System and method for anchoring third party metadata in a document

• US 9,430,578 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Stone, Trevor Keir MacFergus, Schoeffler, Eric Benson, Lee, Ivan Young, Cooper, Nicholas Mark Vasic, Vongsouvanh, Alain, Afshar, Ali Hamid, Fryzel, Victor Eric, Procopio, Michael Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Hershley, Mark E
• Application Number:
  US13/837,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 707/812
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Systems and methods disclosed herein relate to a method of storing metadata for a file on a cloud based storage system. A server may receive a request from a third party application to store metadata for a file. The server may determine a metadata type based on the request. The server may associate the metadata value with an application identifier. The application identifier may identify a third party application. The server may store the metadata value based on the determined metadata type. The stored metadata may be associated with the application identifier and the stored metadata value may include information related to an anchor. The anchor may be an attribute of the file, and anchor can change respectively as the attribute changes.

Claims

1. A method of storing metadata for a file on a cloud based storage system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a third party application, a request to store metadata for a file, the metadata having a metadata type and a metadata value, wherein the file has a proprietary document model that is specific to a native application and not the third party application;

determining the metadata type based on the request;

associating the metadata value with an application identifier, wherein the application identifier identifies the third party application; and

storing, with the file on the cloud based storage system, the metadata type and metadata value in association with the application identifier, such that the third party application has access to the metadata type and the metadata value without having access to the proprietary document model, wherein the metadata value comprises information related to an anchor corresponding to a geometrically-defined location of a portion of content within the file when the portion of content within the file is graphically displayed to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata value comprises information related to a plurality of anchors in the file, each anchor corresponding to a respective location of a respective portion of content within the file, and the metadata value being indicative of the respective locations of the respective portions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the anchor comprises a type and an attribute of the file, and wherein the anchor changes as the attribute changes based on the type.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the attribute comprises one from the group of:

a point of time in the file, a byte position in the file, a pixel location in the file, a page in the file, a cell in a grid in the file, and an index of an object in the file.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining revision information for the file, wherein the revision information is based on a modified version of the file; and

associating the metadata value with the revision information for the file.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the metadata value with revision information by automatically storing the revision information corresponding to a revision of the file at a time when the metadata value is stored;

identifying a first revision number associated with the content of the file;

identifying a second revision number associated with the metadata;

comparing the first revision number to the second revision number;

providing a display of the content with an indication of the metadata when the first revision number matches the second revision number; and

providing a display of the content without an indication of the metadata when the first revision number does not match the second revision number.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the third party application a request for the metadata value for the file; and

transmitting to the third party application at least one metadata value based on the determined metadata type.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining file revision information for the file based on the request for metadata for the file, wherein the file revision information is based on a modified version of the file;

determining metadata revision information, wherein the metadata revision information comprises file revision information associated with the metadata; and

transmitting to the third party application at least one metadata value based on the determined metadata type and the determined metadata revision information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata value comprises information related to a thumbnail of the file that includes a compressed version of the content in the file, wherein the anchor corresponding to the metadata value is null, indicating that the anchor is not related to any third party application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the anchor is associated with the application identifier.

11. A system for storing metadata for a file on a cloud based storage system, the system comprising a processor configured to:

receive from a third party application a request to store metadata for a file, the metadata having a metadata type and a metadata value, wherein the file has a proprietary document model that is specific to a native application and not the third party application;

determine the metadata type based on the request;

associate the metadata value with an application identifier, wherein the application identifier identifies the third party application; and

store, with the file on the cloud based storage system, the metadata type and metadata value in association with the application identifier, such that the third party application has access to the metadata type and the metadata value without having access to the proprietary document model, wherein the metadata value comprises information related to an anchor corresponding to a geometrically-defined location of a portion of content within the file when the portion of content within the file is graphically displayed to a user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the metadata value comprises information related to a plurality of anchors in the file, each anchor corresponding to a respective location of a respective portion of content within the file, and the metadata value being indicative of the respective locations of the respective portions.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the anchor comprises a type and an attribute of the file, and wherein the anchor changes as the attribute changes based on the type.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the attribute comprises one from the group of:

a point of time in the file, a byte position in the file, a pixel location in the file, a page in the file, a cell in a grid in the file, and an index of an object in the file.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to:

determine revision information for the file, wherein the revision information is based on a modified version of the file; and

associate the metadata value with the revision information for the file.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to:

associate the metadata value with revision information by automatically storing the revision information corresponding to a revision of the file at a time when the metadata is stored;

identify a first revision number associated with the content of the file;

identify a second revision number associated with the metadata;

compare the first revision number to the second revision number;

provide a display of the content with an indication of the metadata when the first revision number matches the second revision number; and

provide a display of the content without an indication of the metadata when the first revision number does not match the second revision number.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to:

receive from the third party application a request for the metadata for the file; and

transmit to the third party application at least one metadata value based on the determined metadata type.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine file revision information for the file based on the request for metadata for the file, wherein the file revision information is based on a modified version of the file;

determine metadata revision information, wherein the metadata revision information comprises file revision information associated with the metadata value; and

transmit to the third party application at least one metadata value based on the determined metadata type and the determined metadata revision information.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the metadata comprises information related to a thumbnail of the file that includes a compressed version of the content in the file, and wherein the anchor corresponding to the metadata value is null, indicating that the anchor is not related to any third party application.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the anchor is associated with the application identifier.