STREAMING CONTENT AND PLACEHOLDERS

摘要

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to file system placeholders. In aspects, placeholders may be used by a client to represent remote file system objects. The placeholders may include metadata and may also include none, some, or all of the content of the represented remote file system objects. In response to a request to access content of a file system object represented by a placeholder, a client may obtain needed data from a remote storage system and stream or not stream the data to the requesting application based on whether the requesting application is capable of streaming the data.

主权项

1. A method implemented at least in part by a computer, the method comprising:
receiving an indication of a file system object of a local file system of a client, the file system object represented by a placeholder, the placeholder being stored on the local file system, the client structured to obtain metadata of the file system object from the placeholder, the client structured to synchronize the local file system with a remote storage system, the metadata sufficient to allow the client, while offline with respect to the remote storage system, to obtain namespace information about the file system object from the placeholder, the placeholder including data that identifies the remote storage system from which data of the file system object is obtainable; receiving a request to access content of the file system object; determining, based on the placeholder, whether the content resides on the local file system; if the content resides on the local file system, determining whether the content is up-to-date and, if so, providing the content from the local file system; if the content does not reside on the local file system, determining whether an application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming or whether the application to which content is to be provided is not structured to access the content via streaming; if the application to which the content is to be provided is structured to access the content via streaming, performing actions, comprising:
obtaining at least a portion of the file system object from the remote storage system,updating the placeholder to indicate that the content is available from the local file system, andproviding the content to the application.