Determining when a low fidelity property value has changed during a SYNC

• US 20050289196A1
• Filed: 04/20/2005
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Starbuck, Bryan T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,284,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

During synchronization of data between a remote device and a local device, it can be determined if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine. A remote representation of a property value is compared to a local representation associated with the same property value. If the representations are identical, it can be determined that the property value did not change on the remote device. If, however, they are not identical then the property value must have changed after the remote representation was generated.

Claims

1. In a distributed computing system capable of synchronizing data between devices, a method of determining if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving a current value for a remote property and a remote representation for a prior value of the remote property;

receiving, from a field of a remote database at the remote device that is not reserved for storing time-date information, a remote representation of time-date information that is associated with the remote property;

generating a local representation of the remote property from the current value for the remote property;

comparing the remote representation to the local representation;

determining, based on the comparison, that the prior value of the remote property was changed after the remote representation was generated; and

based on the determination that the prior value of the remote property was changed, determining that the remote representation of time-date information is unreliable.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property and the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote representation of the time-date information is stored down to the seconds.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a conflict exists between the current value and a local value associated with the remote property, and wherein the remote representation of time-date information is not used for resolving the conflict.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a local value is used to replace the current value and the remote representation is replaced with an updated remote representation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property, the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property, and the updated remote representation is a hash of the local value.

3. (canceled)

4. (canceled)

9. In a distributed computing system capable of synchronizing data between devices, a method of determining if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving a remote value for a remote property and a remote representation for the remote value of the remote property;

receiving, from a field of a remote database at the remote device that is not reserved for storing time-date information, a remote representation of time-date information that is associated with the remote property;

generating a local representation of the remote property from the remote value for the remote property;

comparing the remote representation to the local representation;

determining, based on the comparison, that the remote value of the remote property has not changed after the remote representation was generated; and

based on the determination that the remote value of the remote property has not changed, comparing the remote representation of time-time information with a location representation of time-date information, the remote representation of time-date information and the local representation of time-date information indicating when the remote value and local value were generated, respectively.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the remote value and the local representation is a hash of the remote value.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining that a conflict exists between the remote value and a local value associated with the remote property; and

resolving the conflict based on the results of the comparison of the remote representation of time date to the local representation of time date information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the remote representation of the time-date information is stored down to the minutes.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the local value is used to replace the remote value and the remote representation is replaced with an updated remote representation.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property, the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property, and the updated remote representation is a hash of the local value.

11. (canceled)

16. In a distributed computing system capable of synchronizing data between devices, a computer program product for implementing a method of determining if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine, the computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, can cause the distributed computing system to perform the following:

receive a current value for a remote property and a remote representation for a prior value of the remote property;

receive, from a field of a remote database at the remote device that is not reserved for storing time-date information, a remote representation of time-date information that is associated with the remote property;

generate a local representation of the remote property from the current value for the remote property;

compare the remote representation to the local representation;

determine, based on the comparison, that the prior value of the remote property was changed after the remote representation was generated; and

based on the determination that the prior value of the remote property was changed, determine that the remote representation of time-date information is unreliable.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property and the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property.

22. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein a local value is used to replace the current value and the remote representation is replaced with an updated remote representation.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property, the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property, and the updated remote representation is a hash of the local value.

18. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the remote representation of the time-date information is stored in a time zone independent format.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein a conflict exists between the current value and a local value associated with the remote property, and wherein the remote representation of time-date information is not used for resolving the conflict.

24-30. -30. (canceled)