Methods for displaying object history information

• US 9,542,457 B1
• Filed: 11/07/2013
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Wong, Alexander, Schoffler, Eric Benson, Vasic Cooper, Nicholas Mark, York, George, Hudgins, Joshua
• Primary Examiner(s): MACKES, KRIS E
• Application Number:
  US14/074,162
• Time in Patent Office: 1,160 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

A method includes receiving a search request including a search input; and identifying a history information item based on the search input. The history includes information describing a prior state of an object. The method also includes determining whether information describing a current state of the object corresponds to the search input. The method includes outputting a prior-state based search result item that identifies the object and includes information based on the history information item. If the information describing the current state of the object corresponds to the search input, the method includes outputting a current-state based search result item that includes a link for accessing the object.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at one or more server computers from a user, a search request including a search input comprising a first input component corresponding to a portion of a name of a file and a second input component corresponding to a portion of a name of a folder where the file is stored;

generating, by an object search component that searches object information received from a shared access service at the one or more server computers, a first search, wherein results of the first search comprise a first file having a current name that matches the first input component of the search input and is stored within a folder having a current name that matches the second input component if a first file exists;

generating, by a history search component that searches prior-state history information received from the shared access service at the one or more server computers, a second search,

wherein results of the second search comprise at least one of;

a second file that has a prior name that matches the first input component of the search input, has a current name that does not match the first input component of the search input, and is stored in a folder that has a current name that matches the second input component of the search input,

a third file that has a current name that matches the first input component of the search input, is stored in a folder that has a prior name that matches the second input component from the search input, and is stored in a folder that has a current name that does not match the second input component of the search input, or

a fourth file that has a prior name that matches the first input component of the search input, has a current name that does not match the first input component of the search input, and is stored in a folder that has a prior name that matches the second input component of the search input and a current name that does not match the second input component of the search input; and

outputting, for display, a current-state based search result item that identifies the results of the first search and a prior-state based search result item that identifies the results of the second search and includes information based on at least one of the current name of the second file, the current name of the folder where the third file is stored, the current name of the fourth file, or the current name of the folder where the fourth file is stored.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the prior-state based search result item includes a link to at least one of the second file, the third file, or the fourth file.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether at least one of the first file, the second file, the third file, or the fourth file is currently accessible to the user; and

if at least one of the first file, the second file, the third file, or the fourth file is currently accessible to the user, including a link to the at least one of the second file, the third file, or the fourth file that is currently accessible to the user as part of the current-state based search result or the prior-state based search result.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining whether at least one of the second file, the third file, or the fourth file is currently accessible to the user is performed using access control information for the second file, the third file, or the fourth file, respectively.

5. A method, comprising:

receiving, at one or more server computers from a user, a search request including a search input comprising at least one input component;

generating, by an object search component that searches object information received from a shared access service at the one or more server computers, a first search, wherein result items of the first search comprise current states of objects that match the at least one input component of the search input;

generating, by a history search component that searches prior-state history information received from the shared access service at the one or more server computers, a second search, wherein result items of the second search comprise objects having a history information item that matches the at least one input component from the search input and a current state that does not match the at least one input component from the search input, wherein the history information item includes information describing a prior state of an object;

determining, at the one or more server computers, whether each object from the result items of the second search is currently accessible to the user;

if an object from the result items of the second search is currently accessible to the user, outputting, for display, a current search result item that includes a link for accessing the object; and

if an object from the result items of the second search is not currently accessible to the user, outputting, for display, a historical search result item that identifies the object and includes information based on the history information item and information based on the current state of the object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each object from the result items of the second search is a member of at least one of a first group of objects that are currently accessible to the user or a second group of objects that are not currently accessible to the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each history information item is a member of a group of history information items, wherein at least some history information items from the group of history information items describe actions taken with respect to objects from the first group of objects and at least some history information items from the group of history information items describe actions taken with respect to objects from the second group of objects.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein determining whether each object from the result items of the second search is currently accessible to the user is performed using access control information for the object.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the information based on the history information item describes an action, the action changed a value that is associated with the object, the value corresponds to the search input, and the action caused the object to no longer be accessible to the user.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, at one or more server computers from a user, a search request including a search input comprising input components;

generating, by a history search component that searches prior-state history information received from a shared access service at the one or more server computers, a first search, wherein results of the first search comprise historical search result items that match a first subset of the input components from the search input and are based on the prior-state history information;

generating, by an object search component that searches object information received from the shared access service at the one or more server computers, a second search, wherein results of the second search comprise current search result items that match a second subset of the input components from the search input and are based on the object information;

generating, at the one or more server computers, a filtered set of the historical search result items by excluding historical search result items that correspond to items that are represented by the current search result items; and

if each input component from the input components is included in at least one of the first subset of the input components or the second subset of the input components, outputting, for display, the current search result items and the filtered set of the historical search result items, wherein each historical search result item from the filtered set of the historical search result items identifies the object and includes information based on the prior-state history information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the prior-state history information items describes actions taken with respect to objects that are currently stored at the one or more server computers and objects that were previously stored at the one or more server computers.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the historical search result items and the current search result items relate to objects.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the objects are each associated with a unique identifier, wherein excluding that historical search result items that correspond to items that are represented by the current search result items is performed using the unique identifier for each object.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the object information describes stored objects that are currently accessible to the user.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving, at one or more server computers from a user, a search request including a search input comprising at least one input component;

identifying a first set of one or more objects from a plurality of objects that are stored at the one or more server computers based on a comparison of the at least one input component from the search input with history information items that describe prior states of respective objects;

identifying a second set of one or more objects from the plurality of objects that are stored at the one or more server computers based on a comparison of the at least one input component from the search input with object information that describe current states of respective objects;

generating a filtered first set of one or more objects by excluding objects from the first set of one or more objects that are present in both the first set of one or more objects and the second set of one or more objects; and

outputting, for display, a search result item for each object of the filtered first set of one or more objects and each object of the second set of one or more objects, each search result item including information based on at least one of the history information items or the object information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein only one search result item is output for display for each object.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the search result item for each object of the second set of one or more objects excludes information based on the history information item.

18. A method, comprising:

receiving, at one or more server computers from a user, a search request including a search input having at least one input component;

identifying a first object based on object information that matches the at least one input component from the search input, wherein the object information describes a current state of the object;

identifying a second object based on a history information item that matches the at least one input component from the search input, wherein a current state of the second object does not match the at least one input component from the search input, and wherein the history information item describes a prior state of the second object; and

outputting, for display, a first search result item for the first object that includes information based on the object information and a second search result item for the second object that includes information based on at least one of the history information item or the current state of the second object.