Automatic routing of electronic file attachments in a file management system
AssigneeDropbox, Inc.
InventorsRamsey Homsany, Ilya Fushman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Attachments received at an email account are processed according to a processing rule that is selected using, for example, a sender's email address, the sender's domain, or metadata in the email. A feature triggers the processing rule that then removes the attachment from the received email and stores the attachment in a rule-indicated directory. Processing rules can be defined by the email sender or by the email recipient. Changes to the attachment can be synchronized across multiple user devices and user accounts using a file sharing application.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for processing email attachments in a file management system, comprising:
- storing a plurality of processing rules for processing email attachment, including a plurality of sender-defined processing rules, each sender-defined processing rule provided by at least one email sender;
- receiving by a mail server an email from an email sender addressed to at least one user having an account at the file management system, the email including an attachment;
- selecting from a plurality of email attachment processing rules, at least one sender-defined processing rule based upon the email sender of the received email;
- processing the email according to the at least one selected sender-defined processing rule to determine a target directory in the user's account in which to store the attachment included with the email;
- and
- storing the attachment in the determined target directory in the user's account.
A file management computer system, comprising:
- a user account database module configured to store a plurality of user directories, each user directory associated with a user having an account on the file management computer system;
- an email server module configured to receive an email from an email sender addressed to at least one user having an account on the file management computer system, the email including an attachment;
- an email attachment manager module configured to store a plurality of processing rules, the processing rules for processing email attachments, including a plurality of sender-defined rules provided by at least one email sender, the email attachment manager further configured to select from the plurality of processing rules, at least one sender-defined processing rule based upon the email sender of the received email, process the email according to the at least one selected sender-defined processing rule to determine a target directory in the user's account in which to store the attachment included with the email, and store the attachment in the determined target directory in the user's account.
A computer system comprising:
- a computer processor;
- and
- a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program executable by the computer processor and performing actions comprising:
- storing a plurality of processing rules for processing email attachment, including a plurality of sender-defined processing rules, each sender-defined processing rule provided by at least one email sender;
- receiving by a mail server an email from an email sender addressed to at least one user having an account at the file management system, the email including an attachment;
- selecting from a plurality of email attachment processing rules, at least one sender-defined processing rule based upon the email sender of the received email;
- processing the email according to the at least one selected sender-defined processing rule to determine a target directory in the user's account in which to store the attachment included with the email;
- and
- storing the attachment in the determined target directory in the user's account.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.