Dropbox, Inc.

Maxime Larabie-Belanger

Nipunn Koorapati

Pranav Vishnu Ramabhadran

Adam Arbree

Rishabh Jain

Haynes George

Philip LaPier

David Euresti

Ambrus Csaszar

Dwayne Litzenberger

Peter Welinder

Bryan Jadot

Matt Holden

Joshua Robin Kaplan

Sang Tian

Eduardo Escardo Raffo

The present technology can move operating system folders into a sync folder of a cross platform content management system, and redirect the operating system to look for the OS folders in the sync folder. The present technology also provides an invariant checker to make sure that another application has not moved the OS folders after they have been placed in the sync folder, and provides solutions when the OS folders are moved out of the sync folder of the content management system. Additionally, when OS folders for multiple client devices are in the sync folder on the content management system, the present technology can provide a mechanism to make the content items in an OS folder on a first client device also sync into an OS folder on second client device.

Binding local device folders to a content management system for synchronization

Described embodiments enable device users to share content items directly from the context of a desktop file system user interface. A share bar is displayed in the file system user interface, where the share bar includes one or more graphical control elements that provide additional functionality with respect to one or more selected content items in the user interface. The additional functionality can include sharing the selected item, moving the item, downloading the item, and viewing sharing status, version history, completion status, comments, or other information about the item.

User interface for content sharing client in a desktop file system context

A client application of a device receives presence information and other interaction information from other devices synchronized to a set of content items. The interaction information indicates interactions of at least one other device with respect to a synchronized content item. The client application displays a browser depicting the synchronized content items and permitting navigation among organizational elements. The browser also displays the interaction information associated with the content items received from the other devices. The browser displays the interaction information with respect to particular content items or for an organizational element. The browser may also include an activity feed displaying interaction information specific to a content item or relating to a synchronized folder or organizational element. This permits a user to view, at a browser, activity and interactions of other users with respect to content items using native applications on another device.

Browser display of native application presence and interaction data

A client application of a device receives presence information and other interaction information from other devices synchronized to a set of content items. The interaction information indicates interactions of at least one other device with respect to a synchronized content item. The client application displays a browser depicting the synchronized content items and permitting navigation among organizational elements. The browser also displays the interaction informationa associated with the content items received from the other devices. The browser displays the interaction information with respect to particular content items or for an organizational element. The browser may also include an activity feed displaying interaction information specific to a content item or relating to a synchronized folder or organizational element. This permits a user to view, at a browser, activity and interactions of other users with respect to content items using native applications on another device.

A device collects presence information and other interaction information from an application viewing a content item synchronized with a content management system. The interaction information indicates interactions of a device with respect to a content item, and includes presence information obtained from a native application such as whether the content item is being viewed by the user on a user interface element or the user interface element is modifying the content item. A presence management module receives presence events indicating possible change of presence with respect to a user interface window associated with a process and a synchronized content item. Such presence events include a change in focus of a user interface element indicating that a user is viewing the content item, and changes to a content item indicating a user is editing the content item.

Determining presence in an application accessing shared and synchronized content

A content management system receives presence information from a client application on a device indicating interaction information of a user relative to a content item synchronized to the content management system. The interaction information includes presence information describing presence information of a native application interacting with the content item. The presence information indicates whether the native application opened, is viewing, or is editing the content item. The presence information may specify a user interface element and process associated with the presence information. The content management system stores presence records describing the presence information and uses the presence records to generate and transmit a presence status associated with a user. When a new version of a content item is received, the content management system may also use the presence records to determine an action to perform with the user interface window associated with the prior version.

Managing presence among devices accessing shared and synchronized content

A client application of a device collects presence information and other interaction information from an application viewing a content item synchronized with a content management system. The interaction information indicates interactions of a device with respect to a content item. The client application receives presence information from other devices synchronized to the content item and displays a presence indicator in a user interface element. The presence indicator is displayed relative to a user interface element of the application viewing the content item. The displayed presence information may inform the user that other users are editing or viewing the content item, and may permit the user to receive notifications when another user's presence has changed to a particular status.

Displaying presence in an application accessing shared and synchronized content

Described embodiments enable generation of user interface (UI) extensions to a UI of a separate application. For example, a method may include receiving system notifications from the operating system indicating UI events associated with a UI state of the operating system. Responsive to a system notification for a target UI object or application, the method includes generating or updating a UI sub-state for the target application including target UI objects based on graphical properties of the target UI object as defined in the system notification. The method further includes generating a UI extension for a target UI object of the target application based on the graphical properties of the target UI object in the updated UI sub-state. The UI extension can be an overlay controlled by a separate process from the target application, and thus can be arbitrarily attached to the UI of the target application.

User interface extender

A content item on a content management system can be shared using a generated sharing link. The sharing link can be a custom network address, such as a uniform resource locator (URL), which allows the content item to be accessed without authentication. The sharing index and a content path of the content items can be listed in a sharing index used to identify the content upon a request initiated by the sharing link. The content management system can generate a content link to a content item upon receiving a sharing input from a user indicating the user wants to share a content item. Alternatively, in some embodiments, sharing links can be pre-generated by the content management system and stored on the client device. The sharing link can stored directly to a data buffer on the client device, such as a clipboard, where it can be accessed by the user.

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Maxime Larabie-Belanger