Backup and restore mirror database memory items in the historical record backup associated with the client application in a mobile device connected to a communion network

• US 7,584,225 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2004
• Issued: 09/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slack Technologies LLC (Salesforce.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sato, Joy, Cui, Yingqing Lawrence, Wu, Christopher, Jiang, Zhaowei Charlie
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US10/933,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20050102329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,825 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 2, 707/10, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707204-205, 707/200, 455/550.1, 455418-420, 455/565, 455/567, 455/456.1, 455/557, 340/506, 340/531, 709/203, 709245-246, 711161-162
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

The need for backup and restore arises in a mobile device based system when a client application is discarded along with its historical record. In a system that provides the backup and restore capability, a server is configured with a request handler, an application storage upload/download handler, and a device storage mirror database. In a mobile device (also client), the transaction listener provides a transaction associated with memory items to the crumb sticker which, in turn, sends to the request handler a recording request with the transaction along with a request URL (uniform resource locator). The data for the recording request is channeled from the client storage to the device storage mirror database via the application storage upload/download handler. The memory items are accumulated in a file at the client and in a backup at the device storage mirror database, and are restorable to the client from the backup.

Claims

1. A method for backup and restore comprising:

maintaining in a server a mirror database with a historical record backup for a client application uploaded from the server to a mobile device, the mirror database accumulating memory items in the historical record backup, wherein the items are associated with the client application and wherein the items mirror a historical record of the client application;

receiving a plurality of recording requests associated with at least one action performed on the mobile device, while the mobile device performs the at least one action, wherein each recording request is received separately for each memory item accumulated in the mirror database in order to create the historical record backup in the server, responsive to saving the memory item in the mobile device;

saving in the mirror database the memory item associated with each respective recording request, wherein for restoring the historical record, the historical record backup for the client application is accessible from the mobile device, wherein the client application enables navigation through pages associated with actions performed on the mobile device within the client application, and wherein the historical record backup includes a record of a sequence of the pages traversed while navigating through the pages of the client application, such that restoration of the historical record enables traversing through the pages of the client application in reverse sequence with a back button; and

sending to the mobile device, by the server, the historical record backup, when the client application is re-uploaded from the server to the mobile device and a log in to the server is done, by automatically sending memory items in the historical record without need for the mobile device to initiate further interactions with the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a wireless device with which the server communicates via a wireless carrier network and a network that includes the Internet.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein the mobile device is a wireless phone and the identity of the mobile device is a phone number assigned to the wireless phone by the bearer of a wireless carrier network.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the client application is a client photo application and the memory items include any one or a combination of a mobile album, a selected photo data, a page navigation action and a back in sequence navigation.

5. The method as in claim 4, wherein the selected photo data includes photo image data and any combination of a photo name, a screen size and a path into a record in the mirror database for the selected photo data.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein the mirror database record has a capacity suitable for a predetermined number of photos which if the predetermined number were to be exceeded by the saving of the selected photo data, the step of saving includes discarding from the mirror database record photo data for the oldest photo in order to make room for saving the selected photo data.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the memory items include at least a recordable action and a result of the recordable action.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein the memory items reside in an archive file.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the archive file is a Java archive file.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the recording request includes a request URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a transaction crumb representing a recordable action.

11. The method as in claim 1, further comprising restoring the historical record from the historical record backup in the server once log in to the server is done.

12. The method as in claim 11, wherein the restoring step comprises the server sending to the mobile device a list of memory items from which any one or all of the memory items is selectable for recovery from the historical record backup.

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein the restoring step comprises the server sending to the mobile device a list of memory items from which any one or all of the memory items is selectable for recovery from the backup.

14. The method as in claim 11, wherein the client application is a client photo application, and wherein the restoring step comprises the server sending to the mobile device a mobile album list of photos from which any one or all of the photos is selectable for recovery from the backup.

15. The method as in claim 1, further comprising the server re-downloading the client application to the mobile device, or the server downloading the client application to another mobile device, the server pre-populating the downloaded or re-downloaded client application with the historical record from the backup.

16. A mobile device for restoring data from a client application over a network to a backup server, wherein the client application is operable by a user of the mobile device, comprising:

a component for communicating information over the network;

a processor configured to perform actions comprising;

generating a plurality of communications by the client application, wherein the plurality of communications is associated with recordable actions performed within the client application, and wherein the plurality of communications is configured to cause a backup server to mark for backup at least one of the recordable actions;

sending from the mobile device, each of the plurality of communications separately while performing at least one of the plurality of recordable actions, responsive to saving the memory item in the mobile device; and

receiving from the backup server in response to a restore request, a backup historical record for restoring data associated with the recordable actions, wherein the data comprises a navigation history configured to enable the user to navigate within the navigation history, wherein the client application enables navigation through pages associated with actions performed on the mobile device within the client application, and wherein the historical record backup includes a record of a sequence of the pages traversed while navigating through the pages of the client application, such that restoration of the historical record enables traversing through the pages of the client application in reverse sequence with a back button, and wherein the restore request is a request for downloading another version of the client application onto the mobile device, and wherein receiving the backup historical record is performed automatically based the download of the other version of the client application without need for the mobile device to initiate further interactions with the backup server.

17. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein the navigation history comprises any two of a page for emailing photo data, a page for viewing a thumbnail of the photo data, or a page for selecting the photo data as a screen saver for the mobile device.

18. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein the plurality of communications comprises a request to add photo data to an online photo album for the user, and wherein the photo data is captured from the mobile device.

19. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein sending, from the mobile device, each of the plurality of communications separately comprises sending each of the plurality of communications in a separate Open System Interconnection (OSI) application layer request.

20. A system for synchronizing multimedia data over a network, comprising:

a mobile device configured to perform actions comprising;

accumulating a historical record of memory items associated with a client application operating on the mobile device and associated with a user of the mobile device;

sending from the mobile device to a backup device, a separate recording request for each memory item in the historical record, while performing at least one navigation action within the client application, responsive to saving the memory item in the mobile device, wherein the client application enables navigation through pages associated with actions performed on the mobile device within the client application, and wherein the historical record includes a record of a sequence of the pages traversed while navigating through the pages of the client application, such that restoration of the historical record enables traversing through the pages of the client application in reverse sequence with a back button;

sending to the backup device, a restore request; and

the backup server in communication with the mobile device configured to perform actions comprising;

sending from the backup device in response to the restore request, a backup for restoring a plurality of the memory items associated with the separate recording requests, wherein the restore request is a request for a download of another client application configured to use the memory items, and wherein the backup of the memory items occurs automatically based on recognition of the download of the other client application without a need for the mobile device to initiate further interactions with the backup server.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the backup and the memory items comprise a sequence of page navigations and photo data, wherein the backup enables the user to navigate to a page within the sequence of page navigations, and wherein the page is configured to manage the photo data on the mobile device.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the separate recording request comprises a request URL (Uniform Resource Locator), wherein a header portion of the request URL includes a transaction crumb representing a recordable action, and wherein a body portion of the request URL comprises the separate memory item to be recorded.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising another mobile device configured to receive the backup.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the restore request comprises a log-in of the user to a server from the mobile device.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein sending, from the mobile device to the backup device the separate recording request comprises translating the recording request from one Open System Interconnection (OSI) application layer protocol to another OSI layer protocol.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the backup is a slideshow of data accessed by at least one of the navigation actions on the mobile device.

27. A processor readable medium for synchronizing multimedia data over a network, comprising instructions executable by a processor to perform actions, wherein the actions comprise:

generating a plurality of communications by a client application on a mobile device, wherein the plurality of communications is associated with at least one recordable action performed by the client application, and wherein the plurality of communications is configured to cause a backup server to mark for backup the at least one recordable action;

sending from the mobile device, each of the plurality of communications separately while performing at the at least one recordable action, responsive to saving the memory item in the mobile device;

deleting of the client application on the mobile device; and

receiving from the backup server in response to a request to download the client application onto the mobile device, a backup historical record for restoring data associated with the at least one recordable action, wherein the data comprises the multimedia data, and a navigation history configured to enable navigating within the navigation history, and wherein the backup historical record is automatically received by the downloaded client application without need for the mobile device to initiate further action, and wherein the client application enables navigation through pages associated with actions performed on the mobile device within the client application, and wherein the historical record backup includes a record of a sequence of the pages traversed while navigating through the pages of the client application, such that restoration of the historical record enables traversing through the pages of the client application in reverse sequence with a back button.

28. The processor readable medium of claim 27, wherein the navigation history comprises at least one web page configured to play a video game on the mobile device.

29. The processor readable medium of claim 27, further comprising at least another backup historical record for restoring data associated with at least a portion of the at least one recordable actions.