ACCESS TO SUPPLEMENTAL DATA BASED ON IDENTIFIER DERIVED FROM CORRESPONDING PRIMARY APPLICATION DATA

• US 20130151657A1
• Filed: 12/09/2011
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: De, Vaishali, Lehman, Gregg T., Rodriguez, Raul H., Boyko, Alex, Filpus, Greg, Liu, Jiahe (Jack)
• Granted Patent: US 9,396,277 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• 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 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Primary data for an application is stored at a remotely located first server such as cloud storage. A user of the application may wish to modify or add to the primary data to create supplemental data for which storage is not supported in the first server. Configurations herein include a way to store the supplemental data (e.g., edits, additions, etc.) on a second server at a second storage service provider (e.g. a corporate intranet). Different instances of the application executing on different computer devices by that same user can retrieve the primary data from the first storage service provider as well as retrieve the supplemental data from the second storage service provider.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in a first instance of an application;

retrieving primary application data from a first server;

receiving supplemental application data to be associated with the primary application data;

computing a first unique identifier value based at least in part on the primary application data; and

forwarding the first unique identifier value to a second server, the second server enabling subsequent retrieval of the supplemental application data by a second instance of the application using the first unique identifier value.

2. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

in the second instance of the application;

retrieving the primary application data from the first server;

computing a second unique identifier value based at least in part on the primary application data; and

utilizing the second unique identifier value produced by the second instance as an index to identify the supplemental application data and retrieve the supplemental application data from the second server.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein utilizing the second unique identifier value produced by the second instance includes:

forwarding the second unique identifier value produced by the second instance of the application to the second server, the second server mapping the second unique identifier value to the supplemental application data by comparing the second unique identifier value to the first unique identifier value; and

receiving the supplemental application data from the second server.

4. The method as in claim 3, further comprising:

operating the first server by a first storage service provider;

operating the second server as a second storage provider; and

wherein the second storage service provider is a different entity than the first storage service provider, and wherein the supplemental application data is data that is unable to be stored as primary application data in the first server.

5. The method as in claim 2 further comprising:

via the second instance of the application;

utilizing the retrieved primary application data to identify primary settings used by the application; and

utilizing the supplemental application data to identify modifications with respect to the primary settings, the modifications being data that is unable to be stored with the primary application data in the first server.

6. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

via the first instance of the application;

storing the supplemental application data in the second server;

producing an index entry associating the first unique identifier value to the supplemental application data stored in the second server; and

storing the index entry to retrieve the supplemental application data from the second server.

7. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

via a second instance of the application;

utilizing the first unique identifier value as an index to identify the supplemental application data; and

receiving the supplemental data from the second server.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein computing the first unique identifier value based at least in part on the primary application data includes:

applying a hash function to at least a portion of the primary application data and a user identity of a user operating first instance of the application to produce the first unique identifier value for associating with the supplemental application data to allow access to the supplemental application data by the user of a second instance of the application; and

wherein the primary application data at least in part specifies settings information to be used by the first instance of the application; and

wherein the supplemental application data indexed by the first unique identifier value specifies modifications with respect to the primary application data.

9. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

via the second instance of the application;

retrieving the primary application data from the first server;

modifying the primary application data;

storing the modified primary application data in the first server;

computing the second unique identifier value based on the modified primary application data; and

forwarding the second unique identifier value for the modified primary application data to the second server, the second unique identifier allowing a subsequent instance of the application to identify supplemental application data associated to the primary application data for a user of the subsequent instance of the application.

10. The method as in claim 9, wherein the user executes the first instance of the application on a first computer at a first location in a network environment;

and

wherein the user executes the second instance and the subsequent instance of the application one at least one second computer at a second location in the network environment.

11. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor device;

at least one storage resource that stores instructions associated with an application, the application executed by the at least one processor device; and

at least one interconnect coupling the at least one processor device and the at least one storage resource, the at least one interconnect enabling the computer system to execute a first instance of the application and perform operations of;

retrieving primary application data from a first server;

computing a unique identifier value based at least in part on the primary application data; and

utilizing the unique identifier value produced by the first instance as an index to identify supplemental application data stored by a second server; and

retrieving the identified supplemental application data from the second server.

12. The computer system as in claim 11, wherein utilizing the unique identifier value produced by the first instance includes:

forwarding the unique identifier value produced by the first instance of the application to the second server, the second server mapping the unique identifier value to the supplemental application data.

13. The computer system as in claim 12, wherein the supplemental application data is data that is unable to be stored as primary application data in the first server.

14. The computer system as in claim 11 including a second instance of the application, the second instance of the application executing the following steps prior to utilizing the unique identifier value as an index to identify the supplemental application data:

retrieving the primary application data from the first server;

receiving the supplemental application data to be associated with the primary application data;

computing the unique identifier value based at least in part on the primary application data; and

forwarding the unique identifier value to the second server.

15. The computer system as in claim 11 including a second instance of the application, wherein the second instance of the application supports operations of:

utilizing the retrieved primary application data to identify primary settings used by the application; and

utilizing the supplemental application data to identify modifications with respect to the primary settings.

16. The computer system as in claim 11, wherein computing the unique identifier value includes:

applying a hash function to at least a portion of the primary application data to produce the unique identifier value.

17. The computer system as in claim 16, wherein the primary application data at least in part specifies settings information to be used by the first instance of the application;

and

wherein the supplemental application data indexed by the unique identifier value specifies modifications with respect to the primary application data.

18. The computer system of claim 17 wherein:

the first server is operated by a first storage service provider;

the second server is operated by a second storage provider; and

wherein the second storage service provider is a different entity than the first storage service provider.

19. A computer-readable hardware storage medium having instructions stored thereon for processing data information, such that the instructions, when carried out by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations of:

via a first instance of an executed application;

retrieving primary application data from a first server;

receiving supplemental application data to be associated with the primary application data, the supplemental data being data that is unable to be stored by the first server;

computing a unique identifier value based at least in part on the primary application data; and

forwarding the unique identifier value to a second server, the second server enabling subsequent retrieval of the supplemental application data by a second instance of the application.

20. The computer-readable hardware storage medium as in claim 19, wherein the instructions when carried out by the processing device cause the processing device to perform operations of:

storing the supplemental application data in the second server;

producing an index entry associating the first unique identifier value to the supplemental application data stored in the second server; and

storing the index entry to retrieve the supplemental application data from the second server.