Application-Managed File Versioning

• US 20090248757A1
• Filed: 04/01/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Havewala, Sarosh C., Li, Hui, Christiansen, Neal R., Garson, Matthew S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,856,088 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

In accordance with one or more aspects of the application-managed file versioning, a request to store a new version of a file is received from an application, the request having been generated by the application. A filename for the new version of the file is generated, derived from a standardized naming convention. The filename includes a first portion having at least a portion of a name of the file, and a second portion having data indicating that the new version of the file is a version of the file. A set of application programming interfaces (APIs) can be exposed that allow the application to manage file versions, such as creating a new version of a file, identifying one or more versions of the file, listing one or more versions of the file, and deleting one or more versions of the file.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from an application, a request to store a new version of a file; and

generate a filename for the new version of the file, the filename including a first portion having at least a portion of a name of the file, and a second portion having data indicating that the new version of the file is a version of the file.

2. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, the request having been generated in response to the application having automatically determined that the new version of the file is to be saved.

3. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the application is running on the device.

4. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the multiple instructions comprise a versioning module of an operating system running on the device.

5. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, the filename further including a timestamp portion that identifies a date and a time at which the new version of the file is created.

6. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 5, the filename further including a flag portion to associate specific information with the new version of the file.

7. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 5, the filename further including a tag portion to associate metadata with the new version of the file.

8. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to store the new version of the file in a known location.

9. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to determine when to delete one or more versions of the file and to identify the one or more versions of the file to be deleted, the one or more versions of the file excluding each version of the file that is flagged as pinned.

10. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to expose a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to the application, the set of APIs including one or more APIs to create the new version of the file, one or more APIs to identify one or more versions of the file, one or more APIs to list the one or more versions of the file, and one or more APIs to delete the one or more versions of the file, and wherein to receive the request is to have the application invoke one of the one or more APIs to create the new version of the file.

11. A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising:

identifying an application-specific event in an application;

determining, in response to the event being identified, that a new version of the file is to be saved; and

sending a request to a versioning module to save the new version of the file, the request including a name of the file for which the new version is to be saved.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, the sending comprising invoking an application programming interface exposed by the versioning module, the versioning module running on the computing device.

13. A method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

automatically determining when to delete a version of the file; and

sending, in response to determining to delete the version of the file, a request to the versioning module to delete the version of the file.

14. A method as recited in claim 11, the sending comprising sending the request to a versioning module of a second computing device.

15. A method as recited in claim 11, the request further including an indication of one or more flags to be set for the new version of the file, each of the one or more flags associating specific information with the new version of the file, and each of the one or more flags being included in a filename of the new version of the file.

16. A method as recited in claim 11, the request further including an indication of metadata to be included in a filename of the new version of the file.

17. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to expose a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow an application running on the device to manage file versions, the set of APIs including one or more APIs to create a new version of a file when automatically invoked by the application and one or more APIs to identify one or more versions of the file.

18. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, the set of APIs further including one or more APIs to delete at least one of the one or more versions of the file, and one or more APIs to enumerate the one or more versions of the file.

19. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, the set of APIs further including one or more APIs to allow access to both the one or more versions of the file and one or more additional versions of the file generated using a legacy technique.

20. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, the set of APIs further including one or more APIs to tag the one or more versions of the file.