Methods and systems for caching and synchronizing project data

• US 20060070019A1
• Filed: 09/28/2004
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vishnumurty, Rajendra, Bhat, Sudin, Iyer, Raju
• Granted Patent: US 8,005,710 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for intelligently managing project data in a project management application. According to various aspects of the invention, project management data may be loaded and saved to a local cache of a client computer, such as a hard disk cache. The invention also provides a mechanism for reducing the size of data downloaded from and sent to a project server during load and save times.

Claims

1. A method for managing data of a project management application, comprising:

generating a project schedule including project data,

monitoring changes to the project schedule, and

determining whether a threshold is met according to the monitored changes.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a difference of the project data to a project server when the threshold is met.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a difference of the project data from a project server.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising saving project data to a local cache of a client computer.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising using a cache manager to manage saving and loading project data.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising using the cache manager to accumulate modified data properties.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising organizing modified project data into a number of categories.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising organizing modified project according to new data, updated data, and/or deleted data.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising saving metadata associated with a local file path, last synchronization time with a project server, one or more version stamps, and/or other project related information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a threshold of at least about ten percent of the total project size is met.

11. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer performs the method of claim 1.

12. A method for managing project data of a project management application, comprising:

receiving project data associated with a project,

determining a difference of the data by comparing the received project data with stored project data, and

updating the project data in the project based on the determined difference.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving project data associated with a project if a threshold has been met based on changes to the project data.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising updating project data related to a project, task, resource, task constraint, and/or assignment of a task to a resource.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising asynchronously saving data to a project database.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising comparing version stamps associated with project data of a server and a local cache.

17. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer performs the method of claim 12.

18. A method for managing project data of a project management application, comprising:

requesting a project including project data,

sending a first version stamp associated with the project, and

receiving project data based on a comparison of data associated with the first version stamp and a second version stamp.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising storing the project data in a local cache of a client computer.

20. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer performs the method of claim 18.

21. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer performs a method for managing project data of a project management application, comprising:

receiving project data associated with a project,

determining a difference of the data by comparing the received project data with stored project data, and

updating the project data in the project based on the determined difference.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, the method further comprising receiving project data associated with a project if a threshold has been met based on changes to the project data.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, the method further comprising receiving a difference of the project data when the threshold is met.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, the method further comprising using a cache manager to manage saving and/or loading project data to and/or from a local cache of a client computer.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, the method further comprising saving metadata associated with a local file path, last synchronization time with a project server, one or more version stamps, and/or other project related information.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, the method further comprising

determining a difference of the data by comparing the received project data with stored project data, and

updating the project data in the project based on the determined difference.