US Patent 10476936 Plugin-based file transfer systems and/or methods

Certain example embodiments relate to data transfer techniques. A server receives from a client, using a standard communication protocol, a file operation command that relates to a data transfer and indicates data to be transferred and/or a preference for how to transfer data. If the server and client do not have implemented thereon complementary plugins configured to facilitate the data transfer in accordance with the file operation command, the data transfer takes place between the server and client using the standard communication protocol. If the server and client have implemented thereon complementary plugins configured to facilitate the data transfer in accordance with the file operation command, the data transfer takes place using (a) a common communication protocol that is implemented by the complementary plugins but different from the standard communication protocol, and/or (b) data selected and/or transformed by the server-side plugin and understandable by the client-side plugin.