CN-122019487-A - System and method for providing access to data files stored in a data storage system

Abstract

The present application relates to systems and methods for providing access to data files stored in a data storage system. The systems and methods disclosed herein provide access to data files stored at a remote data storage system. The user device is capable of sending a file access request to the application server via a user interface provided by the remote storage server to access a data file stored at the remote storage server. The application server can then optionally identify the relevant application for accessing the data file and send metadata and content requests related to the data file to the remote server. The metadata and the content request include version information of a previously cached version of the data file cached at the application server. When the cached version is not the most current version, the application server receives the most current version of the data file from the remote storage server. The latest version of the data file is then presented to the user device via the relevant application on the application server.

Inventors

• JOSHUA DANZIGER
• Alisa Feldman
• WANG LIJUN

Assignees

• 谷歌有限责任公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20171130

Priority Date

20170215

Claims (9)

1. 1.A method, comprising: receiving, at an application server hosting a plurality of applications, a first request from a user device to create a data file to be stored at a third party storage server; in response to receiving the first request, sending, by the application server, a second request to the third party storage server, the second request indicating that the data file is to be created at the third party storage server; receiving, from the third party storage server, an indication that the data file has been created at the third party storage server; Generating, by the application server, an instance of the data file stored at the application server in response to receiving the indication that the data file has been created at the third party storage server, and The instance of the data file is provided by the application server to the user device for editing of a related application of the plurality of applications hosted via the application server.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Uploading, by the application server, to the third party storage server, the latest version of the data file stored at the application server.
3. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the application server periodically uploads the latest version of the data file stored at the application server to the third party storage server via an Application Programming Interface (API) operating in accordance with a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).
4. 4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first request comprises a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) message generated at the user device within a display region of a browser-based application, the display region being defined by a structural tag associated with the browser-based application.
5. 5. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first request comprises an access token issued by the third party storage server for the user device, the access token authorising the user device to access the data file.
6. 6. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the second request comprises a file identifier, a file name, and an indication that the content of the data file is not present at the application server.
7. 7. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein receiving the indication that the data file has been created at the third party storage server comprises receiving metadata associated with the data file created at the third party storage server.
8. 8. A system for: Memory, and A processor communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the processor executes instructions stored in the memory to cause the system to perform the method of any of claims 1-7.
9. 9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

Description

System and method for providing access to data files stored in a data storage system Description of the division The application belongs to a divisional application of Chinese application patent application No. 201711237577.4 with the application date of 2017, 11, 30. Technical Field The present disclosure relates generally to data file management in a remote access environment, and more particularly to a system and method for providing access to data files stored at a remote data storage system. Background Users sometimes need to access and edit various data files. For example, a user may need to open or edit a word processing file, a spreadsheet file, a database file, a programming source code file, a presentation slide, an email message file, an image file, a video file, or other types of files. Each of these data files may require a corresponding dedicated software application to open or edit the corresponding data file. Thus, users often need to install the required specialized software on the local computer to open various types of data files. When there is no specific software on the user's device, the user cannot access and manipulate certain types of data files. When a user attempts to open and edit a data file stored on a remote server, existing document systems typically require the user to download the data file from the remote server to the user's local computer so that the user can open the data file via a particular locally installed software application. The downloading of remotely stored data files and the need to locally install various software applications to operate on different types of data files may be resource inefficient. Moreover, such access to data files becomes impractical when the user is operating a mobile device, such as a smart phone, that lacks the capacity to install a computer application or the storage space to download the data files. Disclosure of Invention The systems and methods disclosed herein provide a mechanism for providing access to data files stored at a remote data storage system. Application servers hosting various applications are used to allow user devices to open data files stored at a remote data storage system without the user devices having to download copies of the data files or to locally install the associated applications. The user device sends a file access request to the application server via a user interface provided by the remote storage server to access the data file stored at the remote storage server. The application server can then optionally identify the relevant application for accessing the data file and send metadata and content requests related to the data file to the remote server. The metadata and the content request include version information of a previously cached version of the data file cached at the application server. Upon receiving the metadata and the content request, the remote storage server verifies whether the cached version of the data file is the latest version based on version information received from the metadata and the content request. When the cached version is not the most current version, the application server receives the most current version of the data file from the remote storage server for replacement of the previously cached version. The latest version of the data file is then presented to the user device via the relevant application on the application server. In this way, the user is able to open, annotate, or edit the latest version of the data file stored at the remote storage server without downloading the data file to the user device or installing the relevant application locally on the user device. Drawings The above and other features of the present disclosure, including its nature and its various advantages, will become more apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 provides an example data flow diagram illustrating data messaging for providing access to data files stored at a remote data storage system between a user device, an application server, and a remote storage server in accordance with an illustrative embodiment; FIG. 2 is an exemplary logic flow diagram that illustrates aspects of a workflow at an application server for providing access to data files stored at a remote storage server in accordance with an illustrative embodiment; FIG. 3 provides an example flowchart showing aspects of creating a new data file in a remote storage server from a user device via an Application Programming Interface (API) in accordance with an illustrative embodiment; FIG. 4 provides an example flow chart showing aspects of opening a data file in a remote storage server for viewing, annotating or editing from a user device via an API in accordance with an illustrative embodiment and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of any component of a computing device, such as the system implemented in FIG. 1, for performing any of the process