Note browser

• US 9,542,377 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2013
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Hunter, Rian, Seo, Kijun
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): Asres, Hermon
• Application Number:
  US13/888,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20140330911A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,345 Days
• Field of Search: 709/205, 709/206
• 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 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A notes system is presented with a content management system. The notes system manages creation and distribution of edits to notes to users sharing the notes. The notes are stored as a series of edits at the notes system. When an edit to a note is received, the edit is propagated to users subscribed to a note by a backend server responsible for managing the note. The sharing users are notified through application servers associated with each sharing user. The notes server includes various indices for searching the notes and allows notes to be searched quickly to organize viewing by a user of notes and identification of relevant material in the notes. The stored edits are used to display edits to a note to a user by replaying the accessed note to the user.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of displaying shared notes, comprising:

receiving and storing at a note sharing system a plurality of notes, each note constituting a separate content item created by an author, a time the note was created, and a creation location at which the note was created;

storing at the note sharing system, for each of a plurality of the stored notes, information identifying one or more users with whom the note is shared;

receiving at the note sharing system edits to a plurality of the stored notes, each edit having a time of the edit, and an edit location of the edit, and a user who made the edit;

storing at the note sharing system, for each note, an edit list including for each edit, the time of an edit to the note, a user that made the edit, and the edit location;

transmitting to the note sharing system a request for a list of notes associated with a current user of the note sharing system;

receiving from the note sharing system a list of notes associated with the user, including for each note, a time of last edit of the note, a list of users with whom the note is shared, the creation location of the note, and at least one edit location of the note;

for each note, mapping the creation location of the note to a geographically nearest major location marker;

grouping the plurality of notes by i) at least one of the major location markers or ii) at least one of the edit locations at which the notes were edited, to form at least one location group comprising at least one note;

ordering the location groups by at least one of i) alphabetically or ii) proximity to a location of a client device that transmitted the request to the note sharing system; and

ordering the notes within each location group based on the times of the last edits, from a most recently edited note in a location group to a least recently edited note in a location group; and

displaying a plurality of the notes of received notes in a note browser in the ordered location groups, including the location of each group, and the ordered notes within each location group, including the most recently edited note in each location group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the edit list for a note includes an identifier of each user that made an edit to the note and the time the user last edited the note, further comprising:

for the note, displaying the list of users with whom the note is shared, where the list of users is arranged in an order of the times at which each of the users last edited the note.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for the at least one of the notes shared with another user of the note sharing system by the current user, displaying the list of users with whom the note is shared, where the list of users is arranged alphabetically.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

displaying an identifier of a user who made the most recent edit to the note in a visually distinguished manner.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein ordering the notes within each location group based on the times of last edits, from a most recently edited note in a location group to a least recently edited note in a location group further comprises:

grouping the plurality of notes within each location group by the dates of the last edits made to the notes, wherein for selected date ranges, there is a date range group comprising at least one note having a last edit during the date range;

and ordering the date range groups in a date order; and

displaying in the location group the ordered date range groups, including the date range, and the notes in the date range group.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for a note, displaying a snippet of text for the note, the snippet comprising a portion of a most recently inserted text to the note.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for a note, displaying a snippet of text for the note, the snippet comprising a portion of a most recently modified text to the note.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for a note, displaying an icon indicating whether the note is a new note or an edited note.

9. A computer program product, comprising computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable medium, that when executed by the computer device provide:

a client application of a note sharing system that is configured to

transmit to the note sharing system a plurality of notes, each note constituting a separate content item created by an author, and having a creation location at which the note was created;

transmit to the note sharing system edits to notes, each edit having a time of the edit, an edit location of the edit, and a user who made the edit;

transmit to the note sharing system a request for a list of notes associated with a current user of the client application, the note sharing system having stored on it a plurality of the notes, at least one of the notes shared with another user of the note sharing system by the current user, and wherein at least one note is associated with an edit list including a time of a last edit to the note, a user that made the last edit, and a last edit location where the last edit was made; and

receive from the note sharing system a list of notes associated with the user, including for each note, a time of last edit of the note, a list of users with whom the note is shared, the creation location of the note, and at least one edit location of the note, wherein each creation location is mapped to a geographically nearest major location marker, and

a note browser that is configured to;

group the plurality of notes by i) at least one of the major location markers or ii) at least one of the edit locations at which the notes were edited, to form at least one location group comprising at least one note;

order the location groups by at least one of i) alphabetically or ii) proximity to a location of a client device that transmitted the request to the note sharing system; and

order the notes within each location group based on the times of last edits, from a most recently edited note in a location group to a least recently edited note in a location group;

display the notes in the ordered location groups, including the location of each group, and the ordered notes within each location group, including the most recently edited note; and

display for at least one of the notes, the list of users with whom the note is shared.

10. The note browser of claim 9, wherein the note browser displays the list of users with whom the note is shared arranged in an order of the times at which each of the users last edited the note.

11. The note browser of claim 9, wherein the note browser displays an identifier of a user who made the most recent edit to the note in a visually distinguished manner.

12. The note browser of claim 9, wherein the note browser displays for a note a snippet of text for the note, the snippet comprising a portion of a most recently inserted text to the note.

13. The note browser of claim 9, wherein the note browser displays for a note a snippet of text for the note, the snippet comprising a portion of a most recently modified text to the note.

14. The note browser of claim 9, wherein the note browser displays for a note, an icon indicating whether the note is a new note or an edited note.

15. A note sharing system, comprising:

a notes database, stored on a computer system, and configured to store a plurality of notes each constituting a separate content item, each note associated with one or more users, wherein at least one note is associated with a time at which the note was created, a creation location at which the noted was created and further associated with an edit list including a time of each edit to the note, an edit location for each edit to the note, and a list of identifiers of users associated with the note who have made an edit to the note, wherein the creation location of each note is mapped to a geographically nearest major location marker; and

at least one notes server, executable by the computer system, and configured to receive from a client device a request for at least one note associated with a current user of the client device, to request from the notes database one or more notes associated with the current user, and to receive from the notes database the requested one or more notes, and provide to the client device the requested one or more notes, along with the edit list for each note, including the list of identifiers of users associated with the note who have made an edit to the note, and the creation location and at least one edit location of the note, wherein the mapped creation location and at least one edit location determines at least one location group for the note, which location groups are ordered according to at least one of i) alphabetically or ii) proximity to a location of a client device that transmitted the request to the note sharing system, and wherein a time of a last edit of each note determines a displayed order of the notes in a location group on the client device.