Real-time synchronization of XML data between applications

• US 7,953,696 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Little, Robert A., Davis, Tristan A., Taleghani, Ali, Sawicki, Marcin, Cupala, Shiraz, Jones, Brian M., Barac, Dragos
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo; James
• Assistant Examiner(s): SOMERS, MARC S
• Application Number:
  US11/332,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061382A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,964 Days
• Field of Search: 707/101, 707/201, 707/608, 707/705, 707/781, 707/783, 707/613, 707/636, 707/683, 707/684
• US Class Current: 707/608
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• 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

Abstract

One or more data stores are maintained separately from a primary presentation storage within a document for storing, relating and for allowing use of arbitrary data that is associated with a computer-generated document between multiple data consumers. The data store exposes application programming interfaces (APIs) to the various pieces of data in the data store for allowing different data consumers to access and operate on one or more of the data pieces in real time. Multiple data consumers may access and edit the same piece of data concurrently, and any conflicting changes to a given piece of data are resolved. Each data consumer may accept or reject the change as well as make additional side-effect changes as a result of the original change. In this way, the data may be synchronized in real time across the data consumers.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for synchronizing data that is associated with a computer-generated document and that is shared across data consumers, comprising:

storing elements represented by Extensible Markup Language (XML) that are associated with a document in a data store, wherein the data store is maintained separately from a presentation storage representing the presentation view of the document;

wherein the document is edited by one or more data consuming applications and wherein a same piece of data within the data store is editable by multiple data consumers concurrently;

initiating a change to an XML element by a first data consumer;

determining when there are other data consumers that are interested in the change to the XML element;

wherein the determination is based on whether the other data consumers called an application programming interface (API) to register for a notification to a change of the XML element associated with the document, the XML element stored in the data store, and wherein the API provides the ability to specify the other data consumers are not notified in response to a change of other XML elements that are associated with the document, wherein all of the data consumers are data consuming applications;

notifying the other data consumers of the change, wherein the other data consumers may perform at least one of;

accepting either the change;

rejecting the change; and

initiating a side-effect change as a result of the original change; and

in response to acceptance of the change by all of the other data consumers notified of the change;

committing the change to a plurality of application undo stacks, wherein each application undo stack is associated with each data consumer; and

committing the change to the data store;

in response to initiation of the side-effect change by any one of the other data consumers notified of the change;

delaying the side-effect change from being processed until each of the other data consumers receive notification of the change; and

in response to rejection of the change by any one of the other data consumers notified of the change;

rolling back the change from the plurality of application undo stacks; and

rolling back the data store to a state before a time when the change was initiated.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the API provides the ability to access the XML elements within the data store while the document is open and wherein the API allows more than one data consumer to access a same XML element at the same time.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, further comprising updating a display that is associated with one of the other data consumers with a value of the XML element that was changed by the first data consumer.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the side-effect change is queued for later execution, wherein the later execution occurs after each of the data consumers has had a chance to accept, reject and make a side-effect change.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein committing the change when accepted comprises processing each side-effect and determining whether each side-effect is accepted.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, further comprising maintaining an undo list that may be used to return the data store back to the state before the time when the change was initiated.

7. A computer-implemented method for sharing data that is associated with computer-generated documents between data consumers, comprising:

initiating a change to a structured data item associated with a document;

wherein the structured data item is structured according to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) and wherein the data store is separate from the presentation storage for the document;

wherein the document is edited by one or more data consuming applications and wherein a same piece of data within the data store is editable by multiple data consumers concurrently;

providing notification of the change to registered data consumers;

wherein each of the registered data consumers are data consuming applications, wherein the registered data consumers call a notification application programming interface (API) to register for a notification to a change in the structured data item associated with the document;

queuing side-effect changes that are a result of the change for later processing until each of the other data consumers receive the notification of the change;

determining when a response from any one of the registered data consumers is a rejection of the change, and when the response is a rejection;

rolling back the change from a plurality of application undo stacks, wherein each application undo stack is associated with each data consumer, and

rolling back the change and any side-effect changes from all data consumers within the data store to a last known good state;

determining when each of the registered data consumers accepts the change, and when each of the registered data consumers accepts the change;

validating the change using an XML schema file that is provided by one of the data consumers through an API,

committing the change to the plurality of application undo stacks, and

committing the change to the data store.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein initiating the change to a structured data item that is contained within the data store comprises exposing an application programming interface (API) that provides the ability for the data consumers to access the structured data items within the data store, wherein the API allows more than one of the data consumers to access a same structured data item at the same time.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising receiving a side-effect change in response to the notification and delaying execution of the side-effect change within the data store until the change has been processed.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising queuing the side-effect change within the data store.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining when each of the registered data consumers accepts the change comprises determining when the change is accepted by each data consumer and when each of the side-effect changes are accepted.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising, maintaining an undo list that is used to return the data store back to the last known good state.

13. A system for synchronizing data that is associated with a computer-generated document between data consumers, comprising:

an internal data consumer that is configured to create and edit the document and that is configured to interact with structured data items that are associated with the document, and an internal undo stack in association with the internal data consumer, the internal undo stack configured to commit and roll back registered changes received by the internal data consumer;

external data consumers that are configured to interact with the structured data items that are associated with the document and maintained separately from the presentation storage for the document, and a plurality of external undo stacks, each external undo stack in association with each external data consumer, the plurality of external undo stacks configured to commit and roll back registered changes received by the external data consumers; and

a data store that is configured to store the structured data items that are associated with the document separate from the document, wherein a same piece of data within the data store is editable by the internal data consumer and external data consumers concurrently;

wherein the data store comprises;

an API broker that is configured to interact with the external data consumers and the internal data consumer and that is configured to receive a proposed change and in response to the proposed change notify registered data consumers of the proposed change, commit the change to the data store when the proposed change is accepted by each of the registered data consumers;

wherein each of the registered data consumers calls the API broker to register for notification of the proposed change; and

when the proposed change is not accepted by one or more of the registered data consumers ensuring that the data store is in a valid state, wherein the data store further includes a change store that is configured to store the proposed change and side-effect changes that are associated with the proposed change, and an undue store that is configured to roll back the data store to the valid state;

wherein the data store queues the side-effect changes for later execution until each of the data consumers receive the notification of the proposed change.

14. The system claim 13, further comprising structuring the structured data items within the data store according to an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the later execution is configured to occur after each registered data consumer has had a chance to accept, reject and make a side-effect change.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the data store is further configured to process each side-effect and determine whether each side-effect is accepted.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the data store is further configured to:

receive a change to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) markup data applied to the structured data item;

read an XML schema file associated with the structured data item to which the change to the XML markup data is directed;

determine whether the change to the XML markup data is valid according to the read XML schema file; and

disallow the change to the XML markup data if the change to the XML markup data is not valid according to the read XML schema file; and

commit the change when the change to the XML markup data is valid according to the read XML schema file.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the data store comprises a plurality of XML data stores that each comprise an undo store and a change store.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein each undo store is configured to communicate with the other undo stores.