Providing access to a cloud based content management system on a mobile device

• US 10,067,652 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2014
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Kleinpeter, Thomas, Scheff, Andrew, Grue, Anthony, Poletto, Stephen, Haven, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Chiusano, Andrew T
• Application Number:
  US14/247,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20150177938A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,610 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A user device has a processing module and a UI module. The processing module may have a permanent connection to the UI module, and an intermittent connection to a content management system over a data network. User requested actions are executed within the UI module. For each such action, a parallel request is sent to the content management system when network connectivity allows. Results of the user requested actions are presented within the UI module as if they had been implemented on the content management system. The user may thus interact with content as if all user requested actions have occurred substantially simultaneously with the request. When network connectivity allows, confirmation is received in the processing module from the content management system that the actions have been implemented, and the state of the user requested actions in the UI module is matched with that on the content management system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

assigning at a client device, a local identifier to a content item to be stored within a shared virtual space to be created and hosted by a content management system;

associating the local identifier of the content item to the shared virtual space;

detecting, at the client device, a user interaction with the content item;

associating, in response to detecting the user interaction with the content item, the local identifier with the user interaction;

queuing the user interaction for upload to the content management system within the shared virtual space based on the local identifier of the content item being associated with the shared virtual space, wherein the content management system provides access of the content item to a plurality of client devices associated with the shared virtual space; and

prior to completing an upload of the user interaction to the content management system;

presenting, in a user interface on the client device, a local representation of the user interaction with the content item within a display of the shared virtual space on the client device;

receiving, from the content management system, an assignment of a system-wide identifier for the content item, the system-wide identifier of the content item being associated with the shared virtual space and identifying the content item across the entire content management system;

replacing, at the client device and in response to receiving the system-wide identifier, the local identifier of the content item with the system-wide identifier of the content item for the queued user interaction; and

in response to detecting that the local identifier associated with the queued interaction has been replaced by the system-wide identifier, uploading the user interaction to the content management system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing the local identifier of the content item with the system-wide identifier further comprises communicating the system-wide identifier to a listener module.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the local identifier is stored in a data structure on the client device, and wherein replacing the local identifier of the content item with the system-wide identifier further comprises updating the data structure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interaction with the content item comprises one or more of adding the content item to the shared virtual space or sharing the content item with at least one other user of the content management system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the content item comprises one or more of a collection of content items, a message, a data structure, an image, a video, or a link.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising registering the content item with a listener module comprising a database, the database comprising a local cache representative of a state of the content management system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the database is operable to run a thread to detect any changes that occur on the content management system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the thread continually runs as long as the client device is connected to the content management system.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the database manages photos of a user associated with the client device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing, at the client device:

global data comprising data that has been synchronized with the content management system; and

local data comprising data that has been generated locally but that has not yet been synchronized with the content management system.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising registering the content item with a listener module, wherein the listener module registers one or more of a rooms listener, a post listener, or a room members listener.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a processing module defines an interface for listeners to implement; and

listener implementations are provided in a user interface module.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning, at the client device, an additional local identifier to an additional content item based on a determination that the additional content item corresponds to a second shared virtual space;

detecting, at the client device, an additional user interaction with the additional content item;

associating, in response to detecting the additional user interaction with the additional content item, the additional local identifier with the additional user interaction;

receiving, from the content management system, an assignment of an additional system-wide identifier for the additional content item corresponding to the second shared virtual space;

replacing, at the client device and in response to receiving the additional system-wide identifier of the additional content item, the additional local identifier with the additional system-wide identifier of the additional content item; and

uploading the user interaction associated with the content item in parallel with the additional user interaction associated with the additional content item.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a user device to:

assign a local identifier to at least one content item to be stored within a shared virtual space to be created and hosted by a content management system;

associate the local identifier of the at least one content item to the shared virtual space;

detect a user interaction with the at least one content item;

associate, in response to detecting the user interaction with the at least one content item, the local identifier with the user interaction;

queue the user interaction for upload to the content management system within the shared virtual space based on the local identifier of the at least one content item being associated with the shared virtual space, wherein the content management system provides access of the content item to a plurality of client devices associated with the shared virtual space; and

prior to completing an upload of the user interaction to the content management system;

present results of the user interaction with the at least one content item within a user interface on the user device as if the user interaction had been implemented on the content management system;

receive, from the content management system, an assignment of a system-wide identifier for the at least one content item, the system-wide identifier of the at least one content item being associated with the shared virtual space and identifying the at least one content item across the entire content management system;

replace, in response to receiving the assignment of the system-wide identifier for the at least one content item, the local identifier associated with the at least one content item with the system-wide identifier of the at least one content item for the queued user interaction; and

in response to detecting that the local identifier associated with the queued interaction has been replaced by the system-wide identifier, upload the user interaction to the content management system.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the user device is intermittently connected to the content management system over a data network.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the user device comprises a local cache, the local cache comprising a database representative of a state of the content management system.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the database within the local cache is continually updated by a thread running on the user device, wherein the thread monitors changes in the state of the content management system.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor of the user device, cause the user device to:

prior to completing an upload of the user interaction to the content management system, detect an additional user interaction with respect to the one or more content items, the additional user interaction comprising one or more of adding an additional content item to the shared virtual space, adding at least one data structure, or interacting with at least one data structure.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor of the user device, cause the user device to:

prior to completing the upload of the user interaction to the content management system, assign the local identifier to the additional user interaction.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor of the user device, cause the user device to:

receive a confirmation that the content management system implemented the user interaction within the shared virtual space; and

presenting a push notification corresponding to the confirmation within the user interface of the user device.