ACCESSING HISTORICAL CONTENT ITEMS OF A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THROUGH PLACEHOLDERS

• US 20180189334A1
• Filed: 12/30/2016
• Published: 07/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Granted Patent: US 10,956,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2474 Sequence data queries, e.g. querying versioned data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134

Abstract

The present technology provides an interface and system for generating a previous version of a directory structure that can be useful in the restoration of a directory or file. The system, methods and non-transitory computer-readable storage media include receiving a request for a previous version of a directory structure at an indicated date, querying a content management system for placeholder content items associated with the previous version of the directory structure at the indicated date, receiving the placeholder content items, and generating a read-only copy of at least a portion of the previous version of the directory structure at the indicated date based on the placeholder content items, wherein the read-only copy of the directory structure is separate from the directory structure at a current date.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating a previous version of a directory structure, the method comprising:

receiving, at a client device, a request for a previous version of a directory structure at an indicated date;

querying a content management system for content items associated with the previous version of the directory structure before the indicated date;

receiving, from the content management system, one or more indications of content items associated with the previous version of the directory structure before the indicated date; and

generating, at the client device, a read-only copy of at least a portion of the previous version of the directory structure at the indicated date based on the indications of the content items, wherein the read-only copy of the directory structure includes placeholder content items associated with the content items and is separate from the directory structure at a current date.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the client device, a request to access a content item stored in the read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure;

querying the content management system for the content item by using the placeholder content item associated with the content item;

receiving, from the content management system, the content item; and

storing, the content item in place of the placeholder content item in the read-only version of the previous version of the directory structure.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the request to access the content item comprises viewing the content item from the read-only copy of the directory structure.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the request to access the content item comprises copying the content item from the read-only copy of the directory structure to another directory structure.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the client device, a request to access a content item stored in the read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure that did not have a placeholder content item generated;

querying the content management system for placeholder content items associated with the content item;

receiving, from the content management system, the placeholder content items; and

generating, at the client device, a read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure associated with the content item.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the placeholder content items comprise metadata for locating the content item in storage at the content management system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying for the content item further comprising:

determining, from the placeholder content items, a content identifier; and

querying, from the client device, a content storage with the content identifier.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive a request for a previous version of a directory structure at an indicated date;

query a content management system for content items associated with the previous version of the directory structure before the indicated date;

receive, from the content management system, one or more indications of content items associated with the previous version of the directory structure before the indicated date; and

generate a read-only copy of at least a portion of the previous version of the directory structure at the indicated date based on the indications of the content items, wherein the read-only copy of the directory structure includes placeholder content items associated with the content items and is separate from the directory structure at a current date.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions, which when executed causes the at least one processor to:

receive a request to access a content item stored in the read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure;

query the content management system for the content item by using the placeholder content item associated with the content item;

receive, from the content management system, the content item; and

store, the content item in place of the placeholder content item in the read-only version of the previous version of the directory structure.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the request to access the content item comprises viewing the content item from the read-only copy of the directory structure.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the request to access the content item comprises copying the content item from the read-only copy of the directory structure to another directory structure.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions, which when executed causes the at least one processor to:

receive a request to access a content item stored in the read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure that did not have a placeholder content item generated;

query the content management system for placeholder content items associated with the content item;

receive, from the content management system, the placeholder content items; and

generate a read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure associated with the content item.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the placeholder content items comprise metadata for locating the content item.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the querying for the content item further comprising instructions, which when executed causes the at least one processor to:

determine, from the placeholder content items, a content identifier; and

query, from the client device, a content storage with the content identifier.

15. A client device comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory comprising instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the processor to;

receive a request for a previous version of a directory structure at an indicated date;

query a content management system for content items associated with the previous version of the directory structure before the indicated date;

receive, from the content management system, one or more indications of content items associated with the previous version of the directory structure before the indicated date; and

generate a read-only copy of at least a portion of the previous version of the directory structure at the indicated date based on the indications of the content items, wherein the read-only copy of the directory structure includes placeholder content items associated with the content items and is separate from the directory structure at a current date.

20. The client device of claim 15, wherein the placeholder content items comprise metadata for locating the content item.

16. The client device 15, further comprising instructions, which when executed causes the at least one processor to:

receive a request to access a content item stored in the read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure;

query the content management system for the content item by using the placeholder content item associated with the content item;

receive, from the content management system, the content item; and

store, the content item in place of the placeholder content item in the read-only version of the previous version of the directory structure.

17. The client device of claim 16, wherein the request to access the content item comprises viewing the content item from the read-only copy of the directory structure.

18. The client device of claim 16, wherein the request to access the content item comprises copying the content item from the read-only copy of the directory structure to another directory structure.

19. The client device 15, further comprising instructions, which when executed causes the at least one processor to:

receive a request to access a content item stored in the read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure that did not have a placeholder content item generated;

query the content management system for placeholder content items associated with the content item;

receive, from the content management system, the placeholder content items; and

generate a read-only copy of the previous version of the directory structure associated with the content item.