IP Library Granted Patent US 10,719,807
Granted Patent B2
US 10,719,807 · App. 15/476,688 · Granted Jul 21, 2020

Managing projects using references

Inventors: Ben Newhouse (San Francisco, CA); Kavitha Radhakrishnan (San Jose, CA); A J Palkovic (San Francisco, CA); David Stinnette (San Francisco, CA); Jacob Hurwitz (San Francisco, CA); Jennifer Lee (San Francisco, CA); John R. Grace, Jr. (San Francisco, CA); Susan Wang (San Mateo, CA); Leona Dondi (San Francisco, CA); Igor Kofman (San Francisco, CA); Kenneth Choi (Alameda, CA); Tsung-Hsiang Chang (San Bruno, CA)
Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
G06Q10/101G06F3/0482G06F16/168G06F16/25G06F16/252G06F16/9558G06Q10/06G06Q10/0631G06F3/04817
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,719,807
App. No.
15/476,688
Granted
Jul 21, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for managing projects using references between the project and project items. Project items can be, for example, synchronized content items, collaborative content items, other projects, folders, tasks, user accounts, etc. The content management system can create a project identifier for managing data and/or people associated with a project. In various implementations, the content management system can store references between the project and project items in one or more folders associated with the project, in a database, in content item metadata, etc. In some implementations, the storage location of a content item does not affect whether it is associated with the project. When a project is selected by a user, the content management system can generate project view that presents various project items associated with the project in a convenient and easy to access graphical user interface.

Claims (56)

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a content management system, a request for a first project view of a first project;

obtaining, by the content management system, indications of first project items associated with the first project, the first project items comprising at least: a collaborative content item, a synchronization content item, a second project, and a user account;

generating, by the content management system, a first link that references the collaborative content item, wherein the first link, when actuated, causes the content management system to provide an interface to edit the collaborative content item;

generating, by the content management system, a second link that references the synchronization content item, wherein the second link, when actuated, causes the content management system to provide an interface to view the synchronization content item;

generating, by the content management system, a third link that references the second project, wherein the third link, when actuated, causes the content management system to generate and provide a second project view for the second project, the second project view providing links to second project items associated with the second project;

generating, by the content management system, a fourth link that references the user account, wherein the fourth link corresponds to a user detail page comprising user information for the user account;

generating, by the content management system, the project view that includes the first link, the second link, the third link, and the fourth link; and

causing, by the content management system, the project view to be presented on a display of a client device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collaborative content item is stored in a database, at least in part, as a plurality of change sets that describe attributes of the collaborative content item.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synchronization content item is synchronized with the client device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to actuation of the first link:

accessing a database to retrieve a set of attribute-string pairs associated with an identifier of the collaborative content item; and

generating a graphical user interface for presenting the collaborative content item based on the set of attribute-string pairs.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to actuation of the second link:

obtaining metadata for the synchronization content item;

based on the metadata, identifying a storage location that has a set of blocks corresponding to the synchronization content item;

obtaining the set of blocks wherein the blocks are not in HTML format; and building a read-only HTML representation of the set of blocks.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the project view contains links to multiple content items which are sorted based on one or more of: current user access, project member access, any user access, whether the content item has been pinned in a project, or which folders the content item is associated with.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions that, when executed by a computing system, causes the computing system to perform operations comprising:

obtaining, by a content management system, indications of first project items associated with a first project, the first project items comprising at least: a first content item and a second content item;

generating, by the content management system, a first link that references the first content item, wherein the first link, when actuated, causes the content management system to provide an interface to view the first content item and wherein the first content item is stored in a first user account;

generating, by the content management system, a second link that references the second content item, wherein the second link, when actuated, causes the content management system to provide an interface to view the second content item and wherein the second content item is stored in a second user account;

generating, by the content management system, a project view that includes the first link and the second link; and

providing, by the content management system, the project view to a client device.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the first content item is a synchronized content item.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the second content item is a collaborative content item.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the collaborative content item is stored, at least in part, in a database as a plurality of change sets that describe attributes of the collaborative content item.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the synchronized content item is synchronized with the client device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:

accessing a database to retrieve a set of attribute-string pairs associated with an identifier of the collaborative content item; and

generating a graphical user interface for presenting the collaborative content item based on the set of attribute-string pairs.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:

obtaining metadata for the synchronized content item;

based on the metadata, identifying a storage location that has a set of blocks corresponding to the synchronized content item;

obtaining the set of blocks wherein the blocks are not in HTML format; and building a read-only HTML representation of the set of blocks.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the project view further contains controls to sort the content item links based on one or more of: current user access, project member access, any user access, whether the content item has been pinned in a project, or which folders the content item is associated with.

15. A content management system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium including one or more instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the content management system to perform operations comprising:

obtaining, by the content management system, indications of first project items associated with a first project, the first project items comprising at least: a collaborative content item, a second project, and a user account;

generating, by the content management system, a first link that references the collaborative content item, wherein the first link, when actuated, causes the content management system to provide an interface to edit the collaborative content item;

generating, by the content management system, a second link that references the second project, wherein the second link, when actuated, causes the content management system to generate and provide a second project view for the second project, the second project view providing links to second project items associated with the second project;

generating, by the content management system, a third link that references the user account, wherein the third link corresponds to a user detail page comprising user information for the user account;

generating, by the content management system, a project view that includes the first link, the second link, and the third link; and

providing, by the content management system, the project view to a client device.

16. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the collaborative content item is stored in a database as a plurality of change sets that describe attributes of the collaborative content item.

17. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the first project items further comprise a synchronized content item that is synchronized with the client device and the project view further comprises a fourth link to the synchronized content item in the content management system.

18. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise, in response to actuation of the first link:

accessing a database to retrieve a set of attribute-string pairs associated with an identifier of the collaborative content item; and

generating a graphical user interface for presenting the collaborative content item based on the set of attribute-string pairs.

19. The content management system of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise, in response to actuation of the fourth link:

obtaining metadata for the synchronized content item;

based on the metadata, identifying a storage location that has a set of blocks corresponding to the synchronized content item;

obtaining the set of blocks wherein the blocks are not in HTML format; and building a read-only HTML representation of the set of blocks.

20. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the project view contains links to multiple content items and a control to sort the links to multiple content items based on one or more of: current user access, project member access, any user access, whether the content item has been pinned in a project, or which folders the content item is associated with.

Assignments (4)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 13, 2024
From: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DROPBOX, INC.
Reel/Frame 069635/0332 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 12, 2024
From: DROPBOX, INC.
To: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 069604/0611 →
PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Mar 10, 2021
From: DROPBOX, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 055670/0219 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 30, 2019
From: NEWHOUSE, BEN; RADHAKRISHNAN, KAVITHA; PALKOVIC, AJ; STINNETTE, DAVID; HURWITZ, JACOB; LEE, JENNIFER; GRACE, JOHN R., JR.; WANG, SUSAN; DONDI, LEONA; KOFMAN, IGOR; CHOI, KENNETH; CHANG, TSUNG-HSIANG
To: DROPBOX, INC.
Reel/Frame 049042/0236 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 62440280 · Dec 29, 2016
Related Publication 20180189692A1 · Jul 5, 2018
Cited By (1)
US 12,518,249