System, method, and computer program for enabling a user to access and edit via a virtual drive objects synchronized to a plurality of synchronization clients

• US 10,805,389 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2018
• Issued: 10/13/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Rashid, Fuad, Morford, Michael Phillip, Wagner, Eric Wayne, Wong, James David, Yip, Sing
• Primary Examiner(s): Molina, Hugo
• Application Number:
  US15/992,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20180278684A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/00 Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program for enabling a user to edit and access local and remote objects via a virtual drive, including objects synchronized to a plurality of synchronization clients. A virtual drive is displayed on the user'"'"'s local client device with all objects, which a user has synchronized to a synchronization server. A user is able to access and edit any object displayed in the virtual drive. In response to detecting a change in an object in the virtual drive, the object is updated on the synchronization server. All remote clients of the user or of any other users who have access to the changed folder are identified and notified of the change. In response to the change being a change to content within the folder, the content of the folder is automatically updated on any identified remote clients that have a corresponding folder.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing, on a local client device associated with a first user, a display of a virtual drive that appears as a local storage drive of the local client device;

providing, within the display of the virtual drive, a plurality of items synchronized with a content management system, the plurality of items comprising;

locally stored items that are stored on the local storage drive of the local client device; and

remotely stored items that are stored in a remote storage location that does not reside on the local client device, wherein the locally stored items and remotely stored items are presented in the virtual drive without regard to a storage location of the locally stored items and the remotely stored items;

in response to detecting a user interaction with an item from the plurality of items within the display of the virtual drive, providing an option to set permission attributes associated with the item; and

in response to receiving an indication of a user selection of a permission attribute corresponding to the item based on the first user interacting with the option to set permission attributes, updating a remote client device associated with a second user to reflect the selected permission attribute of the item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein there is no visual distinction between the locally stored items and the remotely stored items within the display of the virtual drive.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the permission attribute corresponding to the item defines a sharing permission for the item.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, based on a user interaction with a remotely stored item, adding the remotely stored item to the locally stored items by maintaining a local copy of the remotely stored item on the local storage drive of the local client device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the permission attribute corresponding to the item defines an editing permission for the item.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote storage location is a synchronization server of a synchronization system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a shared item to the virtual drive based on a sharing user sharing the shared item with the first user associated with the local client device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising storing the shared item on the local storage drive of the local client device as one of the locally stored items based on the first user associated with the local client device interacting with the shared item.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

detecting a modification of the shared item; and

providing a notification of the modification to a synchronization system, wherein the notification causes the synchronization system to update a copy of the shared item on one or more of a synchronization server or a client device associated with the sharing user.

10. A system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

provide, on a local client device associated with a first user, a display of a virtual drive that appears as a local storage drive of the local client device;

provide, within the display of the virtual drive, a plurality of items synchronized with a content management system, the plurality of items comprising;

locally stored items that are stored on the local storage drive of the local client device; and

remotely stored items that are stored in a remote storage location that does not reside on the local client device, wherein the locally stored items and remotely stored items are presented in the virtual drive without regard to a storage location of the locally stored items and the remotely stored items;

in response to detecting a user interaction with an item from the plurality of items within the display of the virtual drive, provide an option to set permission attributes associated with the item; and

in response to receiving an indication of a user selection of a permission attribute corresponding to the item based on the first user interacting with the option to set permission attributes, update a remote client device associated with a second user to reflect the selected permission attribute of the item.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein there is no visual distinction between the locally stored items and the remotely stored items within the display of the virtual drive.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the permission attribute corresponding to the item defines a sharing permission for the item.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to, based on a user interaction with a remotely stored item, add the remotely stored item to the locally stored items within the virtual drive by maintaining a local copy of the remotely stored item on the local storage drive of the local client device.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to add a shared item to the virtual drive based on a sharing user sharing the shared item with the first user associated with the local client device.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to store the shared item on the local storage drive of the local client device as one of the locally stored items based on the first user associated with the local client device interacting with the shared item.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the permission attribute corresponding to the item defines an editing permission for the item.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, causes a computer device to:

provide, on a local client device associated with a first user, a display of a virtual drive that appears as a local storage drive of the local client device;

provide, within the display of the virtual drive, a plurality of items synchronized with a content management system, the plurality of items comprising;

locally stored items that are stored on the local storage drive of the local client device; and

remotely stored items that are stored in a remote storage location that does not reside on the local client device, wherein the locally stored items and remotely stored items are presented in the virtual drive without regard to a storage location of the locally stored items and the remotely stored items;

in response to detecting a user interaction with an item from the plurality of items within the display of the virtual drive, provide an option to set permission attributes associated with the item; and

in response to receiving an indication of a user selection of a permission attribute corresponding to the item based on the first user interacting with the option to set permission attributes, update a remote client device associated with a second user to reflect the selected permission attribute of the item.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the permission attribute corresponding to the item defines a sharing permission for the item.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the permission attribute corresponding to the item defines an editing permission for the item.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein there is no visual distinction between the locally stored items and the remotely stored items within the display of the virtual drive.