Method and System for Supporting Off-Line Mode of Operation and Synchronization

• US 20110093597A1
• Filed: 12/21/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Rebecca L., Deen, Brian J., Hopmann, Alexander I.
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Systems and methods for synchronizing multiple copies of data in a network environment that includes servers and clients so that incremental changes made to one copy of the data can be identified, transferred, and incorporated into all other copies of the data. The synchronization can be accomplished regardless of whether modifications to the data have been made by a client while the client is in an on-line or off-line mode of operation. The clients cache data locally as data are modified and downloaded. The caching enables the clients to access the data and allows the synchronization to be performed without transmitting a particular version more than once between a client and a server. Such elimination of redundant data transmission results in an efficient use of time and network bandwidth.

Claims

1. In a networked system including a server and a client, wherein the server stores resources within a collection, the resources being divided into at least a first subset of resources and a second subset of resources, a method of enabling a client to access the resources, comprising the steps of:

requesting from the server a copy of the collection;

in response to the request, receiving from a local store associated with the client the first subset of resources, the first subset of resources having been previously requested from the server and stored within the local store associated with the client;

transmitting to the server state identifiers associated with the first subset of resources received from the local store associated with the client; and

in response to the request, receiving from the server the second subset of resources and receiving from the server at least one resource corresponding to at least one resource from the first subset of resources received from the local store, wherein the at least one resource received from the server includes a more recent state than the corresponding at least resource from the first subset of resources received from the local store.