SYSTEM AND METHOD PROVIDING DIFFGRAM FORMAT

• US 20060184567A1
• Filed: 04/24/2006
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gazitt, Omri, Pizzo, Michael J., Bolognese, Luca, Chen, Chia-Hsun, Lombardi, Vincenzo, Zhengnan Zhu, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 7,743,319 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/149 Adaptation of the text data for streaming purposes, e.g. Efficient XML Interchange [EXI] format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/194 Calculation of difference between files
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate XML data communications and processing. A diffgram data structure is provided that includes one or more states of a plurality of data records. The state information can be determined by examining one or more data sources for differences from one or more reference data sources. If differences are detected between the data sources, the diffgram can be constructed in an XML compatible format with both previous state indications and current state indications that describes the state differences between the data sources. Error information and/or other administrative information or codes can also be provided to facilitate database management and/or processing.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for facilitating XML data communications, comprising:

a diffgram generation component that generates an XML document that contains a representation of current and previous versions of at least one XML data source; and

a transmission component that facilitates transmitting the generated XML document between at least two systems.

2. The system of claim 1, the diffgram generation component further comprises a difference component that determines differences between the at least two XML data sources.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a formatter associated with the difference component that outputs the XML document.

4. The system of claim 1, the XML document further comprises differences between at least two versions of the at least two XML data sources.

5. The system of claim 1, the diffgram generation component receives at least one input file employed to construct at least one diffgram.

6. The system of claim 5, the at least one input file comprises at least one diffgram.

7. The system of claim 6, the at least one diffgram comprises at least one of reference data and current data.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a receiver component that receives an XML document and determines data correctness without processing a database.

9. The system of claim 1, the transmission component further comprises a container for transmitting at least one XML document.

10. The system of claim 9, the container comprises 1 to S states, S being an integer, corresponding to changes to the at least one XML data source.

11. The system of claim 1, the transmission component utilizes an XML stream to communicate with at least one system or application via a network.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a synchronization component that determines whether differences exist between a reference file and data contained in a data store.

13. A computer-implemented method for exchanging XML data, comprising:

analyzing a plurality of XML data sources;

determining whether changes to the plurality of XML data sources exist;

outputting the changes to a formatter; and

constructing an XML diffgram that includes a representation of current and previous versions of at least one of the XML data sources.

14. The method of claim 13, constructing an XML diffgram further comprises generating a nested XML diffgram representing current and previous versions of the XML diffgram.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting a container comprising state information related to previous and current data states to at least one system or application via a computer network.

16. The method of claim 15, the container comprising states of a plurality of separately compared files.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising checking data contained in a data store based at least in part upon the contents of the XML diffgram.

18. The method of claim 17, checking data further comprises at least one of synchronizing data between disparate data sources and repairing stored data.

19. The method of claim 17, checking data further comprises comparing the XML diffgram with at least one data record contained in the data store without buffering the at least one data record.

20. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable components that provide for the following acts:

determining differences between at least two XML data sources;

generating an XML document comprising a representation of a current and previous version of at least one of the XML data sources; and

transmitting the XML document to at least one of an application, data store, and computer system.