Searching and placeholders

• US 9,218,350 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2013
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Novak, Michael John, Guzak, Chris, Ranjit, Sangeeta, Hoogerwerf, Scott David, Govrin, Amnon Itamar, Wautier, Marc, Reiniger, Kiernon, Beck, Kyle Thomas, Beam, Tyler Kien, Shekel, Oded Yehuda, Ivanovic, Relja
• Primary Examiner(s): MORRISON, JAY A
• Application Number:
  US13/873,264
• Publication Number:
  US 20140324777A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/162 Delete operations erasing in storage systems G06F3/0652
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1744 using compression, e.g. sparse files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems

Abstract

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to file system placeholders. In aspects, placeholders may be used by a client to represent remote file system objects. The placeholders may include metadata, searchable text, and may also include none, some, or all of the content of the represented remote file system objects. Search data from the placeholders is integrated into a local search database of the client such that the client is able to satisfy queries and identify relevant local and remote file system objects even when the client is offline with respect to remote storage.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part by a computer, the method comprising:

receiving metadata for a file system object that is represented by a placeholder, the placeholder being stored on a local file system of a client, the placeholder including data that identifies a remote storage system from which content of the file system object is obtainable, the client structured to synchronize the local file system with the remote storage system, the metadata sufficient to allow the client, while offline with respect to the remote storage system, to obtain namespace information about the file system object from the placeholder, wherein the local file system is controlled and managed by a local file system manager on the computer, wherein the local file system comprises a local namespace controlled and managed by the local file system, wherein the local file system stores local file system objects and stores placeholders that represent respective remote file system objects, wherein the placeholders and the file system objects have respective entries in the local namespace;

storing the metadata in the placeholder;

obtaining search data from the metadata; and

representing the search data in a search database that resides on the local file system, the search database also representing search data from local file system objects that are stored on the local file system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, while the client is offline with respect to the remote storage system, performing actions, the actions comprising:

receiving a search request of the local file system;

searching the search database in response to the search request;

identifying, from the search database, the file system object that is represented by the placeholder as having data relevant to the search request; and

providing an indication of the file system object.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

representing a second file system object of the local file system with a second placeholder, the second file system object having content stored on the remote storage system and the local file system;

deleting content of the second file system object from the local file system;

refraining from deleting from the search database search data obtained from the content of the second file system object prior to the deletion thereof; and

while the client is offline with respect to the remote storage system, performing actions, the actions comprising;

receiving a search request,

searching the search database, and

identifying, from the search data of the second file system object in the search database, the second file system object that is represented by the second placeholder as having data relevant to the search request.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving searchable text for the file system object, the searchable text part of the content of the file system object;

storing the searchable text in the placeholder;

obtaining search data from the searchable text; and

representing the search data from the searchable text in the search database.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the searchable text has a size that is less than all searchable text of the file system object, the size determined by a configurable setting.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the file system object comprises a document and the size is a number of words starting at the beginning of the document.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the searchable text was extracted prior to the receiving the searchable text, the searchable text being extracted by a sender of the searchable text by including text and omitting other data included in the content of the file system object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for the content of the file system object;

obtaining the content of the file system object from the remote storage system;

deleting the placeholder;

extracting additional search data from the content of the file system object; and

representing the additional search data in the search database.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, while the client is offline with respect to a plurality of remote storage systems, performing actions, the actions comprising:

searching the search database that resides on the local file system;

finding, in the search database, an indication of a plurality of relevant file system objects, at least one of the relevant file system objects residing on the local file system and at least two of the relevant file system objects residing on different ones of the remote storage systems; and

displaying an indication of each of the relevant file system objects together in a single graphical interface.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising while the client is offline with respect to the remote storage system, performing actions, the actions comprising:

receiving a search request that asks for file system objects that have at least metadata that satisfies conditions indicated by the search request;

from the search database, obtaining data that indicates all file system objects that satisfy the conditions, the all file system objects including a first set of file system objects and a second set of file system objects, the first set of file system objects residing on the local file system, the second set of file system objects residing on the remote storage system and represented by placeholders that are stored on the local file system; and

providing the data for both the first set of file system objects and the second set of file system objects in a single result set.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the search request additionally asks for an indication of file system objects that include searchable text that satisfies additional conditions, the placeholders including searchable text that comes from content of the second set of file system objects.

12. The method of claim 1, while the client is offline with respect to the remote storage system, performing actions, the actions comprising:

receiving a search request that asks for a timeline view of all photos taken over a period of time;

from the search database, obtaining an indication of all file system objects that satisfy the search request, the all file system objects including a first set of file system objects and a second set of file system objects, the first set of file system objects residing on the local file system, the second set of file system objects residing on the remote storage system and represented by placeholders that are stored on the local file system;

for the first set of file system objects, obtaining first timeline data from file system metadata maintained on the local file system;

for the second set of file system objects, obtaining second timeline data from the placeholders; and

displaying output data of the all file system objects in a sequence determined by the first timeline data and the second timeline data such that the output data indicates the photos ordered from most recent to least recent.

13. In a computing environment, a system, comprising:

a file store having computer storage elements structured to persist file system metadata for local file system objects of a local file system and to persist placeholders for remote file system objects of a remote storage system, the placeholders including metadata of the remote file system objects without requiring that the remote file system objects exist in the file store;

a search store having computer storage elements structured to persist a search database that includes information from the local file system objects and from the placeholders, the search store configured to provide search results for searches for file system objects in the local file system;

a placeholder manager structured to create, populate, and maintain the placeholders to ensure that placeholders exist in the file store for the remote file system objects in a namespace at least if the remote file system objects do not completely exist on the file store; and

a gatherer/updater, hosted on a client, the gatherer/updater structured to perform actions, the actions comprising;

receiving metadata for a file system object that is represented by a placeholder, the file system object comprising content that is stored on the remote storage system and that is not stored on the local file system, wherein the metadata comprises text obtained from the content, the placeholder being stored on the file store, the placeholder including data that identifies the remote storage system from which content of the file system object is obtainable,

obtaining the text from the metadata, and

representing the text in the search database.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a query manager that, at least while the client is offline with respect to the remote storage system, is structured to perform actions, comprising;

receiving a search request;

in response to the search request, searching the search database;

identifying the file system object that is represented by the placeholder as having data relevant to the search request; and

providing an indication of the file system object.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the gatherer/updater is further structured to add additional search data to the search database when additional content of the file system object is received and to refrain from deleting the additional search data from the search database even after the additional content of the file system object is deleted from the file store provided that the placeholder still exists on the file store.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the gatherer/updater is further structured to perform additional actions, the additional actions comprising:

receiving searchable text for the file system object from the placeholder, the searchable text previously obtained from the content of the file system object;

obtaining search data for the searchable text;

representing the search data for the searchable text in the search database.

17. The system of claim 13, further comprising a query manager structured to perform additional actions at least while the client is offline with respect to the remote storage system, the additional actions comprising:

receiving a search request that asks for file system objects that have metadata that satisfies conditions indicated by the search request;

from the search database, obtaining data that indicates all file system objects that satisfy the conditions, the all file system objects including a first set of file system objects and a second set of file system objects, the first set of file system objects residing on the local file system, the second set of file system objects having content that resides on the remote storage system and being represented by placeholders that are stored on the local file system; and

providing the data for both the first set of file system objects and the second set of file system objects in a single result set.

18. A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform actions, comprising:

receiving a request for search data of a file system object indicated by a client, the client having a client file system, the client file system having first file system objects in which all content is located on the client file system and second file system objects in which less than all content thereof is located on the client file system, the client having placeholders that respectively represent at least the second file system objects, the file system object being one of the second file system objects and being represented by a placeholder stored on the client file system, the placeholder identifying a remote storage system from which content of the file system object is obtainable, the client structured to store the search data in a search database of the client file system even when the content of the file system object is not stored on the client file system, wherein the client file system is controlled and managed by a file system manager on the client, wherein the client file system comprises a namespace controlled and managed by the file system manager, wherein the client file system stores the file system objects and stores the placeholders, and wherein the placeholders and the first and second file system objects have respective entries in the local namespace; and

providing the search data of the file system object from the remote storage system to the client to be incorporated into the placeholder of the file system object, the search data comprising text extracted from content of the file system object stored by the remote storage system.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 18, further comprising, prior to receiving the request, extracting the text from the content and storing the text in metadata stored on the remote storage system.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the content is stored on the remote storage system but not on the client file system, the extracting comprising obtaining the text from the content by omitting from the text non-text content of the text content.