EXCHANGE OF SYNCRONIZATION DATA AND METADATA

• US 20090083210A1
• Filed: 09/25/2007
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Novik, Lev, Khosravy, Moe, Lee, Oliver, Padgett, Neil Leonard, Clark, Michael Ray
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,495 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks

Abstract

Systems and methods that disclose alternative patterns for exchange of synchronization data and/or metadata, e.g., ‘knowledge’, to enhance performance of synchronization processes are disclosed. Accordingly, the innovation discloses synchronization mechanisms that employ exchange of data and metadata to alleviate a requirement of a complete ‘round-trip’ when synchronizing data. ‘Knowledge’ can be provided which informs a provider of data changes, modifications, additions or deletions. The ‘knowledge’ can lower expense and/or increase efficiencies of the synchronization exchanges by enabling informed decision-making related to enumerating changes within the synchronization processes.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates synchronization of data, comprising:

a knowledge data set that identifies state of a provider; and

a synchronization engine that manages data flow between a plurality of providers based upon the knowledge data set, wherein the data flow defines a plurality of synchronization candidates.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a knowledge generator that establishes the knowledge data set based at least in part upon state of one of the plurality of providers.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an analysis component that evaluates the knowledge; and

a change aggregator that enumerates a plurality of changes based upon the evaluation.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a filter component that filters the synchronization candidates based upon the knowledge.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the knowledge is actual knowledge that defines state of a destination provider.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the knowledge is ‘

stand-in’

knowledge that defines state of a destination provider.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning and reasoning component that employs at least one of a probabilistic and a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

8. A computer-implemented method of synchronizing data between a plurality of providers, comprising:

generating a request, wherein the request includes knowledge;

enumerating a plurality of changes based at least in part upon the knowledge; and

transmitting the plurality of changes based at least in part upon the knowledge.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the knowledge is actual knowledge.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the knowledge is ‘

stand-in’

knowledge.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising, filtering a subset from the plurality of changes as a function of the knowledge.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising, accepting a subset of the plurality of changes.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising detecting a conflict between each of the plurality of changes and a local item.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

resolving the conflict; and

accepting a subset of the plurality of changes as a function of the resolution.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising logging the conflict.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

monitoring a change associated with a source provider; and

prompting generation of the request based upon identification of the change associated with the source provider.

17. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

pinging a source provider to identify a change; and

prompting generation of the request based upon identification of the change associated with the source provider.

18. A computer-executable system of synchronizing data, comprising:

means for generating ‘

knowledge’

that identifies state of a destination provider; and

means for enumerating a plurality of changes between a source provider and the destination provider based upon the ‘

knowledge.’

19. The computer-executable system of claim 18, further comprising means for synchronizing data between the source provider and the destination provider as a function of a subset of the enumerated changes.

20. The computer-executable system of claim 18, further comprising means for detecting and resolving a plurality of conflicts based upon a subset of the enumerated changes.