Sandboxing individual applications to specific user folders in a cloud-based service

Abstract

An example system and method comprises receiving a request from the third-party application, wherein the request includes a user identifier; allocating an area that is specific for the third-party application and for the user; and granting access of the area to the third-party application. In one embodiments, the method further comprises providing to the third-party application a token which allows the third-party application to access a given area. Additional embodiments provided herein enable a third-party application to use a user identifier (e.g., an email address or other identifiers) of its user to access area specific of a cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) without necessarily triggering user account authentication, thereby avoiding the process of requiring access codes from the user which can adversely impact user experience as well as compromise security and/or user's privacy.

Description

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and data as described below and in the drawings that form a part of this document: Copyright 2013, Box, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

BACKGROUND

With the mobile technology, data proliferation and open platforms which enable and encourage development of third-party applications have become ubiquitous. As a result, data becomes shared across multiple sources as is use of third-party applications, regardless of these sources are known or unknown, or reliable or unreliable. This is particularly true with the increase of electronic and digital content being used in social settings or shared environments of digital content compared to traditional standalone personal computers and storage devices.

However, inherent security and trust issues related to social sharing and digital content sharing using third-party applications have become a primary concern to many in the new age of electronics and digitization of our everyday lives.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The present embodiments are illustrated by way of example and are not intended to be limited by the figures of the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 depicts an example diagram of a system having a host server of a cloud service, collaboration and/or cloud storage accounts with capabilities that enable sandboxing a third-party application for one or more users of the cloud;

FIG. 2 depicts an example diagram of a web-based or online collaboration platform deployed in an enterprise or other organizational setting for organizing work items and workspaces;

FIG. 3 depicts an example diagram of a workspace in an online or web-based collaboration environment accessible by multiple collaborators through various devices;

FIGS. 4A and 4B depict two example diagrams of a user space in a cloud-based platform, collaboration, storage/service environment with regular folders being accessible by the user and application specific folders being accessible by a third-party application;

FIG. 4C depicts an example diagram of a mobile device having a mobile client accessing the cloud-based environment and an application specific area created on the mobile device by the mobile client;

FIG. 5 depicts an example screenshot of a third-party application requesting permission to establish an application specific folder in a user space in a cloud-based environment or cloud-based collaboration/storage environment;

FIG. 6 depicts an example screenshot of a user space in a cloud-based environment (e.g., a cloud-based collaboration/storage environment) displaying a third-party application specific folder showing instructions on how to revoke the third-party application's access;

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart illustrating an example process for sandboxing a third-party application for a user of the cloud-based environment or service; and

FIG. 8 depicts a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the example form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.

The same reference numbers and any acronyms identify elements or acts with the same or similar structure or functionality throughout the drawings and specification for ease of understanding and convenience.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques are disclosed for providing an application specific (or so-called “sandbox”) folder to a third-party application for a user in a cloud-based environment. In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving a request from the third-party application, wherein the request includes a user identifier; allocating an area that is specific for the third-party application and for the user; and granting access of the area to the third-party application. In some embodiments, the method further comprises providing to the third-party application another identifier which allows the third-party application to access the area and the area only. Among other advantages, embodiments provided herein enable a third-party application to use a user identifier (e.g., an email address or other identifiers) of its user to access a limited area of a cloud-based collaboration, interaction, storage and/or other services without necessarily triggering or requiring user account authentication, thereby avoiding the process of requiring access codes from the user which may adversely impact user experience as well as compromise security and/or user's privacy.

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure can be, but not necessarily are, references to the same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of the embodiments.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used to describe the disclosure are discussed below, or elsewhere in the specification, to provide additional guidance to the practitioner regarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certain terms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotation marks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaning of a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the same context, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated that same thing can be said in more than one way.

Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significance to be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and is not intended to further limit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples of instruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note that titles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of a reader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example diagram of a system 100 having a host server 110 of a cloud service/platform, collaboration and/or cloud storage service with capabilities that enable sandboxing a third-party application for one or more users of the cloud.

The client devices 102 can be any system and/or device, and/or any combination of devices/systems that is able to establish a connection, including wired, wireless, cellular connections with another device, a server and/or other systems such as host server 110 and/or a third-party application 120. Client devices 102 typically include a display and/or other output functionalities to present information and data exchanged between among the devices 102, the third-party application 120, and/or the host server 110.

For example, the client devices 102 can include mobile, hand held or portable devices or non-portable devices and can be any of, but not limited to, a server desktop, a desktop computer, a computer cluster, or portable devices including, a notebook, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a palmtop computer, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a PDA, a smart phone (e.g., a BlackBerry device such as BlackBerry Z10/Q10, an iPhone, Nexus 4, etc.), a Treo, a handheld tablet (e.g. an iPad, iPad Mini, a Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note II, Xoom Tablet, Microsoft Surface, Blackberry PlayBook, Nexus 7, 10 etc.), a phablet (e.g., HTC Droid DNA, etc.), a tablet PC, a thin-client, a hand held console, a hand held gaming device or console (e.g., XBOX live, Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable, etc.), iOS powered watch, Google Glass, a Chromebook and/or any other portable, mobile, hand held devices, etc. running on any platform or any operating system (e.g., Mac-based OS (OS X, iOS, etc.), Windows-based OS (Windows Mobile, Windows 7, Windows 8, etc.), Android, Blackberry OS, Embedded Linux platforms, Palm OS, Symbian platform, Google Chrome OS, and the like. In one embodiment, the client devices 102, host server 100, and app server 110 are coupled via a network 106. In some embodiments, the devices 102 and host server 100 may be directly connected to one another.

The input mechanism on client devices 102 can include touch screen keypad (including single touch, multi-touch, gesture sensing in 2D or 3D, etc.), a physical keypad, a mouse, a pointer, a track pad, motion detector (e.g., including 1-axis, 2-axis, 3-axis accelerometer, etc.), a light sensor, capacitance sensor, resistance sensor, temperature sensor, proximity sensor, a piezoelectric device, device orientation detector (e.g., electronic compass, tilt sensor, rotation sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer), or a combination of the above.

Signals received or detected indicating user activity at client devices 102 through one or more of the above input mechanism, or others, can be used by various users or collaborators (e.g., collaborators 108) for accessing, through network 106, a web-based collaboration environment or online collaboration platform (e.g., hosted by the host server 110). The collaboration environment or platform can have one or more collective settings 105 for an enterprise or an organization that the users belong, and can provide an user interface 104 for the users to access such platform under the settings 105.

The collaboration platform or environment hosts workspaces with work items that one or more users can access (e.g., view, edit, update, revise, comment, download, preview, tag, or otherwise manipulate, etc.). A work item can generally include any type of digital or electronic content that can be viewed or accessed via an electronic device (e.g., device 102). The digital content can include .pdf files, .doc, slides (e.g., Powerpoint slides), images, audio files, multimedia content, web pages, blogs, etc. A workspace can generally refer to any grouping of a set of digital content in the collaboration platform. The grouping can be created, identified, or specified by a user or through other means. This user may be a creator user or administrative user, for example.

In general, a workspace can be associated with a set of users or collaborators (e.g., collaborators 108) which have access to the content included therein. The levels of access (e.g., based on permissions or rules) of each user or collaborator to access the content in a given workspace may be the same or may vary among the users. Each user may have their own set of access rights to every piece of content in the workspace, or each user may be different access rights to different pieces of content. Access rights may be specified by a user associated with a work space and/or a user who created/uploaded a particular piece of content to the workspace, or any other designated user or collaborator.

In general, the collaboration platform allows multiple users or collaborators to access or collaborate efforts on work items such each user can see, remotely, edits, revisions, comments, or annotations being made to specific work items through their own user devices. For example, a user can upload a document to a work space for other users to access (e.g., for viewing, editing, commenting, signing-off, or otherwise manipulating). The user can login to the online platform and upload the document (or any other type of work item) to an existing work space or to a new work space. The document can be shared with existing users or collaborators in a work space.

In general, network 106, over which the client devices 102 and the host server 110 communicate may be a cellular network, a telephonic network, an open network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as an intranet and/or the extranet, or any combination or variation thereof. For example, the Internet can provide file transfer, remote log in, email, news, RSS, cloud-based services, instant messaging, visual voicemail, push mail, VoIP, and other services through any known or convenient protocol, such as, but is not limited to the TCP/IP protocol, Open System Interconnections (OSI), FTP, UPnP, iSCSI, NSF, ISDN, PDH, RS-232, SDH, SONET, etc.

The network 106 can be any collection of distinct networks operating wholly or partially in conjunction to provide connectivity to the client devices 102 and the host server 110 and may appear as one or more networks to the serviced systems and devices. In one embodiment, communications to and from the client devices 102 can be achieved by, an open network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. In one embodiment, communications can be achieved by a secure communications protocol, such as secure sockets layer (SSL), or transport layer security (TLS).

In addition, communications can be achieved via one or more networks, such as, but are not limited to, one or more of WiMax, a Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Personal area network (PAN), a Campus area network (CAN), a Metropolitan area network (MAN), a Wide area network (WAN), a Wireless wide area network (WWAN), enabled with technologies such as, by way of example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Personal Communications Service (PCS), Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service (D-Amps), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Fixed Wireless Data, 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, IMT-Advanced, pre-4G, 3G LTE, 3GPP LTE, LTE Advanced, mobile WiMax, WiMax 2, WirelessMAN-Advanced networks, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), General packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced GPRS, iBurst, UMTS, HSPDA, HSUPA, HSPA, UMTS-TDD, 1xRTT, EV-DO, messaging protocols such as, TCP/IP, SMS, MMS, extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP), real time messaging protocol (RTMP), instant messaging and presence protocol (IMPP), instant messaging, USSD, IRC, or any other wireless data networks or messaging protocols.

Third-party applications 120 which may be located from one or more third-party service application providers such as illustrated in FIG. 1, or they may be provided by third-party software application vendors and may be accessed over the network 106 or accessed from/via, installed, executed and run on the user devices 102. In either configuration, the third-party applications 120 may communicate with the host server 110 for accessing cloud-based collaboration platform, storage and/or services in performing their functions.

The embodiments disclosed herein recognize that, with the growing prevalence of the communication networks (e.g., the Internet) and smart portable devices (e.g., smart phones), there are many third-party applications 120 that need access to a cloud-based collaboration service/platform, and/or cloud-based file and content storage services in order to best facilitate an intuitive and straightforward user experience. For example, a user using a smart phone or a tablet computer may wish to run a third-party software application 120 (e.g., Google QuickOffice), to create or open a document, save the document back to a cloud-based collaboration and/or storage (e.g., cloud-based collaboration and/or storage services provided by Box, Inc., repository 130) and share it with a selected group of collaborators or in an enterprise including colleagues. One colleague as a reviewer may use another third-party software application 120 (e.g., Nuance Paperport) to annotate it, and another colleague may use yet another third-party software application 120 (e.g., Adobe Echosign) to sign the document, all accessing the same document on the cloud-based collaboration, interaction and/or storage services. For another example, a user of a third-party service application 120 (e.g., LinkedIn or Facebook) may want to store his or her resume and/or other files on a user profile page provided by the third-party service application 120, which in turn would desirably store these files on a cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration and/or storage services) of the user.

However, whether it is for collaboration or for personal use or for both, existing techniques lack a simplistic way for the third-party applications and the users to enjoy a streamlined cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration and/or storage services) experience without interrupting the user and/or risking a breach of security and/or privacy. As previously mentioned, typically whenever a third-party application needs to access a cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration and/or storage services) for its one or more users, a user account authentication process is triggered. If the user does not have an account with the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration and/or storage services) provider, then typically the user is prompted to create an account with the provider; and if the user has an account already, then typically the user needs to log onto (e.g., via the third-party application 120 or directly using host server 110) the service and/or to provide the access code. By surrendering the access code information to and/or sharing access privileges with the third-party application 120, the user becomes susceptible to exploitation from malicious third-party applications.

Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods that provide application specific user folders or areas for sandboxing individual applications in a cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) so that such service may be enjoyed without interrupting the user and/or risking the user's security and/or privacy.

In accordance with some embodiments, when a user employs the third-party application 120 to engage a use that requires access to a cloud-based storage, the user supplies the third-party application 120 with a user identifier (e.g., an email address) of the user, who may or may not be an account holder of the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services). In one implementation, the third-party application 120 generates its own unique identifier for a particular user.

With the user identifier, the third-party application 120 sends to the host server 110 a request for an area that is specific for the third-party application 120 and for the user. In one embodiment, the request includes the user identifier. After the host server 110 receives the request from the third-party application, the host server 110 automatically allocates the area, and grants access of the area to the third-party application 120. In one or more embodiments, the access is limited to only the area. Some embodiments provide that a special token may be used between the host server 110 and the third-party application 120 to allow the third-party application 120 to access the area and the area only. In this way, with just an email address, for example, the third-party application 120 can gain access to an application specific area (or a sandbox folder) just for the application 120 in an area of the user in the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) without triggering the aforementioned authentication process, and the user does not need to log onto the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) or surrender his or her access code in order to give the application access to the sandbox folder.

More implementation details regarding the host server 110 and the third-party application 120 are discussed below.

FIG. 2 depicts an example diagram of a web-based or online collaboration platform deployed in an enterprise or other organizational setting 250 for organizing work items 215, 235, 255 and workspaces 205, 225, 245.

The web-based platform for collaborating on projects or jointly working on documents can be used by individual users and shared among collaborators. In addition, the collaboration platform can be deployed in an organized setting including but not limited to, a company (e.g., an enterprise setting), a department in a company, an academic institution, a department in an academic institution, a class or course setting, or any other types of organizations or organized setting.

When deployed in an organizational setting, multiple workspaces (e.g., workspace A, B C) can be created to support different projects or a variety of work flows. Each workspace can have its own associate work items. For example, work space A 205 may be associated with work items 215, work space B 225 can be associated with work items 235, and work space N can be associated with work items 255. The work items 215, 235, and 255 may be unique to each work space but need not be. For example, a particular word document can be associated with only one work space (e.g., work space A 205) or it may be associated with multiple work spaces (e.g., Work space A 205 and work space B 225, etc.).

In general, each work space has a set of users or collaborators associated with it. For example, work space A 205 is associated with multiple users or collaborators 206. In some instances, work spaces deployed in an enterprise may be department specific. For example, work space B may be associated with department 210 and some users shown as example user A 208 and workspace N 245 can be associated with departments 212 and 216 and users shown as example user B 214.

Each user associated with a work space can generally access the work items associated with the work space. The level of access will depend on permissions associated with the specific work space, and/or with a specific work item. Permissions can be set for the work space or set individually on a per work item basis. For example, the creator of a work space (e.g., one of user A 208 who creates work space B) can set one permission setting applicable to all work items 235 for other associated users and/or users associated with the affiliate department 210, for example. Creator user A 208 may also set different permission settings for each work item, which may be the same for different users, or varying for different users.

In each work space A, B . . . N, when an action is performed on a work item by a given user or any other activity is detected in the work space, other users in the same work space may be notified (e.g., in real time or in near real time, or not in real time). Activities which trigger real time notifications can include, by way of example but not limitation, adding, deleting, or modifying collaborators in the work space, uploading, downloading, adding, deleting a work item in the work space, creating a discussion topic in the work space.

In some embodiments, items or content downloaded or edited can cause notifications to be generated. Such notifications can be sent to relevant users to notify them of actions surrounding a download, an edit, a change, a modification, a new file, a conflicting version, an upload of an edited or modified file.

In one embodiment, in a user interface to the web-based collaboration platform where notifications are presented, users can, via the same interface, create action items (e.g., tasks) and delegate the action items to other users including collaborators pertaining to a work item 215, for example. The collaborators 206 may be in the same workspace A 205 or the user may include a newly invited collaborator. Similarly, in the same user interface where discussion topics can be created in a work space (e.g., work space A, B or N, etc.), actionable events on work items can be created and/or delegated/assigned to other users such as collaborators of a given work space 206 or other users. Through the same user interface, task status and updates from multiple users or collaborators can be indicated and reflected. In some instances, the users can perform the tasks (e.g., review or approve or reject, etc.) via the same user interface.

FIG. 3 depicts an example diagram of a workspace 302 in an online or web-based collaboration environment accessible by multiple collaborators 322 through various devices.

Each of users 316, 318, and 320 can individually use multiple different devices to access and/or manipulate work items 324 in the work space 302 with which they are associated with. For example users 316, 318, 320 can be collaborators on a project to which work items 324 are relevant. Since the work items 324 are hosted by the collaboration environment (e.g., a cloud-based environment), each user can access the work items 324 anytime, and from any physical location using any device (e.g., including devices they own or any shared/public/loaner device).

Work items to be edited or viewed can be accessed from the workspace 302. Users can also be notified of access, edit, modification, and/or upload related-actions performed on work items 324 by other users or any other types of activities detected in the work space 302. For example, if user 316 modifies a document, one or both of the other collaborators 318 and 320 can be notified of the modification in real time, or near real-time, or not in real time. The notifications can be sent through any of all of the devices associated with a given user, in various formats including, one or more of, email, SMS, or via a pop-up window in a user interface in which the user uses to access the collaboration platform. In the event of multiple notifications, each notification can be depicted preferentially (e.g., ordering in the user interface) based on user preferences and/or relevance to the user (e.g., implicit or explicit).

For example, a notification of a download, access, read, write, edit, or uploaded related activities can be presented in a feed stream among other notifications through a user interface on the user device according to relevancy to the user determined based on current or recent activity of the user in the web-based collaboration environment.

In one embodiment, the notification feed stream further enables users to create or generate actionable events (e.g., as task) which are or can be performed by other users 316 or collaborators 322 (e.g., including admin users or other users not in the same work space), either in the same work space 302 or in some other work space. The actionable events such as tasks can also be assigned or delegated to other users via the same user interface.

For example, a given notification regarding a work item 324 can be associated with user interface features allowing a user 316 to assign a task related to the work item 324 (e.g., to another user 316, admin user 318, creator user 320 or another user). In one embodiment, a commenting user interface or a comment action associated with a notification can be used in conjunction with user interface features to enable task assignment, delegation, and/or management of the relevant work item or work items in the relevant work spaces, in the same user interface.

FIGS. 4A and 4B depict two example diagrams of a user space 420 in a cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) with regular folders 430 being accessible by the user 410 and application specific folders 440 being accessible by a third-party application 412. FIG. 4A depicts a first configuration 400A in which the third-party application 412 (e.g., a social media website) is provided by a third-party server 404, while FIG. 4B depicts a second configuration 400B in which the third-party application 412 (e.g., an office productivity software or other applications) is provided on one or more user devices 402. It is noted that FIGS. 4A and 4B are merely two example configurations, as a person having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that other suitable configurations exist within which the techniques disclosed herein may be apply, and that they are also within the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the office productivity software may also be provided by the third-party server 404, or the social media website may also have software applications (e.g., a mobile phone application) that reside on the user devices 402. The user space 420 may be a personal space or a collaborative space, or a combination of both, and can be accessed by the user 410 (and/or one or more collaborators, e.g., collaborators 108, FIG. 1) via the user devices 402.

The user devices 402 may run on different operating systems and may have different human-machine interfaces. A regular folder 430 may be where the user 410 typically store his or her personal files including, for example, documents, presentation slides, or sound recordings. It is noted that folder 430 are merely a representative area that stored the user 410's personal files in the user space 420, as the personal files may be stored within one or more hierarchies of folders, or none of the folders (e.g., under a root directory). An application specific area 440, or “sandbox” folders 440, can store those files that are needed by, created by, or otherwise used by the third-party application 412. Similar to the third-party application 120 (FIG. 1), in both configurations 400A and 400B, the third-party application 412 may communicate with a host server (e.g., server 110, FIG. 1; not shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B for simplicity) of the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) for accessing cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) (e.g., user space 420) and/or services in performing its functions. In one or more embodiments, the area 440 that is created is generally apparent in the user space 420; for one example, the name of the area 440 may be named after the application 412.

In an alternative embodiment, such as shown in diagram 405 of FIG. 4C, a mobile device 407 can have a mobile client 409 installed on one or more memory components (not shown for simplicity) of the device 407. The mobile client can access the cloud-based environment (such as one hosted by server 110), which in turn provides access to the third-party application 412. In this type of embodiment, the mobile client can create the application specific area 440, which is specific for the third-party application 440, on the mobile device 407.

According to some embodiments, the third-party application 412 may gain access to the application specific area 440 for the application 412 in the user space 402 with a user identifier of the user 410 without triggering the conventional authentication process. The identifier may be an email address of the user 410, or a serial number issued to the user 410, or may be generated by the third-party application 412 using one or more other methods or processes. Notably, the user 410 need not log onto the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) nor provide his or her access code in order to give the application access to the application specific area 440.

More specifically, to access the application specific area 440 on the host server 110, first, the third-party application 120 sends to the host server 110 a request for the area 440 (or the sandbox folder) that is specific for the third-party application 412 and for the user 410. The request may include the user identifier. After the host server 110 receives the request from the third-party application 412, the host server 110 allocates the area 440, and grants access of the area 440 to the third-party application 120. In one or more embodiments, the third-party application 412's access is limited to only the area 440. In other words, the application 412 only gains access to the area 440, but it cannot access anything else in the user space 420 except the area 440. All other files and folders (e.g., folder 430) that are stored inside the user space 420 are invisible to the application 412.

Depending on the implementation, the server 110 may verify a consent of the user before the server 110 allocates and grants the area 440. In such cases, the third-party application 412 may acquire the consent before the application 412 sends the request to the server 110. In some examples, the consent is a one-time only user approval which only requires the user 410 to respond affirmatively or negatively.

As additional or alternative embodiments, the area 440's content is encrypted by the server 110, and the third-party application 412 can cause the server 110 to decrypt the content, so that the application 412 may access the area 440's content, by employing an application programming interface (API) that is provided by the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services).

Furthermore, in some embodiments, the server 110 grants access by providing to the third-party application 412 a unique token, which may be received and used by the application 412 to access the area or the application specific folder 440. The token can only be used to access the specific folder 440 and not anywhere else in the user space 420. In order to access the area 440, the third-party application 412 needs to present to the server 110 the token. Upon verifying or being presented with the token, the server 110 then decrypts the content of the area 440 for the application 412 to access. Notably, in some instances, the server 110 may preclude the user 410 from editing the content of the area 440. For example, such preclusion or restriction may be imposed by the third party application 412 and/or as a policy set by the cloud service provider of space 420 so that user may have limited access to (e.g., viewing) the content, but otherwise have no permission for editing, modifying, removing, or other types of access to individual files that constitute the area 440's content.

In accordance with some embodiments disclosed herein, the user 410 of the third-party application 412 may still make use of the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) even if the user 410 does not have an account already established with the cloud-based service provider.

More specifically, before the server 110 allocates the area 440, the server 110 may first determine if the user space 420 associated with the user 410 already exists on the server 110. The determination may be performed by checking whether one work space associated with the user identifier (e.g., an email address) already exists, and/or by other supplemental identifying methods (e.g., by user 410's full name, birthplace, computer MAC address, etc.) and/or suitable policies. If the user space 420 associated with the user 410 already exists on the server 110, then the server 110 allocates and grants access of area 440 to the application 412 upon receiving the request without requiring authentication to the work space 420 based on the techniques discussed above. Additionally or alternatively, the server 110 prompts the user 410 to give a permission to establish the area 440 in the user space 420 for the third-party application 412.

An example of this is shown in FIG. 5, where a screenshot 500 of a user interface (e.g., interface 104, FIG. 1) of the user space 420 displays a plurality of pending actions, one of them being a prompting dialog 510 asking the user 410 for a permission to establish the area 440 for the third-party application 412. The user 410 may respond affirmatively by clicking on an accept button 520, or may respond negatively by clicking on a reject button 530. If the user 410 accepts, the server 110 automatically allocates and grants access of the area 440 to the application 412, so that the application 412's functions can be enabled. If the user 410 rejects, the server 110 automatically denies the application 412's request, and the application 412's functions will not be enabled for the user 410 to use. In some instances, the application 412 can be configured to adopt an “ask-each-time model” if the user 412 rejects the application specific area 440's creation, or if the user 412 instructs the application 412 to do so (e.g., by using a preference setting).

Further, the user 410 may also give the option to revoke the given permission by deleting the area 440 in the user space 420. FIG. 6 depicts such an example. As shown in FIG. 6, a screenshot 600 of a user space (e.g., space 420) in a cloud-based environment displays an established third-party application specific folder 610 as well as instructions 620 on how to revoke the third-party application's access. The user 410 may use one of the buttons and/or checkboxes in an action area 630 to perform such removal of the sandbox folder 610 so as to cause the server 110 to revoke the granted access.

Continuing with the examples of FIGS. 4A and 4B, according to some implementations, if the server 110 determines that the user space 420 does not exist, then the server 110 (e.g., the server which hosts the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services)) allots an amount of space on the server 110 as the user space 420, and establishes the area 440 in the user space 420. In this way, the user 410 of the third-party application 412 can still make use of the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) provided by the server 110 even if the user 410 has not actually established an account with the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) for himself or herself yet. As a result, not only does the embodiments disclosed herein enable a smooth user experience with streamlined third-party application integration, but they also improve the security for the user 410's stored data because the application 412 can access to the sandbox area 440 and generally, the area 440 only.

Further, in some additional or alternative embodiments, besides the third-party application 412 accessing to the application specific area 440 as discussed above, the third-party application 412 may also acquire, through an authentication process (e.g., via passwords), access to folder 430 and/or other files in the user space 420. In some of these embodiments, the server 110 may operate in a first or a second mode or both. When the server 110 operates in the first mode, the server 110 allocates and grants the application specific area 440 without requiring the password to the user space 420; and, when the server 110 operates in the second mode, the server 110 requires to receive the password from the user 410 (either directly via user devices 402 or indirectly via the third-party application 412), and the server 110 allocates and grants access to user space 420 and/or folder 430 in addition to the application specific area 440 when the password is received. In some embodiments, for example, where the user space 420 can include a collaborative space while the folder 430 is a personal folder, access to the two may each require a password, and in some instances, a different password.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart illustrating an example process 700 performed on a host server of a cloud-based storage for sandboxing a third-party application for a user of the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services). For example, a user may want to upload a user's document (e.g., a resume) or any other type of file or content on a user's profile page of a social networking service website or other third party application, widget, or website for other users to access.

First, with reference to FIGS. 1-3, the host server (e.g., server 110) of the cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) receives (710) from a third-party application (e.g., the social networking service, application 412, FIG. 4A) a request for an application specific folder (e.g., area 440, FIG. 4A) for the user (e.g., user 410, FIG. 4A). The request includes a user identifier (e.g., a user's email) that identifies the user 412 of the cloud-based environment. In some embodiments, the server 110 then verifies (712) a consent of the user 410.

Next, the server 110 determines (720) whether a work space (e.g., user space 420, FIG. 4A) associated with the user's email already exists. If user space 420 already exists, then the server 110 allocates (730) the area 440 specific for the third-party application 412 and for the user 410 in the work space 420. Optionally, the server 110 may prompt (732) the user 410 to give a permission (e.g., via accept button 520, FIG. 5) to establish the area 440.

Thereafter, the server 110 grants (740) access of the area 440 to the third-party application 412. In some embodiments, the server 110 delivers (742) to the third-party application 412 a token. The server 110 then encrypts (744) content of the area 440. It is noted that this encryption step 744 does not need to be performed after 742. Then, upon the application 412 presenting the token, the server 110 decrypts (746) the content of the area 440 for the application 412 to access.

If user space 420 does not exist, then the server 110 allots (750) an amount of space on the server 110 as the user space 420. Then, the server 110 establishes (760) the area 440 in the space 420, and grants access of the area 440 to the application 412 using the aforementioned techniques.

Accordingly, the embodiments provided herein enable a third-party application to use a user identifier (e.g., an email address or other identifiers) of its user to access a limited area of a cloud-based environment/platform/services (e.g., collaboration, file sharing, and/or storage services) without necessarily triggering user account authentication, thereby avoiding the process of requiring access codes from the user which may adversely impact user experience as well as compromise security and/or user's privacy.

FIG. 8 shows a diagrammatic representation 800 of a machine in the example form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a user device, a tablet, a phablet, a laptop computer, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a thin-client device, a cellular telephone, an iPhone, an iPad, a Blackberry, a processor, a telephone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, a console, a hand-held console, a (hand-held) gaming device, a music player, any portable, mobile, hand-held device, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine.

While the machine-readable medium or machine-readable storage medium is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the presently disclosed technique and innovation.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of the disclosure, may be implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application, component, program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programs typically comprise one or more instructions set at various times in various memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or more processing units or processors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operations to execute elements involving the various aspects of the disclosure.

Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fully functioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various embodiments are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the disclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of machine or computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

Further examples of machine-readable storage media, machine-readable media, or computer-readable (storage) media include, but are not limited to, recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such as digital and analog communication links.

The network interface device enables the machine 2800 to mediate data in a network with an entity that is external to the host server, through any known and/or convenient communications protocol supported by the host and the external entity. The network interface device can include one or more of a network adaptor card, a wireless network interface card, a router, an access point, a wireless router, a switch, a multilayer switch, a protocol converter, a gateway, a bridge, bridge router, a hub, a digital media receiver, and/or a repeater.

The network interface device can include a firewall which can, in some embodiments, govern and/or manage permission to access/proxy data in a computer network, and track varying levels of trust between different machines and/or applications. The firewall can be any number of modules having any combination of hardware and/or software components able to enforce a predetermined set of access rights between a particular set of machines and applications, machines and machines, and/or applications and applications, for example, to regulate the flow of traffic and resource sharing between these varying entities. The firewall may additionally manage and/or have access to an access control list which details permissions including for example, the access and operation rights of an object by an individual, a machine, and/or an application, and the circumstances under which the permission rights stand.

Other network security functions can be performed or included in the functions of the firewall, can be, for example, but are not limited to, intrusion-prevention, intrusion detection, next-generation firewall, personal firewall, etc. without deviating from the novel art of this disclosure.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling of connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the disclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employ systems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to provide alternative or subcombinations. Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed at different times. Further, any specific numbers noted herein are only examples: alternative implementations may employ differing values or ranges.

The teachings of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further embodiments of the disclosure.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of the above Detailed Description. While the above description describes certain embodiments of the disclosure, and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the teachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may vary considerably in its implementation details, while still being encompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure under the claims.

While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of the disclosure in any number of claim forms. For example, while only one aspect of the disclosure is recited as a means-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6, other aspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. (Any claim intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6 begins with the words “means for”.) Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for providing a third-party application with access to an area in a user work space of a cloud-based service, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more servers of the cloud-based service, a request initiated by the third-party application, wherein the request includes a user identifier that uniquely identifies the user in the cloud-based service, wherein the user identifier does not include authentication credentials associated with the user in the cloud-based service; andbased on evaluation of the user identifier: verifying, by the one or more servers, that the third-party application has consent of the user to access to the area of the user work space, wherein the area of the user work space is a subset area of the user work space exclusively accessible by the third-party application,providing the third-party application with a token that allows the third-party application to exclusively access the area of the user work space without providing access to other areas of the user work space, andgranting, based on the token, the third-party application access to the area in the user work space of the cloud-based service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein granting the third-party application access to the area of the user work space further comprises: encrypting content in the area of the work space;receiving the token presented by the third-party application;verifying that the token is valid; andupon verifying that the token is valid, decrypting at least some of the content in the area of the work space.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the area of the work space comprises a folder.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining if the area of the user work space already exists; andupon determining that the area of the user work space does not exist, allotting an amount of space on the one or more servers of the cloud-based service as the area of the user work space for exclusive use by the third party application.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising upon determining that the area of the user work space already exists, prompting the user to give permission to establish the area in the work space for the third-party application.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: revoking the access to the area in the work space when the user directs the cloud-based service to delete the area from the work space.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request includes the consent of the user for the third-party application to access the area of the user work space without authentication credentials associated with the user in the cloud-based service.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more servers restricts the user from modifying content in the area of the work space.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party application includes a web-based application or a widget.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the cloud-based service includes one or more of a cloud-based collaboration service, a cloud-based storage service, or a cloud-based file sharing service.

11. A system for providing access to an area in a user work space of the cloud-based service to a third-party application associated with a user, the system comprising: one or more processors; anda memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the cloud-based system to:receive a request initiated by the third-party application, wherein the request includes a user identifier that uniquely identifies the user in the cloud-based service, wherein the user identifier does not include authentication credentials associated with the user in the cloud-based service andbased on evaluation of the user identifier:verify that the third-party application has consent of the user to access the area of the user work space, wherein the area of the user work space is a subset area of the user work space exclusively accessible by the third-party application, and provide the third-party application with a token that allows the third-party application to exclusively access the area of the user work space without providing access to other areas of the user work space.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: grant the third-party application access to the area in the user work space of the cloud-based service.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: encrypt content in the area of the work space; anddecrypt at least some of the content in the area of the work space in response to the third-party application presenting a valid token, wherein, when valid, the token is used by the third-party application to access content in the area of the work space.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine if the area of the user work space already exists; andupon determining that the area of the user work space does not exist, allot an amount of space on the system for the work space.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: upon determining that area of the user the work space already exists, prompt the user to give permission to establish the area in the work space for the third-party application.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: revoke the access to the area in the work space when the user directs the system to delete the area from the work space.

17. A non-transitory computer readable memory having instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors of a system that provides a cloud-based service, cause the system to: process a request to access an area in a user work space of the cloud-based service, wherein the request is initiated by a third-party application and includes a user identifier that uniquely identifies the user in the cloud-based service, wherein the user identifier does not include authentication credentials associated with the user in the cloud-based service; andbased on evaluation of the user identifier:verify that the third-party application has consent of the user to access to the user work space, wherein the area of the user work space is a subset area of the user work space exclusively accessible by the third-party application, provide the third-party application with a token that allows the third-party application to exclusively access the area of the user work space without providing access to other areas of the user work space, andgrant, based on the token, the third-party application access to the area in the user work space of the cloud-based service.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 17, wherein to grant the third-party application with access to the area in the work space of the cloud-based service, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: encrypt content in the area of the work space;receive the token presented by the third-party application;verify that the token is valid; andupon verifying that the token is valid, decrypt at least some of the content in the area of the work space.

19. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the area of the work space comprises a folder.

20. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine if the work space already exists;upon determining that the area of the user work space does not exist, allot an amount of space on the one or more servers of the cloud-based service as the area of the user work space for exclusive use by the third-party application; andupon determining that the area of the user work space already exists, prompting the user to give permission to establish the area in the work space for the third-party application.

21. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: revoke the access to the area in the work space when the user directs the cloud-based service to delete the area from the work space.

22. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the request includes the consent of the user for the third-party application to access to the user work space without authentication credentials associated with the user in the cloud-based service.

23. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: restrict the user from modifying content in the area of the work space.

24. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the third-party application includes a web-based application or a widget.

25. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the cloud-based service includes one or more of a cloud-based collaboration service, a cloud-based storage service, or a cloud-based file sharing service.

26. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors of a system that provides a collaborative cloud-based service, cause the system to: process a request to access an area in a user work space of the cloud-based service, wherein the request is initiated by a third-party application and includes a user identifier that uniquely identifies the user in the cloud-based service, wherein the user identifier does not include authentication credentials associated with the user in the cloud-based service; andbased on evaluation of the user identifier: verify that the third-party application has consent of the user to access to the area of the user work space, wherein the area of the user work space is a subset area of the user work space exclusively accessible by the third-party application,provide the third-party application with a token that allows the third-party application to exclusively access the area of the user work space without providing access to other areas of the user work space, andgrant, based on the token, the third-party application access to the area in the user work space of the cloud-based service.

27. A method for providing a third-party application with access to an area in a user work space of a cloud-based service, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more servers of the cloud-based service, a request initiated by the third-party application, wherein the request includes a user identifier that uniquely identifies the user in the cloud-based service, wherein the user identifier does not include authentication credentials associated with the user in the cloud-based service; andbased on evaluation of the user identifier: determining whether a work space associated with the user identifier already exists in an environment provided by the cloud-based service,upon determining that a work space associated with the user identifier already exists in an environment provided by the cloud-based service, allocating an area in the work space associated with the user, wherein the area is exclusively accessible by the third-party application and the user and the area is a subset area of the work space associated with the user,providing the third-party application with a token that allows the third-party application to exclusively access the area of the work space associated with the user and without providing access to other areas of the work space associated with the user, andgranting, based on the token, the third-party application access to the area in the work space associated with the user.