Minimal extensions required for multi-master offline and collaboration for devices and web services

• US 8,458,128 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2008
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Khosravy, Moe, Novik, Lev, Clark, Michael Ray
• Primary Examiner(s): Casanova, Jorge A
• Application Number:
  US12/198,181
• Publication Number:
  US 20100057785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,743 Days
• Field of Search: 707/621, 707/638
• US Class Current: 707/621
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates managing data consistency in connection with a plurality of devices. A collection of devices can be associated with a user. A web service can receive a portion of data from at least one device via an interface component, wherein the web service can host and relate the portion of data with an account for the user. A master sync component can leverage a computing resource from at least one device in order to maintain data consistency between at least one of the following: two or more devices within the collection of devices associated with the user; or the account hosted by the web service and two or more devices within the collection of devices associated with the user.

Claims

1. A system, comprising at least one processor coupled to at least one computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to implement:

a synchronization component configured to maintain data consistency between at least two devices, including

an item component configured to enable storage and retrieval of synchronization metadata at an item level; and

a collection handler configured to serialize the item-level metadata for a collection of items to be synchronized;

wherein the item-level metadata includes an update version structure associated with information including at least a last updater, a local update time, and a vector of update versions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least two devices includes at least one of a smartphone, a laptop, a desktop, a computer, a machine, a portable digital assistant (PDA), a cellular device, a pager, a two-way, a hand-held, a mobile device, a browsing device, a wireless device, a portable gaming device, a gaming console, a media player, a portable media player, a pen drive, a hard drive, a data store, a digital camera, an image collecting device, a video collecting device, a video camera, an audio collecting device, an audio recorder, global positioning system (GPS), or a portable web browser.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization component is configured to interface with a web service including at least one of an image web service, a video web service, a storage web service, an audio file web service, a data backup web service, or a social network service.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the web service is configured to extend at least one of an offline data synchronization between multiple endpoints or a collaboration scenario between multiple endpoints.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least two devices are included in a collection of devices associated with endpoints in a connected mesh.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least two devices are configured to interpret at least a portion of the item-level metadata and collection-level metadata.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein an item of the collection of items includes at least one of a photo, a personal contact, an image file, a portion of data, a portion of video, a portion of audio, a portion of a graphic, or a portion of text.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a conflict resolver configured to facilitate conflict resolution associated with synchronization between the at least two devices.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the conflict resolver is configured to enable a determination whether a conflict exists.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the conflict resolver is further configured to keep a copy of synchronization metadata.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the conflict resolver is further configured to give access to a deleted item list.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the conflict resolver is further configured to wipe update version information in the update version structure while maintaining the item-level metadata if at least one device of the at least two devices is a non-synchronization-enabled device, when the update is made by the non-synchronization-enabled device.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a presentation component to facilitate interaction with the synchronization component.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising an intelligent component configured to infer a metadata characteristic for an item.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface between the synchronization component and a web service.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a cloud that incorporates the synchronization component.

17. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

for an item to be synchronized between at least two devices, storing item-level synchronization metadata using an update version structure associated with information including at least a last updater, a local update time, and a vector of update versions;

serializing the item-level synchronization metadata for a collection of items; and

synchronizing items between the at least two devices based on the item-level synchronization metadata for serialized item-level synchronization metadata for a collection of items.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

performing resolution of conflicts associated with the synchronizing, the performing the resolution of conflicts including utilizing the serialized item-level synchronization metadata for change enumeration and conflict detection.

19. The method of claim 17, the performing resolution of conflicts comprising:

for a device of the at least two devices that is a non-synchronization-enabled device, wiping update version information in the update version structure while maintaining the item-level metadata, when the update is made by the non-synchronization device.

20. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a computing device to perform a method comprising:

for an item to be synchronized between at least two devices, storing item-level synchronization metadata using an update version structure associated with information including at least a last updater, a local update time, and a vector of update versions;

serializing the item-level synchronization metadata for a collection of items;

synchronizing a collection of items between the at least two devices based on the serialized item-level synchronization metadata; and

performing conflict resolution associated with the synchronizing at least partly by modifying the information associated with the update version structure, by wiping update version information when the update is made by a non-synchronization enabled device.