SYNCHRONIZING LOCAL AND REMOTE DATA

• US 20130246353A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Didcock, Clifford Neil, Luk, Jonathan M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,110,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/624
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• 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 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• 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 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to synchronizing data. In aspects, properties are synchronized from an organization property store to a cloud property store and/or vice versa. The list of properties to synchronize may change based on the cloud services to which the organization subscribes, changes to the cloud services, or for other reasons. Furthermore, the list of properties to synchronize may be limited to certain objects of the organization which may also change over time.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part by a computer, the method comprising:

obtaining a new schema that indicates properties to synchronize from a first properties store to a second properties store;

comparing the new schema to an old schema that was previously obtained to determine whether the new schema and the old schema are identical;

if the new schema includes additional properties to synchronize, performing a first set of actions to synchronize the additional properties from the first properties store to the second properties store;

if the new schema does not include properties of the old schema, performing a second set of actions to stop synchronizing deleted properties that were included in the old schema to the second properties store;

obtaining changed properties that have changed in the first properties store since a previous synchronization activity; and

sending the changed properties to the second properties store.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining an indication of objects to use to limit the properties to synchronize from the first properties store to the second properties store and wherein obtaining changed properties that have changed in the first properties store since a previous synchronization activity comprises obtaining the changed properties from the objects and ignoring changed properties from other objects not indicated by the indication.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining an indication of objects comprises obtaining a list of objects corresponding to licensed subscribers to a service.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining an indication of objects to use to limit the properties to synchronize from the first properties store to the second properties store comprises obtaining a rule that defines the objects and further comprising applying the rule on the first properties store to determine the objects of the first properties store from which to obtain the changed properties.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of actions comprises for each object currently synchronized from the first properties store to the second properties store, performing actions, comprising:

obtain data corresponding to the additional properties from the first properties store; and

sending the data to the second properties store.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of actions comprises for an additional object to be synched from the first properties store to the second properties store, performing actions, comprising:

obtaining data for properties to synchronize for the additional object; and

sending the data to the second properties store.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising if the new schema includes additional properties to synchronize, adding the additional properties to a set of properties to check periodically for changes to synchronize from the first properties store to the second properties store.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising if the new schema does not include properties of the old schema, removing deleted properties from a set of properties to periodically check for changes to synchronize from the first properties store to the second properties store.

9. In a computing environment, a system, comprising:

a synchronization manager operable to perform actions, comprising;

obtaining a new schema that indicates properties to synchronize from a first properties store to a second properties store;

comparing the new schema to an old schema that was previously obtained to determine whether the properties to synchronize have changed;

if the new schema includes additional properties to synchronize, performing a first set of actions to synchronize the additional properties from the first properties store to the second properties store;

if the new schema does not include all properties of the old schema, performing a second set of actions to stop synchronizing deleted properties that were included in the old schema to the second properties store;

obtaining changed properties that have changed in the first properties store since a previous synchronization activity; and

sending the changed properties to the second properties store.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the synchronization manager is hosted on a device of a system that hosts the first properties store.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the synchronization manager is hosted on a device of a system that hosts the second properties store.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the synchronization manager is hosted on a device external to systems that host the first and second properties store.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the synchronization manager comprises a delta manager operable to determine the changed properties that have changed in the first properties store since a previous synchronization activity.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the synchronization manager comprises an object selector operable to receive an indication of objects to use to limit the properties to synchronize, the object selector further operable to use the indication to determine objects to use to obtain the properties.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a licensing manager operable to track licensed subscribers to services and to create the indication of objects to use to limit the properties to synchronize based on the licensed subscribers to the services.

16. A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform actions, comprising:

maintaining a data structure that indicates properties that are needed for each service available from a system that provides cloud resources;

maintaining a service properties store that includes properties that have been provided by a synchronization manager that obtained the properties from a subscriber properties store of a service subscriber;

receiving an indication of a change in service subscriptions for the service subscriber; and

providing an indication of properties that are needed from the service subscriber for the change in service.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 16, further comprising waiting to receive a message that the service subscriber has received the indication of properties that are needed from the service subscriber for the change in service subscriptions and, only after the message is received, deleting data in the service properties store that corresponds to properties that were removed from synchronization between the subscriber properties store and the service properties store in providing an indication of properties that are needed from the service subscriber for the change in service subscriptions.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 16, further comprising providing an indication of objects to use to limit the properties to synchronize from the first properties store to the second properties store.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 16, further comprising providing one or more rules usable by the service subscriber to determine a set of objects to use to limit the properties to synchronize, receiving an indication that the service subscriber has received the one or more rules, receiving an indication from the service subscriber of objects that are no longer synchronized based on the one or more rules, and deleting data corresponding to properties of the objects that are no longer synchronized from the service properties store.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving an indication that a second version of a service hosted by the system has changed;

obtaining data that indicates properties that have been added, deleted, and/or changed from a list of properties to synchronize in response to the second version changing; and

for each entity subscribed to the service, generating an updated data structure that indicates a set of properties that need to be provided, and providing property data to the entity, the property data indicating the set of properties that need to be provided by the entity.