Occasionally-connected application server

• US 7,650,432 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2005
• Issued: 01/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Bosworth, Adam, Eskafi, Farokh H., Bosworth, Alexander, Khesin, Alexander, Lloyd, Alexander, Lucas, Terry, Burdon, Richard, Ong, Ken
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US11/122,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20060117073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,721 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/217, 709/226, 709/227, 709/230, 709/248, 709/203, 709/219
• US Class Current: 709/248
• 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 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation

Abstract

Providing a framework for developing, deploying and managing sophisticated mobile solutions, with a simple Web-like programming model that integrates with existing enterprise components. Mobile applications may consist of a data model definition, user interface templates, a client side controller, which includes scripts that define actions, and, on the server side, a collection of conduits, which describe how to mediate between the data model and the enterprise. In one embodiment, the occasionally-connected application server assumes that data used by mobile applications is persistently stored and managed by external systems. The occasionally-connected data model can be a metadata description of the mobile application'"'"'s anticipated usage of this data, and be optimized to enable the efficient traversal and synchronization of this data between occasionally connected devices and external systems.

Claims

1. An occasionally-connected application server comprising:

a synchronization unit that synchronizes a set of data nodes being stored on the occasionally-connected application server with data nodes stored on a mobile client for an application provided by the server, the application employing an occasionally-connected data model that indicates the mobile client'"'"'s anticipated usage of said data nodes before said data nodes are requested by the mobile client; and

a conduit manager that translates between data from external systems and the data nodes defined by the occasionally-connected data model stored on the server;

wherein the conduit manager employs a set of conduits that define transforms between data nodes defined by the occasionally-connected data model and requests and responses for a specific external web service;

wherein the occasionally-connected application server interacts with the specific external web service to produce and update data nodes for the client;

wherein the data nodes have associated synchronization states, wherein the synchronization states are passed between the server and the mobile client as a background process to synchronize the data nodes on the server with the data nodes on the mobile client, such that update operations performed on the data nodes during periods where the mobile client is disconnected from the server are reflected on the server when the connection is reestablished by employing the synchronization states associated with the data nodes.

2. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein the occasionally-connected application server is configured to cache data nodes in the cache as indicated by metadata in the occasionally-connected data model.

3. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, further comprising an adaptive user interface server, wherein at least one client receives HTML pages from the occasionally-connected application server which are constructed by the adaptive user interface server using the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model.

4. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein at least one client is transferred the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model to produce a display at the client.

5. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 4, wherein the at least one client executes an application using the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model without being in contact with the occasionally-connected application server.

6. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein user interface activity on said mobile client runs asynchronously with respect to the connectivity between the mobile client and the server, and wherein synchronization requests that pass the synchronization states run asynchronously with respect to the browser on the mobile client.

7. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein when the server receives a synchronization request from the mobile client, if the server has cached the data related to the request, the server responds immediately, otherwise if the data cached on the server is stale, the conduit manager invokes one or more of said conduits to deliver updated data.

8. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein when a synchronization request is received by the mobile client, data currently being displayed on a page on the mobile client is refreshed by re-computing page data bindings, such that the page is incrementally redisplayed while maintaining the current user input, caret and focus.

9. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein the synchronization states passed between the server and the mobile client is comprised of the following indications:

an indication whether the data node was locally created or modified;

an indication whether the data node was locally created or modified and ready for synchronization with server;

an indication whether the data node has a server synchronization pending;

an indication whether the data node was synchronized with the servers;

an indication whether synchronization was rejected by the server; and

an indication whether there was a conflict between a local modification and a server update.

10. A method comprising:

at a server, synchronizing data nodes with a client for an application including an occasionally-connected data model; and

at the server, translating between data from external systems and the data nodes defined by the occasionally-connected data model, wherein the occasionally-connected data model indicates the client'"'"'s anticipated usage of said data nodes before said data nodes are requested by the client;

wherein the conduit manager employs conduits that define transforms between data nodes defined by the occasionally-connected data model and requests and responses for a specific external web service;

wherein the occasionally-connected application server interacts with the specific external web service to produce and update data nodes for the client;

wherein the data nodes have associated synchronization states wherein the synchronization states are passed between the server and the client as a background process to synchronize the data nodes on the server with the data nodes on the client, such that update operations performed on the data nodes during periods where the client is disconnected from the server are reflected on the server when the connection is reestablished by employing the synchronization states associated with the data nodes.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the occasionally-connected application server caches data nodes in the cache as indicated by metadata in the occasionally-connected data model.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein clients are transferred both the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model to produce a display at the client.

13. An apparatus comprising:

memory to store an occasionally-connected data model; and

a cache to store data nodes as defined by the occasionally-connected data model, wherein the occasionally-connected application server caches data nodes in the cache as indicated by metadata in the occasionally-connected data model, wherein the occasionally-connected data model indicates a mobile client'"'"'s anticipated usage of said data nodes before said data nodes are requested by the mobile client;

wherein the data nodes have associated synchronization states, wherein the synchronization states are passed between the server and the mobile client as a background process to synchronize the data nodes on the server with the data nodes on the mobile client, such that update operations performed on the data nodes during periods where the mobile client is disconnected from the server are reflected on the server when the connection is reestablished by employing the synchronization states associated with the data nodes.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a conduit manager that translates data between external systems and data nodes defined by the occasionally-connected data model.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein data nodes include XML.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a conduit manager, wherein the conduit manager is configured to use conduits, the conduits defining transforms between data defined by occasionally-connected data model and requests and responses for a specific web service.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising an adaptive user interface server, wherein at least one client receives HTML pages from the occasionally-connected application server which are constructed by the adaptive user interface server using the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein at least one client is transferred the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model to produce a display at the client.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the client executes an application using both the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model without being in contact with the occasionally-connected application server.

20. A system including:

an occasionally-connected application server configured to provide an application to a client, the application allowing a client to read and update application data without requiring current access to the occasionally-connected application server, the occasionally-connected application server adapted to obtain application data from an external system to send to the client, wherein the occasionally-connected application server is adapted to translate data from the external system into data nodes;

wherein the occasionally-connected application server employs an occasionally-connected data model, wherein the occasionally-connected data model indicates a mobile client'"'"'s anticipated usage of said data nodes before said data nodes are requested by the mobile client;

wherein the data nodes have associated synchronization states, wherein the synchronization states are passed between the server and the mobile client as a background process to synchronize the data nodes on the server with the data nodes on the mobile client, such that update operations performed on the data nodes during periods where the mobile client is disconnected from the server are reflected on the server when the connection is reestablished by employing the synchronization states associated with the data nodes.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the external system is a service bus.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the external system is a web service.