IP Library Granted Patent US 10,970,656
Granted Patent B2
US 10,970,656 · App. 15/476,742 · Granted Apr 6, 2021

Automatically suggesting project affiliations

Inventors: Ben Newhouse (San Francisco, CA); Kavitha Radhakrishnan (San Jose, CA); AJ 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.
G06Q10/0631G06Q10/101
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,970,656
App. No.
15/476,742
Granted
Apr 6, 2021
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 (59)

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a content management system, an identification of a project and a potential project item;

computing a relevance score that estimates a level of relevance between the potential project item and the project, wherein the potential project item is a content item and wherein the content management system generates the relevance score by performing one or more of:

a comparison of words in the content item and a description or title of the project;

a comparison of words in the content item and words in other content items associated with the project;

a comparison of users who have accessed the content item and members of the project; or

a comparison of users who have had the content item shared with them and members of the project,

wherein each comparison measures a level of similarity between the project and the potential project item;

determining that the relevance score is above a threshold; and

in response to the determining that the relevance score is above the threshold, providing a suggestion to create an association between the potential project item and the project.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of words in the content item and the description or title of the project.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of words in the content item and words in other content items associated with the project.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of users who have accessed the content item and members of the project.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of users who have had the content item shared with them and members of the project.

6. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the potential project item is a first potential project item and the relevance score is a first relevance score; and

wherein the method further comprises:

computing a second relevance score that estimates a level of relevance between a second potential project item and the project, wherein the second potential project item is a user account, wherein the second relevance score is based on one or more of: a comparison of two or more of: sharing history, identified user characteristics, calendar events, calendar invites, or a combination thereof, between the user account and other members of the project;

determining that the second relevance score is above the threshold; and

in response to the determining that the second relevance score is above the threshold, providing a suggestion to create an association between the second potential project item and the project.

7. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the project is a first project, the potential project item is a first potential project item, and the relevance score is a first relevance score; and

wherein the method further comprises:

computing a second relevance score that estimates a level of relevance between a second potential project item and the first project, wherein the second potential project item is a second project, wherein the second relevance score is based on one or more of: natural language semantic similarity between a project description or title of the first project and a project description or title of the second project, overlap in content items associated with the first project and the second project; overlap in membership between the first project and the second project, or a combination thereof;

determining that the second relevance score is above the threshold; and

in response to the determining that the second relevance score is above the threshold, providing a suggestion to create an association between the second potential project item and the first project.

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

receiving, by a content management system, an identification of a content item;

selecting, by the content management system, a set of potential projects;

computing a relevance score that estimates a level of relevance between a selected potential project, of the set of potential projects, and the content item, wherein the relevance score is based on one or more of:

a comparison of words in the content item and a description or title of the potential project;

a comparison of words in the content item and words in content items associated with the potential project;

a comparison of logged user accesses to the content item and members of the potential project; or

a comparison of users the content item has been shared with or shared by and members of the potential project,

wherein each comparison measures a level of similarity between the project and the potential project item;

determining that the relevance score is above a threshold; and

in response to the determining that the relevance score is above the threshold, providing a suggestion to create an association between the potential project and the content item.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of words in the content item and the description or title of the potential project.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of words in the content item and words in content items associated with the potential project.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of logged user accesses to the content item and members of the potential project.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the relevance score is based on the comparison of users the content item has been shared with or shared by and members of the potential project.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 ,

wherein the content item is a collaborative content item; and

wherein the providing the suggestion to create the association between the potential project and the collaborative content item causes the suggestion to be provided in a web browser-based collaborative content item editor, on a client device, that is displaying the collaborative content item.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the web browser-based collaborative content item editor provides the suggestion to create the association between the potential project and the collaborative content item with an option to create a new project to add the collaborative content item to.

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 one or more processors, cause the content management system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the content management system, an identification of a project and an identification of a potential collaborative content item;

computing a relevance score that estimates a level of relevance between the potential collaborative content item and the project by measuring a level of similarity between the potential collaborative content item and the project;

determining that the relevance score is above a threshold; and

in response to the determining that the relevance score is above the threshold, providing a suggestion to create an association between the potential collaborative content item and the project.

16. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the relevance score is based on a comparison of words in the potential collaborative content item and a description or title of the project.

17. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the relevance score is based on a comparison of words in the potential collaborative content item and words in other content items associated with the project.

18. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the relevance score is based on a comparison of editor or access history by users to the potential collaborative content item and members of the project.

19. The content management system of claim 15 , wherein the relevance score is based on a comparison of logged user sharing history of the potential collaborative content item and members of the project.

20. The content management system of claim 15 ,

wherein the suggestion to create the association between the potential collaborative content item and the project is provided in a project view, configured to be displayed through a web browser on a client device; and

wherein the project view includes the suggestion as a representation of the potential collaborative content item in conjunction with other collaborative content items associated with the project.

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 049042/0316 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 62440261 · Dec 29, 2016
Related Publication 20180189693A1 · Jul 5, 2018
Cited By (1)
US 12,518,249