Configurable event-based automation architecture for cloud-based collaboration platforms

• US 9,535,909 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2013
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Masse, Pierre-Alexandre, Huamonte, James, Tran, Brian, Low, Tiffany
• Primary Examiner(s): Shmatov, Alexey
• Application Number:
  US14/026,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20150081624A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• Field of Search: 707/608
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

Scalable architectures, systems, and services are provided herein for generating jobs by applying user-specified rules to events in an action log framework (ALF) stream is disclosed. More specifically, collaboration environments can include features or mechanisms that allow end-users or collaborators to perform a variety of actions such as, for example, file uploads and previews, or collaboration operations such as, for example, task assignment and comments. These actions can be captured or logged by an action log framework and, as described herein, automatically translated into one or more jobs by applying customizable user-specified rules.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating event-based automation in a collaborative cloud-based platform involving a front-end system and one or more back-end systems, the method comprising:

receiving an event at the front-end system of the collaborative cloud-based platform,

wherein the front-end system communicates with client systems via a first network for receiving events via the first network, the one or more back-end systems communicate with the front-end system via a second network,

wherein the event is received at the front-end system responsive to an action taken by a collaborator of the collaborative cloud-based platform on a content item stored in the one or more back-end systems of the collaborative cloud-based platform, the one or more back-end systems including one or more jobs manager systems and a rule manager system, the one or more back-end systems supplement the one or more jobs manager systems with additional jobs manager systems in response to detecting an increase in the number of events received at the front end system,

wherein the content item comprises electronic content that is remotely accessible to the collaborator via a user device in communication with the collaborative cloud-based platform; and

translating the event into one or more job requests by;

parsing, by the back-end system, the event to identify event criteria;

accessing, by the back-end system, pre-defined rules from a memory in communication with the computer processor;

scanning, by the back-end system, the pre-defined rules to select a first pre-defined rule that matches the event criteria; and

generating, by the back-end system, a job request associated with the first pre-defined rule.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein scanning the pre-defined rules to select the first pre-defined rule that matches the event criteria further comprises:

parsing the first pre-defined rule to identify an associated first condition; and

selecting the first pre-defined rule if the first condition matches the event criteria.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

identifying a job description associated with the first pre-defined condition, the job description identifying a type of job,

wherein the job request associated with the first pre-defined rule indicates the type of job identified by the job description associated with the first pre-defined condition.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first pre-defined rule includes multiple conditions each having a corresponding job description.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the event is initiated via a web application and distributed to the rule manager system via an event load balancer, the rule manager system coupled to the one or more jobs manager systems and the web application.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the event is associated with an action captured by an action log framework.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

batching multiple job requests by a jobs load balancer; and

distributing, by the jobs load balancer, the batched job requests to the additional jobs manager systems.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at an administrator interface of the rule manager system, information defining the first pre-defined rule including a user-defined condition and a user-defined job description,

wherein the information for generating the first pre-defined rule includes a condition and a corresponding job description and

wherein the condition, when met, triggers generation of a job defined by the corresponding job description.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information for generating the first pre-defined rule is described in a Rule Descriptive Language (RDL).

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at an administrator interface of the rule manager system, information defining the first pre-defined rule including a first action associated with the event; and

identifying, by the rule manager system, one or more conditions associated with the action and a corresponding job description for each of the one or more conditions.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the criteria comprises an action type or an enterprise identifier.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

distributing, by the rule manager system, jobs to the one or more job manager systems.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating, by the one or more jobs manager system, a job responsive to the job request.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, by the one or more job manager systems, an appropriate queue of multiple queues, wherein each queue is associated with a different worker; and

adding, by the one or more jobs manager system, the job to the appropriate queue.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein determining the appropriate queue is based on a type of the job.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 13, wherein the system is further configured for maintaining a status of the job.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 13, wherein the system is further configured for:

persistently storing, by the one or more jobs manager system, the jobs; and

responsive to the storing, sending, by the one or more jobs manager system, an acknowledgment of the jobs to the rule manager system.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the back-end system is configured to supplement the rule manager system with additional rule manager systems in response to detecting an increase in the number of user-specified rules.

19. A distributed computing collaboration system for facilitating event-based automation in a collaborative cloud-based platform, the system comprising:

one or more processors associated with a front-end system and a back-end system, wherein the front-end system communicates with client systems via a first network for receiving events via the first network,

wherein the back-end system communicates with the front-end system via a second network, the back-end system including one or more jobs manager systems and a rule manager system, wherein the back-end system supplements the one or more jobs manager systems with additional jobs manager systems in response to detecting an increase in the number of events received at the front end system;

an interface receiving an event responsive to an action taken by a collaborator of the collaborative cloud-based platform on a content item stored in the back-end system of the collaborative cloud-based platform,

wherein the content item comprises electronic content that is remotely accessible to the collaborator via a user device in communication with the collaborative cloud-based platform; and

a memory unit having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the collaboration system to translate the event into one or more job requests by;

parsing, by the back-end system, the event to identify event criteria;

accessing, by the back-end system, pre-defined rules from a memory in communication with the one or more processors;

scanning, by the back-end system, the pre-defined rules to select a first pre-defined rule that matches the event criteria; and

generating a job request associated with the first pre-defined rule.

20. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the collaboration system to translate the event received in the collaborative cloud-based platform by:

parsing the first pre-defined rule to identify an associated first condition; and

selecting the first pre-defined rule if the first condition matches the event criteria.

21. The collaboration system of claim 20, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the collaboration system to translate the event received in the collaborative cloud-based platform by:

identifying a job description associated with the first pre-defined condition, the job description identifying a type of job,

wherein the job request associated with the first pre-defined rule indicates the type of job identified by the job description associated with the first pre-defined condition.

22. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the collaboration system to:

batch multiple job requests by a jobs load balancer; and

distribute the batched job requests to the additional jobs manager systems.

23. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the collaboration system to:

receive information defining the first pre-defined rule including a user-defined condition and a user-defined job description,

wherein the information for generating the first pre-defined rule includes a condition and a corresponding job description and

wherein the condition, when met, triggers generation of a job defined by the corresponding job description.

24. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the information for generating the first pre-defined rule is described in a Rule Descriptive Language (RDL).

25. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the collaboration system to:

receive information defining the first pre-defined rule including a first action associated with the event; and

identify one or more conditions associated with the action and a corresponding job description for each of the one or more conditions.

26. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the criteria comprises an action type or an enterprise identifier.

27. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the collaboration system to:

generate, by the one or more jobs manager systems, a job responsive to generation of the job request; and

determine, by the one or more jobs manager systems, an appropriate queue of multiple queues, wherein each queue is associated with a different worker; and

add, by the one or more jobs manager systems, the job to the appropriate queue.

28. The collaboration system of claim 27, wherein the appropriate queue is based on the type of job.

29. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the collaboration system to maintain the status of the job.

30. The collaboration system of claim 19, wherein the back-end system is configured to supplement the rule manager system with additional rule manager systems in response to detecting an increase in the number of user-specified rules.

31. The collaboration system for facilitating event-based automation in a collaborative cloud-based platform, the system comprising:

a rules database configured to store user-specified rules for translating events into job requests,

wherein each event occurs responsive to an action taken by a collaborator of the collaborative cloud-based platform on a content item stored in one or more data warehouses of the collaborative cloud-based platform,

wherein the content item comprises electronic content that is remotely accessible to the collaborator via a user device in communication with the collaborative cloud-based platform;

a rules manager system included within a back-end system, the rules manager system having a processor and a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions to be implemented by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the rules manager system to translate events received at a front-end system of the collaborative cloud-based platform into one or more job requests by parsing the events to identify event criteria, accessing the user-specified rules from the rules database, scanning the user-specified rules to select rules that match the event criteria, and generating a job request based on the selected rules, the rules manager system configurable to add additional rules manager systems in response to detecting an increase in the number of the user-specified rules, wherein the front-end system communicates with the collaborator via a first network for receiving events via the first network and the back-end system communicates with the front-end system via a second network; and

a jobs manager system having a processor and a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions to be implemented by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor in the jobs manager system, cause the rules manager system to supplement the jobs manager system with additional jobs manager systems in response to detecting an increase in the number of events received at the front end system.

32. The collaboration system of claim 31:

wherein the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium of the jobs manager system, when executed by the processor of the jobs manager system, cause the rules manager system to;

generate jobs responsive to reception of the job requests from the rules manager system;

determine an appropriate queue of multiple queues, wherein each queue is associated with different workers; and

add the job to the appropriate queue.