Streaming content and placeholders

• US 9,405,767 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2013
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Fields, David C, Novak, Michael John, Guzak, Chris, Ranjit, Sangeeta, Hoogerwerf, Scott David, Govrin, Amnon Itamar, Reiniger, Kiernon, Ramani, Ramanarayanan, Krishnamurhty, Raghu, Santhanam, Subha, Shekel, Oded Yehuda
• Primary Examiner(s): Morrison, Jay
• Application Number:
  US13/874,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20140330874A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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]

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 and may also include none, some, or all of the content of the represented remote file system objects. In response to a request to access content of a file system object represented by a placeholder, a client may obtain needed data from a remote storage system and stream or not stream the data to the requesting application based on whether the requesting application is capable of streaming the data.

Claims

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

receiving an indication of a file system object of a local file system of a client, the file system object comprising a placeholder representing the file system object on the local file system, a remote file at a remote storage system, and portions of content, the placeholder being stored on the local file system, the client structured to obtain metadata of the file system object from the placeholder, the client structured to synchronize the local file system with the remote storage system, including duplicating portions of the content from the remote file to the local file system and from the local file system to the remote file, 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, the placeholder including data that identifies the remote storage system from which data of the file system object is obtainable;

receiving a request to access at least a portion of the content of the file system object;

determining, based on the placeholder, whether the portion of the content resides on the local file system;

providing first code that is configured to be executed responsive to determining that the portion of the content resides on the local file system, the first logic able to determine whether the portion of the content is up-to-date and, if so, provide the portion of the content from the local file system;

providing second code that is configured to be executed responsive to determining that the portion of the content does not reside on the local file system, the second logic configured to determine whether or not an application to which the portion of the content is to be provided is structured to access the portion of the content via streaming by accessing a data structure stored on the local file system, the data structure indicating whether the application is structured to access the content via streaming;

providing third code that is configured to be executed responsive to determining that the application to which the portion of the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming, the third code configured to perform actions comprising;

obtaining the portion of the content of the file system object from the remote storage system,

updating the placeholder to indicate that the content is available from the local file system, and

providing the content to the application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data structure indicates which portions of the file system object reside on the local file system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the content is up-to-date comprises comparing a local version of the file system object with a remote version of the file system object, the local version stored in the placeholder, the remote version stored on the remote storage system.

4. The method of claim 1, the data structure having been created or updated in conjunction with installing the application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming comprises determining that the application is not structured to access the content via streaming if the application is a legacy application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming further comprises receiving a call from the application, the call directed to an interface that is compatible with streaming the content, the file system having at least two interfaces for accessing the content, one of the two interface being compatible with streaming the content, another of the two interfaces not being compatible with streaming the content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining at least a portion of the file system object is based on a type associated with the file system object.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein obtaining the at least a portion based on a type associated with the file system object comprises obtaining all the content of the file system object before providing access to the content of the file if the type is an image type.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein obtaining the at least a portion based on a type associated with the file system object comprises obtaining all data of a compressed file that is within the file system object if the file system object is compressed and the request is to access any portion of the compressed file.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining at least a portion of the file system object comprises obtaining a calculated amount of playback data of the file system object, the calculated amount of playback data based on a bitrate of the file system object, the bitrate included in the placeholder.

11. A computing device, comprising:

processing hardware;

storage hardware comprising computer storage elements that persist file system metadata for local file system objects of a local file system and that 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 storage hardware;

the storage hardware storing a placeholder manager structured to be executed by the processing hardware to create, populate, and maintain the placeholders to ensure that placeholders exist for the respective remote file system objects in a namespace, wherein at least some of the placeholders represent respective remote file system objects for which there is no content thereof stored on the storage hardware; and

the storage hardware storing a streaming manager, hosted on the computing device, the streaming manager structured to be executed by the processing hardware to perform actions, the actions comprising;

receiving a request from an application to access content of a file system object;

determining, based on a placeholder of the file, whether the content resides on the local file system;

providing first code that is configured to be executed by the processing hardware responsive to determining that the content resides on the local file system, the first code configured to determine whether the content is up-to-date and, if so, provide the content from the local file system;

providing second code that is configured to be executed by the processing hardware responsive to determining that the content does not reside on the local file system, the second code configured to determine whether an application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming or whether the application to which content is to be provided is not structured to access the content via streaming; and

providing third code that is configured to be executed by the processing hardware responsive to determining that the application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming, wherein the whether the application is structured to access the content via streaming is determined according to how the application makes the request for the content of the file, the third code configured to perform actions comprising;

obtaining at least a portion of the content of the file system object from the remote storage system,

updating the placeholder to indicate that the obtained portion of the content is available from the local file system, and

providing the obtained portion of the content to the application while continuing to obtain additional content of the file system object from the remote file system object.

12. The computing device of claim 11, further comprising a capabilities detector stored in the storage hardware and structured to be executed by the processing hardware to determine whether the application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the capabilities detector being structured to further determine whether the application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming by accessing a data structure stored on the local file system, the data structure having been created in conjunction with installing or updating the application, the data structure indicating whether the application is structured to access the content via streaming.

14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the file system comprises at least two interfaces for accessing the content, one of the two interface being compatible with streaming the content, another of the two interfaces not being compatible with streaming the content, and wherein which interface the application used to request the content serves as the basis for determining whether the application is structured to access the content via streaming.

15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the streaming manager is further structured to determine the at least a portion to obtain based on a type associated with the file system object.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the streaming manager is further structured to determine that the at least a portion includes all the content of the file system object that is not currently on the storage hardware if the type is an image type.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the streaming manager is further structured to determine that the at least a portion includes all data of a compressed file that is within the file system object if the file system object is compressed and the request is to access any portion of the compressed file.

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

receiving a request for data of a file system object indicated by a client, the client having a client file system, the client file system having complete file system objects in which all respective content thereof is located on the client file system and file system objects for which no content thereof is located on the client file system, the client having placeholders that represent at least the file system objects in which no content thereof is located on the client file system, wherein placeholders for respective file system objects for which there is no content located on the client file system are accessible to the client as file system objects, the file system object being represented by a placeholder stored on the client file system, the placeholder identifying a remote storage system from which the content of the file system object is obtainable, the client structured to (i) stream the content of the file system object from the remote storage system to an application hosted on the client responsive to determining that a data structure associated with the application indicates that the application is structured to access the content via streaming and the client further structured to (ii) ensure that all of the content of the file system object is available on the client file system responsive to determining that the application is not structured to access the content via streaming, the client ensuring by copying all of the content of the file system object from the remote storage system to the client file system; and

providing the data of the file system object from the remote storage system.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 18, wherein providing the data of the file system object comprises sending all of a compressed file that is within the file system object, the client further structured to request all of the compressed file if the file system object is compressed and the application requests access to any portion of the compressed file.