DATA-DRIVEN SYNCHRONIZATION

• US 20090077138A1
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Albemarle Netherlands BV (Albemarle Corporation), Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Clark, Michael R., Thomas, Myron C., Davis, Darren R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,185,494 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Synchronization is bound to data and optionally a set of synchronization behaviors as opposed to a particular application and/or endpoint. As a result, synchronization amongst endpoints need not require creation of customized synchronization solutions or rely on vendor and/or application specific mechanisms. In one instance, standard data and/or synch schemas can be subscribed to and utilized to dynamically configure synchronization across endpoints.

Claims

1. A data synchronization system, comprising:

a conduit component that enables interaction with two or more data sets; and

a synchronization component that facilitates data-driven synchronization of the data sets unbound by associated applications and/or endpoints.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data schema component that defines data set data structure for synchronization.

3. The system of claim 2, the data schema component identifies change units.

4. The system of claim 3, the data schema component specifies content type.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising a sync model component that defines how data is exchanged for purposes of synchronization.

6. The system of claim 5, the sync model component specifies a change detection method.

7. The system of claim 5, the sync model component specifies current state of data.

8. The system of claim 5, further comprising a component that compares the data sets and identifies differences.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a component that updates one or more data sets to resolve the differences and thereby synchronized the sets.

10. The system of claim 1, the data sets, or segments thereof, conform to an extensible content type schema.

11. A method of cross-store synchronization, comprising:

determining content type and change units for a data set; and

synchronizing the data set across two or more data stores as a function of the content type and change units.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining a change detection method based on associated endpoint capabilities and/or preferences.

13. The method of claim 12, selecting amongst a plurality of predefined identification methods.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising synchronizing the data set utilizing synchronization state information.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising synchronizing the data set utilizing context specific identifiers that identify identical data constructs.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising synchronizing the data utilizing content agnostic versioning information associated with the change units.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising acquiring the content type and change units from a public schema.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising carrying unsupported sync data.

19. A system that facilitates synchronization, comprising:

means for negotiating a synchronization protocol between two or more endpoints as a function of a synchronization model that defines how data is exchanged and a data schema that describes the data to be exchanged; and

means for configuring synchronization in accordance with a negotiated synchronization protocol.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a means for synchronizing data across the two or more devices in accordance with the negotiated protocol.