MULTI-MASTER TEXT SYNCHRONIZATION USING DELTAS

• US 20110208805A1
• Filed: 02/24/2010
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: ELSON, ANIL ABRAHAM, KASETTY, SHRUTI
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1767 Concurrency control, e.g. optimistic or pessimistic approaches
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/194 Calculation of difference between files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

A server enforces a policy for selecting what received change to process. The non-selected changes are not processed by the server. Instead, after the selected change is processed and is incorporated into the current version of the text, the server sends an update to each of the clients indicating the change made to the current version of text. A client performs a conflict resolution procedure when its change was not processed by the server. The conflict resolution procedure detects the differences between the updated text version and its text change that was not accepted by the server and uses the differences to deduce the intent of the user and come up with a merged version of the text which preserves the intent and avoids data loss. The updated version is then sent back to the server to update the current version of the text.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for resolving text change conflicts, comprising:

receiving at a client an update notification from a server;

wherein the update notification includes an update to a current version of text that is co-edited by clients;

determining at the client, when the client has a non-selected text change to update the current version of the text;

initiating a conflict resolution procedure on the client to create an updated text change to reflect the updated current version of the text and the non-selected text change; and

submitting the updated text change to the server to update the current version of the text.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated text change comprises deltas to the current version of the text.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict resolution policy comprises merging text of the non-selected text change with the update to the current version of the text.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the conflict resolution policy comprises determining a difference between text of the non-selected text change and text of the update to the current version of the text to deduce an intent of a user that is used to provide a merged version of the text that avoids data loss.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the client has any pending text changes to update the current version of the text.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the conflict resolution procedure the conflict algorithm is only performed by the client when it is determined that the client has the non-selected text change.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating a client version of the text when it is determined that the client does not have the non-selected text change to update the current version of the text.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the server selecting a received text change to update the current version of the text based on a first person wins policy that selects a first text change received.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for resolving conflicts to co-edited text, the instructions comprising:

receiving at a server text changes to update a current version of text from clients;

selecting a policy to determine what text change to select to first process;

wherein the selected text change is used to update the current version of the text;

selecting the text change to process based on the selected policy;

updating the current version of the text with the selected text change;

sending an update notification to the clients reflecting the selected text change;

wherein the update notification is used by the clients in determining whether a conflict in text edits has occurred on the server and when to perform a conflict resolution procedure to update a pending text change.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the policy is a first person wins policy that selects a first text change received.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the server selects a single text change and ignores any other text changes.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the updated notification sent to the clients comprises deltas to the current version of the text.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the conflict resolution procedure is performed by clients and not performed by the server.

14. A client apparatus for handling conflicts to co-edited text, comprising:

a processor and a computer-readable storage medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable storage medium and executing on the processor;

a display; and

a text manager operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to perform actions, including;

receiving an update notification from a server;

wherein the update notification includes an update to a current version of text that is co-edited by clients;

determining when the client has a non-selected text change to update the current version of the text;

initiating a conflict resolution procedure on the client to create an updated text change to reflect the updated current version of the text and the non-selected text change; and

submitting the updated text change to the server to update the current version of the text.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the updated text change and the updated notification comprise deltas to the current version of the text.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the conflict resolution policy comprises merging text of the non-selected text change with the update to the current version of the text.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the conflict resolution policy further comprises determining a difference between text of the non-selected text change and text of the update to the current version of text.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising determining whether the client has any pending text changes to update the current version of the text.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein initiating the conflict resolution procedure the conflict algorithm is only performed when it is determined that the client has the non-selected text change.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising updating a client version of the text.