Real-time synchronization of XML data between applications

• US 20070061382A1
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Brian, Taleghani, Ali, Sawicki, Marcin, Barac, Dragos, Cupala, Shiraz, Little, Robert, Davis, Tristan
• Granted Patent: US 7,953,696 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• 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

Abstract

One or more data stores are maintained separately from a primary presentation storage within a document for storing, relating and for allowing use of arbitrary data that is associated with a computer-generated document between multiple data consumers. The data store exposes application programming interfaces (APIs) to the various pieces of data in the data store for allowing different data consumers to access and operate on one or more of the data pieces in real time. Multiple data consumers may access and edit the same piece of data concurrently, and any conflicting changes to a given piece of data are resolved. Each data consumer may accept or reject the change as well as make additional side-effect changes as a result of the original change. In this way, the data may be synchronized in real time across the data consumers.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for synchronizing data that is associated with a computer-generated document and that is shared across data consumers, comprising:

storing structured data items that are associated with a document in a data store, wherein the data store is separate from the document;

initiating a change to a structured data item within the data store by a first data consumer;

determining when there are other data consumers that are interested in the change to the structured data item;

notifying the other data consumers of the change, wherein the other data consumers may perform at least one of;

accepting the change;

rejecting the change; and

initiating a side-effect change as a result of the original change; and

committing the change to the data store when the change is accepted and rolling back the data store to a state before a time when the change was initiated when the change is rejected.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising structuring the structured data items within the data store according to Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifications.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, further comprising exposing an application programming interface (API) to the data consumers that allows programmatic access to the structured data items;

wherein the API provides the ability to access the structured data items within the data store while the document is open and wherein the API allows more than one data consumer to access a same structured data item at the same time; and

wherein the API provides the data consumers the ability to register for a notification that involves one or more of the structured data items.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, further comprising updating a display that is associated with one of the other data consumers with a value of the structured data item that was changed by the first data consumer.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the side-effect change is queued for later execution, wherein the later execution occurs after each of the data consumers has had a chance to accept, reject and make a side-effect change.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein committing the change when accepted comprises processing each side-effect and determining whether each side-effect is accepted.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, further comprising maintaining an undo list that may be used to return the data store back to the state before the time when the change was initiated.

8. A computer-implemented method for sharing data that is associated with computer-generated documents between data consumers, comprising:

initiating a change to a structured data item that is contained within a data store and is associated with a document;

wherein the structured data item is structured according to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) and wherein the data store is separate from the document;

providing notification of the change to registered data consumers;

queuing side-effect changes that are a result of the change for later processing;

determining when a response from one of the registered data consumers is a rejection of the change, and when the response is a rejection, rolling back the change and any side-effect changes from all data consumers within the data store to a last known good state; and

determining when each of the registered data consumers accepts the change, and when each of the registered data consumers accepts the change, validating the change using an XML schema file that is provided by one of the data consumers through an API, and

committing the change to the data store.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein initiating the change to a structured data item that is contained within the data store;

comprises exposing an application programming interface (API) that provides the ability for the data consumers to access the structured data items within the data store, wherein the API allows more than one of the data consumers to access a same structured data item at the same time.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising receiving a side-effect change in response to the notification and delaying execution of the side-effect change within the data store until the change has been processed.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising queuing the side-effect change within the data store.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining when each of the registered data consumers accepts the change comprises determining when the change is accepted by each data consumer and when each of the side-effect changes are accepted.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising, maintaining an undo list that is used to return the data store back to the last known good state.

14. A system for synchronizing data that is associated with a computer-generated document between data consumers, comprising:

an internal data consumer that is configured to create and edit the document and that is configured to interact with structured data items that are associated with the document;

external data consumers that are configured to interact with the structured data items that are associated with the document; and

a data store that is configured to store the structured data items that are associated with the document separate from the document, wherein the data store comprises;

an API broker that is configured to interact with the external data consumers and the internal data consumers and that is configured to receive a proposed change and in response to the proposed change notify registered data consumers of the proposed change, commit the change to the data store when the proposed change is accepted and when the proposed change is not accepted ensuring that the data store is in a valid state, wherein the data store further includes a change store that is configured to store the proposed change and side-effect changes that are associated with the proposed change, and an undue store that is configured to roll back the data store to the valid state.

15. The system claim 14, further comprising structuring the structured data items within the data store according to an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the data store is further configured to queue the side-effect changes for later execution, wherein the later execution is configured to occur after each registered data consumer has had a chance to accept, reject and make a side-effect change.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the data store is further configured to process each side-effect and determine whether each side-effect is accepted.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the data store is further configured to:

receive a change to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) markup data applied to the structured data item;

read an XML schema file associated with the structured data item to which the change to the XML markup data is directed;

determine whether the change to the XML markup data is valid according to the read XML schema file; and

disallow the change to the XML markup data if the change to the XML markup data is not valid according to the read XML schema file; and

commit the change when the change to the XML markup data is valid according to the read XML schema file.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the data store comprises a plurality of XML data stores that each comprise an undo store and a change store.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each undo store is configured to communicate with the other undo stores.