one or more processors coupled to the network interface and the storage device;

wherein, by the one or more processors executing software instructions loaded from the storage device, the one or more processors are operable to;

receive a first state identifier from a first client device and store the first state identifier in the storage device, the first state identifier corresponding to a state of the first declared file at a point in time that the first declared file is declared;

receive a second state identifier from a second client device and store the second state identifier in the storage device regardless of any differences between the second state identifier and the first state identifier, the second state identifier corresponding to a state of the second declared file at a point in time that the second declared file is declared;

in response to receiving the second state identifier from the second client device, compare the first state identifier and the second state identifier; and

send at least a first message to the first client device via the network, the first message including group alignment status specifying whether the first state identifier equals the second state identifier;

the first client device thereafter automatically displaying a group alignment indication on a user interface of the first client device in response to receiving the group alignment status from the computer server, the first client device toggling the group alignment indication between showing an aligned and not aligned state according to the group alignment status received from the computer server, the group alignment indication thereby making a user of the first client device aware of whether the state of the first declared file matches the state of the second declared file.

19. A method comprising:

determining a first state identifier corresponding to a state of first declared file at a point in time that the first declared file is declared, the first declared file being associated with a first client device;

determining a second state identifier corresponding to a state of a second declared file at a point in time that the second declared file is declared, the point in time that the second declared file is declared being after the point in time that the first declared file is declared, the second declared file being associated with a second client device;

storing the first state identifier and the second state identifier at a computer server coupled to the first and second client devices via a computer network regardless of any differences between the second state identifier and the first state identifier;

comparing by the computer server the first state identifier and the second state identifier;

sending at least a first message by the computer server to the first client device via the network, the first message including group alignment status specifying whether the first state identifier equals the second state identifier; and

automatically displaying a group alignment indication on a user interface of the first client device in response to receiving the group alignment status from the computer server by toggling the group alignment indication between showing an aligned and not aligned state according to the group alignment status received from the computer server, the group alignment indication thereby making a user of the first client device aware of whether the state of the first declared file matches the state of the second declared file.

20. A non-transitory processor-readable medium comprising processor executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform the method of claim 19.