System and method for incremental and reversible data migration and feature deployment

• US 7,167,914 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2004
• Issued: 01/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kromann, Paul K., Cohen, Jules S., Gur, Jacob Sidney
• Primary Examiner(s): Jean; Frantz B.
• Application Number:
  US10/828,726
• Publication Number:
  US 20040210643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,007 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/218, 709/245, 709/223, 709/203, 715/530, 715/733, 715744-745, 715/804, 717168-178, 725/80
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A data migration throttle that supports the incremental and reversible migration of web site customization data from a client-side data store to a server-side data store. Initially, each user of the web site stores customization data, such as the user'"'"'s zip code, in a cookies file together with a globally unique identifier (GUID) which identifies the user. In order to migrate data to a server side store, the throttle is set to a value. Each time a user contacts the web server a hash of the user'"'"'s GUID is compared with the throttle value, and the user'"'"'s data is migrated to the server if the hash value is less than the throttle value. The throttle may be lowered, thereby causing some users to revert to client-side storage of customization data.

Claims

1. A method of migrating data items, each of said data items being associated with an identifier, said method comprising the acts of:

storing an adjustable throttle value;

for a first of said data items, computing a first index value based on an identifier associated with said first data item;

determining that the relationship between said first index value and said throttle value meets pre-determined criteria; and

copying said first data item to a data store,

wherein each of said data items comprises customization information for a web page, each of said data items being stored on a computing device to which the customization relates, said method further comprising the acts of;

providing a web page to a first one of the computing device based at least in part on information copied to said data store;

adjusting said throttle value downward;

determining that said the relationship between said first index value and the downward-adjusted throttle value does not meet said pre-determined criteria; and

providing a web page to one of the computing devices without using the information copied to said data store.

2. A system for migrating web site data comprising:

means for storing an operator-adjustable value;

means for selecting a group of users of said web site based on an identifier associated with each of said users and further based on said operator-adjustable value;

means for transferring data from the selected users'"'"' computing devices to a data store;

means for adjusting said operator-adjustable value downward;

means for de-selecting at least some of the selected users in response to the downward adjustment of said user-adjustable value; and

means for rendering a web page based at least in part on data stored on the de-selected users'"'"' computing devices.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

means for indicating the validity of the data store copy of said users'"'"' data including a flag stored on each of said users'"'"' computing devices;

means for invalidating the data store data for the de-selected users using said flag.