Mobile applications

• US 9,398,077 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2013
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Bosworth, Adam, Burdon, Richard, Khesin, Alexander, Lloyd, Alexander, Eskafi, Farokh H., Ong, Ken, Lucas, Terry Leonard, Bosworth, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): CAO, DIEM K
• Application Number:
  US14/085,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280771A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0875 with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Providing a framework for developing, deploying and managing sophisticated mobile solutions, with a simple Web-like programming model that integrates with existing enterprise components. Mobile applications may consist of a data model definition, user interface templates, a client side controller, which includes scripts that define actions, and, on the server side, a collection of conduits, which describe how to mediate between the data model and the enterprise. In one embodiment, the occasionally-connected application server assumes that data used by mobile applications is persistently stored and managed by external systems. The occasionally-connected data model can be a METAdata description of the mobile application'"'"'s anticipated usage of this data, and be optimized to enable the efficient traversal and synchronization of this data between occasionally connected devices and external systems.

Claims

1. An occasionally-connected application server comprising:

a synchronization unit that synchronizes a first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server with a second set of data nodes stored on a mobile client for an application provided by the server, the application employing an occasionally-connected data model whereby the mobile client is enabled to utilize data in the second set of data nodes to run while disconnected from the occasionally-connected application server;

a conduit manager that translates between data from external systems and the first set of data nodes defined by the occasionally-connected data model stored on the server;

wherein the conduit manager employs a set of conduits that define transforms between first set of data nodes defined by the occasionally-connected data model and requests and responses for a specific external web service;

wherein the occasionally-connected application server interacts with the specific external web service to produce and update the first set of data nodes for the mobile client;

wherein the first set of data nodes have associated synchronization states, wherein the synchronization states are passed between the server and the mobile client as a background process to synchronize the first set of data nodes on the server with the second set of data nodes on the mobile client, such that update operations performed on the first set of data nodes during periods where the mobile client is disconnected from the server are reflected on the server when the connection is reestablished by employing the synchronization states associated with the first set of data nodes.

2. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein the occasionally-connected application server is configured to cache data nodes as indicated by metadata in the occasionally-connected data model.

3. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, further comprising an adaptive user interface server adapted to provide HTML pages constructed using the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model to the mobile client.

4. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein synchronization requests that pass the synchronization states run asynchronously with respect to the browser on the mobile client.

5. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein when the server receives a synchronization request from the mobile client, if the server has cached the data related to the request, the server responds immediately, otherwise if the data cached on the server is stale, the conduit manager invokes one or more of said conduits to deliver updated data.

6. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein the synchronization states passed between the server and the mobile client is comprised of the following indications:

an indication whether the data node was locally created or modified;

an indication whether the data node was locally created or modified and ready for synchronization with server;

an indication whether the data node has a server synchronization pending;

an indication whether the data node was synchronized with the servers;

an indication whether synchronization was rejected by the server; and

an indication whether there was a conflict between a local modification and a server update.

7. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein the occasionally-connected data model indicates anticipated usage of said data node by said mobile client before said data nodes are requested by said mobile client.

8. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, further comprising:

a primary in-core cache stored in memory on said occasionally-connected application server, wherein the in-core cache stores the set of data nodes, wherein each data node is associated with a synchronization state;

a secondary persistence cache stored on persistent memory on said occasionally-connected application server, wherein when at least some of the set of data nodes are stored on the persistent cache.

9. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, further comprising:

a cache manager that provides an interface of create, read, update and delete (CRUD) operations to the set of data nodes of the occasionally connected data model; and

at least one cache which stores the set of data nodes for access by the cache manager, wherein each data node is associated with a synchronization state.

10. The occasionally-connected application server of claim 1, wherein:

the data nodes have an expire Time To Live (TTL) after which the data node is not returned from the occasionally-connected application server; and

the data nodes have a refresh Time To Live (TTL) after which the data node is returned with an indication that the data node may be stale.

11. A method for operating an occasionally-connected application server comprising:

synchronizing a first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server with a second set of data nodes stored on a mobile client for an application provided by the occasionally-connected application server, the application employing an occasionally-connected data model whereby the mobile client is enabled to utilize data in the second set of data nodes to run while disconnected from the occasionally-connected application server;

translating between data from external systems and the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server;

employing conduits which define transforms between requests and responses for a specific external web service and the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server;

interacting with the specific external web service to produce and update the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server;

maintaining synchronization states associated with the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server; and

passing the synchronization states associated with the first set of data nodes between the occasionally-connected application server and the mobile client as a background process to synchronize the first set of data nodes on the occasionally-connected application server with the second set of data nodes on the mobile client, such that update operations performed on the first set of data nodes during periods where the mobile client is disconnected from the occasionally-connected application server are reflected on the mobile client when the connection is reestablished.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

caching data nodes as indicated by metadata in the occasionally-connected data model.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

providing an adaptive user interface server adapted to provide HTML pages constructed using the data nodes and the occasionally-connected data model to the mobile client.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising running synchronization requests that pass synchronization states asynchronously with respect to a browser on the mobile client.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein when the server receives a synchronization request from the mobile client, if the server has cached the data related to the request, the server responds immediately, otherwise if the data cached on the server is stale, the conduit manager invokes one or more of said conduits to deliver updated data.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the synchronization states passed between the server and the mobile client are comprised of the following indications:

an indication whether the data node was locally created or modified;

an indication whether the data node was locally created or modified and ready for synchronization with server;

an indication whether the data node has a server synchronization pending;

an indication whether the data node was synchronized with the servers;

an indication whether synchronization was rejected by the server; and

an indication whether there was a conflict between a local modification and a server update.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the occasionally-connected data model indicates anticipated usage of said data node by said mobile client before said data nodes are requested by said mobile client.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing a primary in-core cache stored in memory on said occasionally-connected application server, wherein the in-core cache stores the set of data nodes, wherein each data node is associated with a synchronization state; and

providing a secondary persistence cache stored on persistent memory on said occasionally-connected application server, wherein when at least some of the set of data nodes are stored on the persistent cache.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing via a cache manager an interface of create, read, update and delete (CRUD) operations to the set of data nodes of the occasionally connected data model; and

providing at least one cache which stores the set of data nodes for access by the cache manager, wherein each data node is associated with a synchronization state.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions for operating an occasionally-connected application server, said instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

synchronizing a first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server with a second set of data nodes stored on a mobile client for an application provided by the occasionally-connected application server, the application employing an occasionally-connected data model whereby the mobile client is enabled to utilize data in the second set of data nodes to run while disconnected from the occasionally-connected application server;

translating between data from external systems and the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server;

employing conduits which define transforms between requests and responses for a specific external web service and the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server;

interacting with the specific external web service to produce and update the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server;

maintaining synchronization states associated with the first set of data nodes stored on the occasionally-connected application server; and

passing the synchronization states associated with the first set of data nodes between the occasionally-connected application server and the mobile client as a background process to synchronize the first set of data nodes on the occasionally-connected application server with the second set of data nodes on the mobile client, such that update operations performed on the first set of data nodes during periods where the mobile client is disconnected from the occasionally-connected application server are reflected on the mobile client when the connection is reestablished.