Backup and restore in mobile applications

• US 20050102329A1
• Filed: 09/02/2004
• Published: 05/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slack Technologies LLC (Salesforce.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sato, Joy, Cui, Yingqing Lawrence, Wu, Christopher, Jiang, Zhaowei Charlie
• Granted Patent: US 7,584,225 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

The need for backup and restore arises in a mobile device based system when a client application is discarded along with its historical record. In a system that provides the backup and restore capability, a server is configured with a request handler, an application storage upload/download handler, and a device storage mirror database. In a mobile device (also client), the transaction listener provides a transaction associated with memory items to the crumb sticker which, in turn, sends to the request handler a recording request with the transaction along with a request URL (uniform resource locator). The data for the recording request is channeled from the client storage to the device storage mirror database via the application storage upload/download handler. The memory items are accumulated in a file at the client and in a backup at the device storage mirror database, and are restorable to the client from the backup.

Claims

1. A method for backup and restore in a system with mobile devices, comprising:

maintaining, in a mobile device, a file that accumulates a historical record of memory items associated with a client application; and

sending a recording request to a backup device for each memory item accumulated in the file in order to create a backup of the historical record in the backup device, wherein the backup is accessible from the mobile device for restoring the historical record in case it is not existing in the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a wireless device and the backup device is a server, both of which being capable of communicating with each other via a wireless carrier network and a network that includes the Internet.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein the client application is a client photo application and the memory items include any one or a combination of a mobile album, a selected photo data, a page navigation and a back in sequence navigation.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the memory items include any recordable action.

5. The method as in claim 1, the file is an archive file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the archive file is a Java archive file.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a wireless phone and the identity of the mobile device is a phone number assigned to it by the bearer of a wireless carrier network.

8. The method as in claim 1, further comprising for each memory item, in response to the recording request from the mobile device, saving the memory item in the backup device.

9. The method as in claim 3, wherein the selected photo data includes photo image data and any combination of a photo name, a screen size and a path into a database record in the backup device for the selected photo data, and wherein the method further comprises, in response to the recording request from the mobile device, saving the selected photo data in the database record.

10. The method as in claim 9, wherein the database record has a capacity suitable for a predetermined number of photos which if it were to be exceeded by the saving of the selected photo data, the step of saving includes discarding from the database record photo data for the oldest photo in order to make room for saving the selected photo data.

11. The method as in claim 1, wherein the recording request includes a request URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a transaction crumb representing a recordable action.

12. The method as in claim 1, wherein the backup device is a server and wherein the method further comprises restoring the historical record from the backup in the server once log in to the server is done.

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein the restoring step comprises receiving at the mobile device a list of memory items from which any one or all of the memory items is selectable for recovery from the backup.

14. The method as in claim 12, wherein the client application is a client photo application, and wherein the restoring step comprises receiving at the mobile device a mobile album list of photos from which any one or all of them is selectable for recovery from the backup.

15. The method as in claim 14, further comprising selecting from the mobile album list photos for recovery from the backup and retrieving all the selected photos, unless before all of them are retrieved the mobile device reaches full memory capacity.

16. The method as in claim 1, wherein the backup device is a server, and wherein the method further comprises restoring the historical record from the backup in the server, once the client application is re-downloaded and log in to the server is done, by automatically receiving all photos in the historical record without need for the mobile device to initiate further interactions with the server.

17. The method as in claim 1, wherein the backup device is a server, and wherein the method further comprises re-downloading the client application from the server to the mobile device, or downloading the client application from the server to another mobile device, the downloaded or re-downloaded client application being pre-populated with the historical record from the backup.

18. A method for backup and restore in a system with mobile devices in communication with a server, comprising:

maintaining in a server a mirror database with a historical record backup for a client application uploaded from the server to a mobile device, the mirror database accumulating memory items in the historical record backup that are associated with the client application and mirror its historical record;

receiving a recording request from a mobile device for each memory item accumulated in the mirror database in order to create a respective the historical record backup in the server; and

saving in the mirror database the memory item associated with each respective recording request, wherein for restoring its historical record the historical record backup for the client application is accessible from the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the mobile device is a wireless device with which the server communicates via a wireless carrier network and a network that includes the Internet.

20. The method as in claim 18, wherein the client application is a client photo application and the memory items include any one or a combination of a mobile album, a selected photo data, a page navigation action and a back in sequence navigation.

21. The method as in claim 18, wherein the memory items include any recordable action.

22. The method as in claim 18, wherein the memory items reside in an archive file.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the archive file is a Java archive file.

24. The method as in claim 19, wherein the mobile device is a wireless phone and the identity of the mobile device is a phone number assigned to it by the bearer of a wireless carrier network.

25. The method as in claim 20, wherein the selected photo data includes photo image data and any combination of a photo name, a screen size and a path into a record in the mirror database for the selected photo data.

26. The method as in claim 25, wherein the mirror database record has a capacity suitable for a predetermined number of photos which if it were to be exceeded by the saving of the selected photo data, the step of saving includes discarding from the mirror database record photo data for the oldest photo in order to make room for saving the selected photo data.

27. The method as in claim 18, wherein the recording request includes a request URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a transaction crumb representing a recordable action.

28. The method as in claim 18, further comprising restoring the historical record from the historical record backup in the server once log in to the server is done.

29. The method as in claim 28, wherein the restoring step comprises the server sending to the mobile device a list of memory items from which any one or all of the memory items is selectable for recovery from the historical record backup.

30. The method as in claim 29, wherein the restoring step comprises the server sending to the mobile device a list of memory items from which any one or all of the memory items is selectable for recovery from the backup.

31. The method as in claim 28, wherein the client application is a client photo application, and wherein the restoring step comprises the server sending to the mobile device a mobile album list of photos from which any one or all of them is selectable for recovery from the backup.

32. The method as in claim 18, further comprising the server sending to the mobile device the backup historical record, once the client application is re-uploaded from the server to the mobile device and log in to the server is done, by automatically sending all photos in the historical record without need for the mobile device to initiate further interactions with the server.

33. The method as in claim 18, further comprising the server re-downloading the client application to the mobile device, or the server downloading the client application to another mobile device, the server pre-populating the downloaded or re-downloaded client application with the historical record from the backup.

34. A method for backup and restore in a system with mobile devices, comprising:

for each recordable action associated with a client photo application resident in a mobile device, sending, from the mobile device to a server, a request for saving the recordable action in the server so as to accumulate the recordable actions in a historical record backup;

instantiating a new client photo application on the mobile device that is an equivalent replacement or an update of the, already discarded, resident client photo application, wherein the resident client photo application has provided and the new client photo application provides access to albums including a mobile album and an online album;

providing a restore mobile album option in order to restore the mobile album if it is empty or an about option in order to provide access to the online album;

if the restore mobile album page is provided, and if the client photos application is recognizable by the server, obtaining an album download history list from the server; and

restoring to the mobile device photos from the album download history list and any other recordable actions from the historical record backup.

35. A system with mobile devices for backup and restore, comprising:

a server with a request handler, an application storage upload/download handler, and a device storage mirror database; and

a client with a client storage, a transaction listener, and a crumb sticker,

wherein the transaction listener is configured to provide a transaction to the crumb sticker which is configured, in turn, to send to the request handler the transaction along with a request URL (uniform resource locator) in a recording request the data for which being channeled from the client storage to the device storage mirror database via the application storage upload/download handler,

wherein each transaction sent in a recording request is associated with a memory item, the memory items being accumulated in a file in the client and in a backup historical record in the device storage mirror database, wherein the memory items are restorable to the client from the backup historical record.