OPTIMIZING DATA SYNCHRONIZATION BETWEEN MOBILE CLIENTS AND DATABASE SYSTEMS

• US 20140379655A1
• Filed: 09/08/2014
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Kothule, Deepak, Mazyan, Bagrat, Forsberg, Erik, Zhulina, Aleksandra, Bergamo, Pierpaolo
• Granted Patent: US 9,626,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/634
• 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 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

Mechanisms and methods are provided for optimizing data synchronization between clients and database systems. These mechanisms and methods provide optimizations for synchronization requests, by either breaking a synchronization request into multiple smaller requests, or by executing different code routines for differing client types, or by pre-caching data that a user is anticipated to want at a future point. Such optimization techniques can enable clients with varying capacities (e.g., mobile client vs. full desktop client) to optimally utilize their respective device capabilities.

Claims

1. A method of pre-caching synchronization data, the method comprising:

receiving a synchronization request for one or more feeds of objects stored in a database system, the synchronization request associated with a user, each feed including feed items that are each associated with one or more objects of the database system;

retrieving one or more feed items based on the synchronization request;

analyzing the retrieved feed items to identify the one or more objects related to the retrieved feed items;

retrieving at least one of the identified objects prior to receiving, from the user, a request for the at least one identified object; and

sending the retrieved objects to a user-accessible cache.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving at least one of the identified objects includes retrieving one or more predetermined fields of the object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the synchronization request is for feeds of one or more objects that the user is following.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the synchronization request is for feeds of all of the objects that the user is following.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein an object is retrieved only if a feed item is new.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein an object is retrieved only if the new feed item is a story.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-accessible cache is on a client device of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a client device of a user, a request for a retrieved object;

sending the retrieved object form the user-accessible cache to a processor of the client device.

9. A system for pre-caching synchronization data, the system comprising:

a processor-based application, which when executed on a computer, will cause the processor to;

receive a synchronization request for one or more feeds of objects stored in a database system, the synchronization request associated with a user, each feed including feed items that are each associated with one or more objects of the database system;

retrieve one or more feed items based on the synchronization request;

analyze the retrieved feed items to identify the one or more objects related to the retrieved feed items;

retrieve at least one of the identified objects prior to receiving, from the user, a request for the at least one identified object; and

send the retrieved objects to a user-accessible cache.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein retrieving at least one of the identified objects includes retrieving one or more predetermined fields of the object.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the synchronization request is for feeds of one or more objects that the user is following.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the synchronization request is for feeds of all of the objects that the user is following.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein an object is retrieved only if a feed item is new.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein an object is retrieved only if the new feed item is a story.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the user-accessible cache is on a client device of the user.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor-based application, when executed on a computer, will further cause the processor to:

receive, from a client device of a user, a request for a retrieved object;

send the retrieved object form the user-accessible cache to a processor of the client device.

17. A computer program product comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code including instructions to:

receive a synchronization request for one or more feeds of objects stored in a database system, the synchronization request associated with a user, each feed including feed items that are each associated with one or more objects of the database system;

retrieve one or more feed items based on the synchronization request;

analyze the retrieved feed items to identify the one or more objects related to the retrieved feed items;

retrieve at least one of the identified objects prior to receiving, from the user, a request for the at least one identified object; and

send the retrieved objects to a user-accessible cache.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein retrieving at least one of the identified objects includes retrieving one or more predetermined fields of the object.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the synchronization request is for feeds of one or more objects that the user is following.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the synchronization request is for feeds of all of the objects that the user is following.

21. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein an object is retrieved only if a feed item is new.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein an object is retrieved only if the new feed item is a story.

23. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the user-accessible cache is on a client device of the user.

24. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the program code includes further instructions to:

receive, from a client device of a user, a request for a retrieved object;

send the retrieved object form the user-accessible cache to a processor of the client device.