Client side indexing of offline address book files

• US 20060235878A1
• Filed: 04/14/2005
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Romano, Victor Erwin, Shipp, Neil L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,490,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A method of building an offline address book (OAB). An OAB data file and a table of attributes are generated at a server. The data file and table are transferred from the server to a client. The transferred data file and table are indexed by the client.

Claims

1. A method of building an offline address book (OAB) comprising:

Generating an OAB data file and a table of attributes at a server;

Transferring the data file and table from the server to a client;

Indexing the transferred data file and table at the client.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a customized indexed file for each index to be used by the client.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the indexing is according to at least one of the following:

An ambiguous name resolution index file including at least one of the following;

display name, surname, mail nickname (alias), and office location;

A browse index file for presenting records of the OAB data file in alphabetical order; and

A distinguished name index file for identifying records of the OAB data file based on a unique distinguished name of each record.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

Transferring the data file and table from the server to a different client;

Indexing the transferred data file and table at the different client whereby one set of data files and table are used by both clients independent of sort order required by each of the clients.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein new attributes can be added or removed from index files by the client or different index behavior can be achieved by the client without server side changes.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each index file comprises a header including at least one of a version number, a signature value, a count of records, an attribute identifier and a sort locale and a list of fixed sized index records including a record offset into the OAB data file and an offset to the particular value within the referenced OAB data file record.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the version number distinguishes between different OAB file types and the signature value is a hash value computed from the main OAB data file so that the client can confirm that the file used as the index matches the OAB data file.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein for multi-valued attributes an index record is generated for each value stored in the OAB.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein indexing at the client comprises building each index file individually or at the same time by reading the OAB data file in order, reading each record, adding the attribute value to an in-memory table and, after the entire file is read, sorting the table, and writing out the index file, and wherein the client repeats the building for each other attribute that needs indexing.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein indexing includes index traversal wherein the client selects a starting position in the index file to begin a list, reads each index record of index file in order from the index file, and uses the offsets to read each OAB record in turn whereby the client uses the sorted index filed so that the records come out in the correct sort order.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the client performs a binary search for entries in an index file by choosing a midpoint of the index file, retrieving the record pointed to by the record offset value, reading the value pointed to by the value offset, comparing the read value with a search key and then choosing whether to bisect the upper range or lower range depending on the comparison result and wherein the client then repeatedly performs the binary search until the desired value is found or is determined to not be present.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the server periodically generates the OAB file on an administrator defined schedule and generates a differences file between the previous version and the next using an update mechanism and wherein clients which have previously received the previous version are transferred only the difference file.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the OAB data file format comprises the following:

an OAB header, an attribute table, and a plurality OAB records.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein during indexing the client truncates overly long property strings, removes overly long binary values, and limits the number of values in a multi-valued attribute in order to minimize the size of the OAB.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein information about which properties were truncated or removed is a constructed multi-valued long property in the OAB record and wherein the information contains a list of the property tags that have been truncated or limited by the server.

16. A client-side method of building an offline address book (OAB) wherein a server generates an OAB data file and a table of attributes, said method comprising:

receiving by the client the data file and table from the server; and

indexing the transferred data file and table at the client.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein new attributes can be added or removed from indexed files by the client or different index behavior can be achieved by the client without server side changes.

18. A method of maintaining an offline address book (OAB) comprising:

Periodically generating an OAB data file and a table of attributes at a server;

Generating a differences file between the previous version and the next version of the OAB file using an update mechanism;

Transferring the difference file to a client which previously received the previous version; and

Indexing the transferred data file and table and difference file at the client.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising generating a customized indexed file for each index to be used by the client.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the OAB difference file format comprises the following:

an OAB headed, an attribute table, and a plurality OAB records.