Determining presence in an application accessing shared and synchronized content

• US 10,091,287 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2014
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Larabie-Belanger, Maxime
• Primary Examiner(s): Chiusano, Andrew T
• Application Number:
  US14/248,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20150288756A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,638 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A device collects presence information and other interaction information from an application viewing a content item synchronized with a content management system. The interaction information indicates interactions of a device with respect to a content item, and includes presence information obtained from a native application such as whether the content item is being viewed by the user on a user interface element or the user interface element is modifying the content item. A presence management module receives presence events indicating possible change of presence with respect to a user interface window associated with a process and a synchronized content item. Such presence events include a change in focus of a user interface element indicating that a user is viewing the content item, and changes to a content item indicating a user is editing the content item.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a first presence application executed by a processor on a first device, an event associated with a user interface element of a native application separate from the first presence application, wherein the first presence application is not integrated within the native application, and wherein the first presence application is configured to monitor a plurality of user interaction types with content items displayed within user interface elements of each of a plurality of different native applications executing as separate processes from the first presence application;

determining, by the first presence application, an indication that a content item synchronized with a second device and with a content management system has been opened by the native application based on the received event; and

in response to the indication that the content item has been opened by the native application and to determining that the user interface element of the native application is active based on the received event, sending, by the first presence application, presence information identifying the synchronized content item to the second device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first presence application, a second event indicating that the user interface element displaying the content item has been closed; and

responsive to receiving the second event indicating that the user interface element has been closed, sending by the first application, second presence information to the content management system, the second presence information identifying the synchronized content item and indicating a change in presence relative to the presence information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the content item is being viewed in a focused window designated to receive user input and sending presence information describing the viewing to another device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the content item is being edited by the native application and sending presence information describing the editing to another device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining that the content item is being edited by the native application is based on at least one of a received flag from the native application, a change in title of the user interface element, or a temporary file associated with the content item.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the presence information is further in response to the received event indicating that a status of the user interface element of the native application has changed from inactive to active.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the presence information is further sent to the content management system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising

registering, by the first presence application, with an operating system executing on the first device to receive events associated with the user interface element associated with the native application executing on the first device;

and

wherein the received event associated with the user interface element of the native application is received from the operating system operating on the first device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first presence application is not an add-in for the native application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first presence application is configured to simultaneously monitor the user interface elements of each of the plurality of different native applications.

11. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code configured to cause a processor to perform steps for a first presence application comprising:

receiving a presence event indicating a change in state of a user'"'"'s presence associated with a user interface element of a native application that is separate from the first presence application and that is interacting with a content item synchronized to a content management system and to one or more other devices, wherein the first presence application is not integrated within the native application, and wherein the first presence application is configured to monitor a plurality of user interaction types with content items displayed within user interface elements of each of a plurality of different native applications executing as separate processes from the first presence application;

determining whether the presence event indicates that the content item synchronized to the content management system has been opened by the native application; and

in response to the indication that the content item has been opened by the native application and to determining that the user interface element of the native application is active based the received presence event, send the change in state of a user'"'"'s presence to the content management system.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer program code is further configured to cause the processor to:

receive, by the first presence application, a content item open event indicating a request to open a second content item synchronized to the content management system by the native application;

monitoring the user interface element of the native application for events that may reflect a change in user presence in regards to the second content item.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the presence event is an opening of the user interface element.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the presence event is a change in focus of the user interface element.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the presence event is a closing of the user interface element.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the presence event comprises an editing of the content item.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein determining that the content item has been edited comprises identifying at least one of a modification flag, change in user interface element title, or temporary file associated with the content item.

18. A system comprising:

a processor configured to execute instructions;

a non-transitory, non-volatile storage medium containing instructions of a first presence application, which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the steps of;

receiving, by the first presence application, an event associated with a user interface element of a native application separate from the first presence application, wherein the first presence application is not integrated within the native application, and wherein the first presence application is configured to monitor a plurality of user interaction types with content items displayed within user interface elements of each of a plurality of different native applications executing as separate processes from the first presence application;

determining, by the first presence application, that a content item synchronized with a second device and with a content management system has been opened by the native application; and

in response to the content item being opened and to determining that the user interface element of the native application is active based on the received event, sending presence information identifying the content item to the second device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the presence information indicates that the user interface element is a focused window designated to receive user input.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the presence information indicates that the content item is being edited by the native application.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein determining the content item is being edited is based on a received flag from the process or a change in title of the user interface element.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the received event indicates that a status of the user interface element of the native application changed from inactive to active dicating an active user interface window changed to the user interface element.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the presence information is additional sent to the content management system.