Synchronization server process

• US 7,991,740 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2008
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Guenther, Carsten, McCarthy, Brendan A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu; Kuen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): OBISESAN, AUGUSTINE KUNLE
• Application Number:
  US12/042,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20090228509A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,246 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/635
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• 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 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Among other things, techniques and systems are disclosed for providing sync server process. Processing data sync sessions includes processing a request to initiate a sync session from one or more clients to update one or more data records that include one or more data items. The one or more clients are selectively identified as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client based on one or more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client is configured to support all dataclasses defined by the server. The one or more clients are detected as being configured to support field level differencing that sends changed data items only for the one or data records or record level differencing that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records.

Claims

1. A method performed at a server, the method comprising:

processing a request to initiate a sync session from a client to update one or more data records that include one or more data items;

updating data records in a datastore associated with the server using field level differencing, that sends only changed data items included in the one or more data records, when the client is selectively identified as a trusted client type based on one or more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client type is configured to support a schema defined by the server for the one or more data records, wherein the schema corresponds to predetermined data types; and

updating data records in the datastore associated with the server at least by performing a conversion from record level differencing, that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records, to the field level differencing to identify the changed data items in the one or more data records, when the client is selectively identified as an untrusted client type based on one of more properties of the sync session, wherein the untrusted client type is not configured to support the schema.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to processing the sync session,

generating a change log identifying one or more changes associated with the one or more data record; and

updating a data repository associated with the server to reflect the one or more changes to the one or more data records identified in the generated change log.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

using a bridge client to access another data repository; and

modifying data records stored in the accessed other data repository based on the updated data repository associated with the server.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein accessing the other data repository comprises processing the generated change log to update the other data repository.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving updates to the one or more data records from one or more clients of the trusted client type or the untrusted client type;

identifying one or more conflicts between the received updates and data records stored at the datastore associated with the server; and

mingling the updates from the one or more clients.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising resolving the identified one or more conflicts by assigning a priority to a most recent one of the one or more clients requesting the sync session.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when detecting that the client is identified as the untrusted client, identifying one or more conflicts in a set of changes associated with the untrusted client from the schema defined by the server for the one or more data records involved in the set of changes associated with the untrusted client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the request to initiate the sync session from the client to update one or more data records that include one or more data items comprises:

detecting the one or more properties of the sync session that includes unique identifiers for the data items included in the data records.

9. A non-transient computer readable medium encoded with a computer program, the computer program comprising instructions that when executed by a data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

processing a request to initiate a sync session from a client to update one or more data records that include one or more data items;

updating data records in a datastore associated with a server using field level differencing, that sends only changed data items included in the one or more data records, when the client is selectively identified as a trusted client type based on one of more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client type is configured to support a schema defined by the server for the one or more data records, wherein the schema corresponds to predetermined data types; and

updating data records in the datastore associated with the server at least by performing a conversion from record level differencing, that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records, to the field level differencing to identify the changed data items in the one or more data records, when the client is selectively identified as an untrusted client type based on one of more properties of the sync session, wherein the untrusted client type is not configured to support the schema.

10. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed by the data processing apparatus further cause the data processing apparatus to perform, in response to processing the sync session, operations comprising:

generating a change log identifying one or more changes associated with the one or more data record; and

updating a data repository associated with the server to reflect the one or more changes to the one or more data records identified in the generated change log.

11. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions when executed by the data processing apparatus further cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations including:

using a bridge client to access another data repository; and

modifying data records stored in the accessed other data repository based on the updated data repository associated with the server.

12. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions when executed by the data processing apparatus further cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations including accessing the other data repository at least in part by processing the generated change log to update the other data repository.

13. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed by the data processing apparatus further cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving updates to the one or more data records from one or more clients of the trusted client type or the untrusted client type;

identifying one or more conflicts between the received updates and data records stored at the datastore associated with the server; and

mingling the updates from the one or more clients.

14. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions when executed by the data processing apparatus further cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations including resolving the identified one or more conflicts by assigning a priority to a most recent one of the one or more clients requesting the sync session.

15. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed by the data processing apparatus further cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations including identifying one or more discrepancies in a set of changes associated with the untrusted client type from the schema defined by the server for the one or more data records involved in the set of changes associated with the untrusted client type when detected that the client is identified as the untrusted client type.

16. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed by the data processing apparatus further cause the data processing apparatus to process the request to initiate the sync session from the client to update one or more data records that include one or more data items by detecting the one or more properties of the sync session that includes unique identifiers for the data items included in the data records.

17. A server comprising:

a processor configured to operate

a transport protocol that enables opening of one or more connections to a client; and

one or more sync protocols that enables the server to synchronize one or more dataclasses with the client over the opened one or more connections, wherein the one or more sync protocols enables the server to perform operations including;

processing a request to initiate a sync session from the client to update one or more data records that include one or more data items;

updating data records in a datastore associated with the server using field level differencing, that sends only changed data items included in the one or more data records, when the client is selectively identified as a trusted client type based on one of more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client type is configured to support a schema defined by the server for the one or more data records, wherein the schema corresponds to predetermined data types; and

updating data records in the datastore associated with the server at least by performing a conversion from record level differencing, that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records, to the field level differencing to identify the changed data items in the one or more data records, when the client is selectively identified as an untrusted client type based on one of more properties of the sync session, wherein the untrusted client type is not configured to support the schema.

18. The server of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols, in response to processing the sync session, to perform operations including:

generating a change log that indicate one or more changes associated with the one or more data record; and

updating a data repository associated with the server to reflect the one or more changes to the one or more data records indicated in the generated change log.

19. The server of claim 18, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to perform operations including:

using a bridge client to access another data repository; and

modifying data records stored in the accessed other data repository based on the updated data repository connected to the server.

20. The server of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to perform operations including modifying the other data repository by processing the generated change log to update the other data repository.

21. The server of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to perform operations comprising:

receiving updates to the one or more data records from one or more client of the trusted client type or the untrusted client type;

identifying one or more conflicts between the received updates and data records stored at the datastore associated with the server; and

mingling the updates from the one or more clients.

22. The server of claim 21, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to perform operations including resolving the identified one or more conflicts by assigning a priority to a most recent one of the one or more clients requesting the sync session.

23. The server of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to perform operations including identifying one or more discrepancies in a set of changes associated with the untrusted client type from the schema defined by the server for the one or more data records involved in the set of changes associated with the untrusted client type when detected that the one or more clients are identified as the untrusted client.

24. The server of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to process the request to initiate the sync session from the client to update one or more data records that include one or more data items by detecting the one or more properties of the sync session that includes unique identifiers for the data items included in the data records.