Cross-pollination synchronization of data

• US 20060020804A1
• Filed: 04/25/2005
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hall, Gary W., Schleifer, Jason E., Chen, James P., Tan, Garry K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,558 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A technique and mechanism to effect cross-pollination synchronization of PIM (personal information manager) data to multiple sources. Additionally, a novel feature of the subject invention is the ability to effect cross-pollination synchronization with any number of devices and sources in a network. The invention provides for a user to employ a mobile device or set of devices as a central repository for PIM data (e.g., calendar, contacts and tasks) synchronized from multiple sources (e.g., multiple PC'"'"'s (personal computers), an exchange server). The invention provides for synchronization of PIM data from multiple types of server sources to multiple devices regardless of the synchronization protocol versions and different schemas.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates synchronizing data, comprising:

an analyzer component that analyzes a first data item from a source, the analyzer component compares the first data item with a second data item of a device and determines an output that represents a relationship between the first data item and at the second data item; and

a transfer component that transmits the first data item to the device in accordance with the output from the analyzer component.

2. The system of claim 1, the received data item is PIM (personal information manager) data.

3. The system of claim 1, the analyzer component determines a version of the first data item and compares the version of the first data item with a version of the second data item.

4. The system of claim 1, the transfer component transmits the first data item to a plurality of disparate devices in accordance with a rule.

5. The system of claim 1, the analyzer component compares a property of the first data item with a property of the second data item.

6. The system of claim 1, the analyzer component further comprises a hash component that facilitates comparing the received first data item with the second data item.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sync loop reduction component that, based at least in part upon the output from the analyzer component, instructs the transfer component to discontinue a sync loop.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a device identifier that determines a configuration of the device and communicates the configuration to the analyzer component;

the analyzer component employs the configuration to determine the output.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a rules component that facilitates determining the output in accordance with a rule.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an artificial intelligence component that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

11. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for carrying out the system of claim 1.

12. A computer-implemented method of cross-pollinating data, comprising:

receiving a first data item from a source;

comparing the first data item to a second data item stored in a device; and

synchronizing the first data item with the device if the first data item has a distinguishable characteristic from the second data item.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, the distinguishable characteristic is at least one of a hash value, a time stamp, a version indicator and a property value.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the distinguishable characteristic is a combination of at least two of a hash value, time stamp, version indicator and property value.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the act of comparing includes generating a hash value of the first data item.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the act of synchronizing includes synchronizing based at least in part upon a rule.

17. A system of cross-pollinating data, comprising:

means for receiving a first data item from a source;

means for comparing the first data item to a second data item stored on a disparate source to determine a distinguishable characteristic; and

means for cross-pollinating the first data item to the disparate source if the first data item has a distinguishable characteristic from the second data item.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising means for computing a hash of the first data item and means for comparing the hash of the first data item to a hash of the second data item.

19. The system of claim 17, the received data is PIM data.

20. The system of claim 17, the distinguishable characteristic is a combination of at least two of a hash value, a time stamp, a version indicator and a property value.