System and method providing diffgram format

• US 7,743,319 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2006
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bolognese, Luca, Lombardi, Vincenzo, Zhengnan Zhu, Jason, Gazitt, Omri, Pizzo, Michael J., Chen, Chia-Hsun
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): YANG, I CHAN
• Application Number:
  US11/379,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184567A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,520 Days
• Field of Search: 715/229, 715/234, 707/202, 707/203
• US Class Current: 715/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/149 Adaptation of the text data for streaming purposes, e.g. Efficient XML Interchange [EXI] format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/194 Calculation of difference between files
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate XML data communications and processing. A diffgram data structure is provided that includes one or more states of a plurality of data records. The state information can be determined by examining one or more data sources for differences from one or more reference data sources. If differences are detected between the data sources, the diffgram can be constructed in an XML compatible format with both previous state indications and current state indications that describes the state differences between the data sources. Error information and/or other administrative information or codes can also be provided to facilitate database management and/or processing.

Claims

1. A computer device that facilitates XML data communications, the computer device comprising:

a processor; and

a set of one or more data storage media storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computer device to;

generate an XML diffgram that contains;

a root element,

an instance data element, the instance data element being a child element of the root element, wherein child elements of the instance data element contain data representing current states of records in a first data source, and

a before element, the before element being a child element of the root element, wherein child elements of the before element contain data representing previous states of records in the first data source;

transmit the XML diffgram to another computer device, the other computer device using the XML diffgram to synchronize the first data source and a second data source.

2. The computer device of claim 1,

wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor:

further cause the computer device to determine differences between the first data source and the second data source; and

further cause the computer device to include in the XML diffgram the data representing the previous state of at least one of the records when the differences between the first data source and the second data source include a difference between the current state of the at least one of the records and the previous state of the at least one of the records.

3. The computer device of claim 2, wherein the XML diffgram further comprises data representing the differences between the first data source and the second data source.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the XML diffgram further comprises an error element, the error element having child elements containing data representing error indications associated with records in the first data source, the error indications providing diagnostic or administrative information indicating reasons the records in the first data source have changed, the error indications being human readable.

5. The computer device of claim 4,

wherein the other computer device uses the XML diffgram to determine whether a corresponding record in the second data source has an error, the corresponding record corresponding to a record in the first data source;

and

wherein the other computer device uses the XML diffgram to synchronize the first data source and the second data source by using the XML diffgram to correct the corresponding record when the corresponding record has an error.

6. The computer device of claim 1, wherein the XML diffgram comprises a container having a beginning tag and an ending tag, the beginning tag and the ending tag defining boundaries of the XML diffgram.

7. The computer device of claim 6, wherein the container comprises a plurality of states, each of the states corresponding to a change to the record.

8. The computer device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the computer device to utilize an XML stream to communicate with the other computer device via a network.

9. The computer device of claim 1,

wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor:

further cause the computer device to determine whether differences exist between the first data source and the second data source; and

further cause the computer device to generate the XML diffgram when the computer device determines that differences exist between the first data source and the second data source.

10. A computer-implemented method for exchanging XML data, the computer-implemented method comprising:

determining whether changes to a plurality of XML data sources exist; and

when changes to the plurality of XML data sources exist;

constructing, by a computer device, an XML diffgram that contains;

a root element,

an instance data element, the instance data element being a child element of the root element, wherein child elements of the instance data element contain data representing current states of records in a first XML data source in the plurality of XML data sources, and

a before element, the before element being a child element of the root element, wherein child elements of the before element contain data representing previous states of records in the first XML data source;

transmitting the XML diffgram to another computer device, the other computer device using the XML diffgram to synchronize the first XML data source and a second XML data source in the plurality of XML data sources.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of XML data sources includes a version of the XML diffgram.

12. The method of claim 10,

wherein the XML diffgram comprises a container having a beginning tag and an ending tag, the beginning tag and the ending tag defining boundaries of the XML diffgram;

and

wherein transmitting the XML diffgram comprises;

transmitting the container to the other computer device via a computer network.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the container comprises states of at least one of the records in each XML data source in the plurality of XML data sources.

14. The method of claim 10,

wherein the method further comprises:

periodically pulling data from the second XML data source; and

wherein determining whether changes to the plurality of XML data sources exist comprises;

using the data pulled from the second XML data source to check whether differences exist between data contained in the first XML data source and data contained in the second XML data source.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second computer device uses the XML diffgram to repair the second XML data source.

16. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable components that, when executed by a computer device, cause the computer device to:

pull one or more records in a first XML data source into a buffer;

detect differences between the buffer and a second XML data source;

in response to detecting differences between the buffer and the second XML data source, generate an XML diffgram comprising;

a root element;

an element identifying an XML schema that describes a format of the XML diffgram;

an instance data element, the instance data element being a child element of the root element, child elements of the instance data element specifying current states of each record in the second XML data source,

wherein when records in the second XML data source are inserted or modified, the child elements of the instance data element include attributes indicating the records are inserted or modified,

wherein when records in the second XML data source have errors, the child elements of the instance data element include attributes indicating the records have errors;

a before element, the before element being a child element of the root element, wherein child elements of the before element include data representing a previous state of a record in the second XML data source when the differences between the buffer and the second XML data source include a difference between a current state of the record and a previous state of the record, the before element not including child elements for records inserted into the second XML data source;

an error element, the error element being a child element of the root element, the error element having child elements corresponding to records in the second XML data source having errors, the child elements of the error element containing data representing error indications that provide diagnostic or administrative information as to reasons records in the second data source have changed, the error indications being elements comprising human-readable data; and

an end tag that indicates an end of the XML diffgram; and

transmit the XML diffgram to another computer device via a network, the other computer device using the XML diffgram to synchronize the first XML data source and the second XML data source.