Context-aware management of shared composite data

• US 8,738,584 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gopal, Burra, Soni, Manish, Singh, Jagdish, Viegers, Sander M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rostami, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US12/372,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20100211545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,925 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/662
• 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

Abstract

Embodiments provide information composition management features and functionality to manage composite information, but are not so limited. In an embodiment, a computing system can include functionality to provide a composition of informational data that can be used to identify and manage aspects of shared and other data that can be associated with distinct information sources. In one embodiment, a computing platform includes a client that can be configured to access and use information of a plurality of independent sources to create a data composition that includes aspects of shared and unshared data portions and manage data changes of the data composition including managing issues associated with one or more of the plurality of independent sources. Other embodiments are described and available.

Claims

1. A computing system to manage data comprising:

at least one processor coupled to at least one memory;

a client coupled to the at least one processor and configured to manage a composition of information by;

identifying sets of data, wherein each set of data is associated with a distinct information source;

identifying any shared portions based in part on corresponding data portions of the sets of data;

determining one of a master and an override source of any identified shared portion that includes an informational change;

using an application programming interface (API) to disassociate one or more data sources or portions thereof and remove or ignore one or more object bindings or mappings of any shared portions of the composition of information;

using an override list to manage source override interactions for the sets of data including controlling source override operations for the sets of data as part of managing the composition of information, wherein a corresponding source of a shared portion cannot be overridden when the override list is empty or null;

identifying any unmerged property instances associated with the composition of information;

updating the composition of information based in part on one of a determined master and the override source including the informational change of any of the identified shared portions, the updating including merging any identified unmerged property instances based in part on aspects of a determined master for any identified shared portion and the override list; and

,

providing the composition of information to include shared and unshared data portions in part by identifying unshared data having no conflict and no change, identifying unshared data having no conflict and at least one change, identifying shared data having no conflict and no change, identifying shared data having no conflict and a single master change, and identifying shared data having a plurality of masters with at least one data change.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the client is further configured to manage a data composition by identifying a shared data portion associated with one master portion that includes a data change corresponding to a changed value of a name-value pair, wherein a property definition can be defined to include a source override list as an additional attribute.

3. The system of claim 2, the client being further configured to manage the data composition by automatically propagating the data change of the one master portion to one or more isolated systems associated with the shared data portion.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the client being further configured to manage a data composition by identifying shared data portions having a plurality of master portions including identifying one or more data changes corresponding to one or more changed values of one or more name-value pairs, wherein the client manages the data composition further by determining a value for a merged property instance based on first and second values of an unmerged property instance including:

computing the value for the merged property instance if one of the values of the unmerged property instance is null by using the second value if the first value is null or using the first value when the second value is null; and

using the first value or the second value of the unmerged property instance for the value merged property instance when the first value is equal to the second value.

5. The system of claim 4, the client further configured to manage the data composition by administering one or more of the data changes of one or more of the plurality of master portions to any identified shared data portions based in part on a master change rule set.

6. The system of claim 4, the client further configured to manage the data composition by propagating one or more of the data changes according to a selected master portion associated with any shared data portions, wherein the propagating overwrites any data changes associated with a non-master portion.

7. The system of claim 4, the client further configured to manage the data composition by disassociating one of the distinct information sources and to remove any shared portions of a disassociated information source from the data composition.

8. The system of claim 4, the client further configured to generate a communication to one or more of the systems upon identifying a data change made by more than one master portion.

9. The system of claim 8, the client further configured to generate the communication event to include information associated with a type of master making a data change.

10. The system of claim 1, the client further configured to use a tracking object to define a composition of data structure to store in the at least one memory.

11. The system of claim 10, the client further configured to use the tracking object to construct the composition of data structure and to define source portions and at least one shared portion.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the client can access data from three different source systems including a collaboration system, a line-of-business (LOB) system, and a communication system.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein each information source comprises one of a system, an application, and a device.

14. The system of claim 1, the composition manager component further configured to use the API to manage aspects of the composition of information.

15. A computing-based method of using data comprising:

accessing the data from a plurality of independent data sources;

creating a data composition based in part on the accessed data and a data change, the data composition including unshared and shared data portions, wherein the shared data portions correspond to shared data used by two or more independent data sources, the creating of the data composition further comprising identifying unshared data having no conflict and no change, identifying unshared data having no conflict and at least one change, identifying shared data having no conflict and no change, identifying shared data having no conflict and a single master change, and identifying shared data having a plurality of masters with at least one data change;

identifying a master or an override source of each shared portion;

manipulating the data composition by resolving any real conflicts including updating data portions of one or more of the plurality of independent data sources based in part on an identified master or an identified override source of each shared portion;

using an API to disassociate one or more data sources or portions thereof and remove or ignore one or more object bindings or mappings of any shared portions of the data composition;

using an override list to manage source override interactions including controlling source override operations as part of managing the data composition, wherein a corresponding source of a shared portion cannot be overridden when the override list is empty or null;

identifying any unmerged property instances associated with the data composition, wherein the updating of the data portions further includes merging any identified unmerged property instances based in part on aspects of an identified master of each shared portion and the override list; and

,

storing the data composition as part of a compositional data structure in memory.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising identifying a conflicting shared portion based in part on the data change and when two or masters are associated with the conflicting shared portion.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising updating the data composition based in part on a propagation operation including updating name-value data pairs of each shared portion corresponding to a new data change.

18. A computer-readable storage device, including a client, wherein the client manages data by:

managing sets of name-value pairs, wherein each set of name-value pairs is associated with a distinct system;

managing mappings of name value-pairs between two or more of the distinct systems as part of managing a composition of information;

determining any corresponding name-value pairs of one or more of the sets based in part on the mappings of the name-value pairs;

identifying one of a master and an override source of any corresponding name-value pair;

identifying any data change and conflict associated with one or more of the corresponding name-value pairs;

using an override list to manage source override interactions for the sets of name-value pairs including controlling source override operations for the sets of name-value pairs as part of managing the composition of information, wherein a corresponding source of a shared portion cannot be overridden when the override list is empty or null;

using an API to disassociate one or more data sources or portions thereof and remove or ignore one or more object bindings or mappings of any shared portions of the composition of information;

identifying any unmerged property instances associated with the composition of information;

providing the composition of information to include shared and unshared portions in part by identifying unshared data having no conflict and no change, identifying unshared data having no conflict and at least one change, identifying shared data having no conflict and no change, identifying shared data having no conflict and a single master change, and identifying shared data having a plurality of masters with at least one data change; and

,

updating the composition of information including merging any identified unmerged property instances based in part on aspects of a determined master source for any shared portions and the override list.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the client can manage any conflict by disassociating one or more name-value pairs from one or more corresponding name-value pairs.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the client can administer any data change to a recipient system based in part on the master determination.