Bi-Directional Data Modification With Synchronization

• US 20080320055A1
• Filed: 06/22/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Augustine, Matthew S., Ozzie, Jack E., Chung, Richard Yiu-Sai, Moromisato, George P., Ozzie, Raymond E., Suthar, Paresh S., Sagar, Akash J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,831,558 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• 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

Systems and methods for synchronizing data between endpoints, including the modification of data on an endpoint without necessarily modifying data that is communicated between endpoints are disclosed. In such systems and methods the representation of data on an endpoint may be modified so that constraints on that particular endpoint are enforced, without requiring a similar or the same modification to the data when it is synchronized to other endpoints.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining synchronization data that includes a synchronization data item;

merging the synchronization data item with a second synchronization data item; and

realizing the second synchronization data item on to a domain data item, including;

modifying the domain data item thereby resulting in a change to the domain data item by using information associated with the second synchronization data item, without changing the second synchronization data item and in such a way that the change made to the domain data item is not incorporated in to a third synchronization data item that is associated with the second synchronization data item; and

storing a description of how the domain data item was modified.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronization data further comprises a feed that is represented using SSE.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the realizing resolves an incompatibility arising from characters that are supported in the synchronization data but that are not supported in the domain data item, and the modifying further comprises replacing an unsupported character in the domain data item with a supported character that is supported in the domain data item.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the second synchronization data item includes file system information associated with a file system element, and the domain data item is a second file system element.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the realizing resolves an incompatibility arising from one of:

a duplicate file system element;

a cycle involving a third file system element and a fourth file system element; and

an orphaned file system element.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the modifying further comprises:

locating the domain data item in a location that is different from a synchronization data item location specified in the second synchronization data item.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing further comprises:

recording in a tabular data structure an identifier associated with the second synchronization data item and, associated with the identifier, recording the description of how the domain data was modified.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the merging further comprises:

determining if the synchronization data item is associated with the second synchronization data item by evaluating whether the synchronization data item and the second synchronization data item are associated with the same identifier;

determining if the second synchronization data item should be updated when the synchronization data item is associated with the second synchronization data item by choosing a winning item and a losing item from the synchronization data item and the second synchronization data item by comparing the synchronization data item and the second synchronization data item; and

updating the second synchronization data item using at least information associated with an item data element that is associated with the synchronization data item when the second synchronization data item should be updated.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the comparing further comprises at least one of the following comparisons:

comparing a synchronization data item version attribute and a second synchronization data item version attribute where a larger version value is associated with the winning item;

comparing a synchronization data item modification time attribute and a second synchronization data item modification time attribute where a later modification time value is associated with the winning item; and

comparing a synchronization data item modifying entity and a second synchronization data item modifying entity where a greater modifying entity value is associated with the winning item.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a generated synchronization data item using the description of how the domain data item was modified, wherein the generated synchronization data item includes at least a portion of the information that was used as part of realizing the second synchronization data item on to the domain data item and the generated synchronization data item does not include the change to the domain data item.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a notification to an entity that the domain data item was modified, wherein the notification includes at least some modification information associated with how the domain data item was modified.

12. A method, comprising:

identifying a domain data item;

determining if the domain data item was previously modified as part of realizing a synchronization data item on to the domain data item; and

when the domain data item was previously modified as part of realizing the synchronization data item on to the domain data item, generating a second synchronization data item using a description of how the domain data item was modified, wherein the second synchronization data item includes synchronization item data that was provided by the synchronization data item and the synchronization item data was used as part of realizing the synchronization data item on to the domain data item.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the synchronization data item is part of a feed that is represented using SSE.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein at least a portion of the synchronization item data is not stored by the domain data item.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the domain data item is a file system element and the second synchronization data item includes file system information associated with the file system element.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

before the generating operation, updating the domain data item to include new information; and

including the new information in the second synchronization data item.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the second synchronization data item further comprises a second feed item that includes a feed sync data element and an item data element, and further comprising:

modifying item data associated with the item data element so that the item data includes at least a portion of the new information;

incrementing a version value associated with the feed sync data element;

creating a new update element associated with the feed sync data element and further associated with at least one of;

a previous most recent modification time and a previous most recent modifying entity; and

updating at least one of;

a most recent modification time history attribute associated with the feed sync data element and a most recent modifying entity history attribute associated with the feed sync data element.

18. A system, comprising:

a synchronization data storage module configured to store a feed item;

a domain data storage module configured to store a domain data item;

a realization module configured to;

realize the feed item on to the domain data item by modifying the domain data item using information associated with the feed item, without changing the feed item; and

a synchronization module configured to;

merge a second feed item with the feed item, wherein the second feed item includes a feed sync data element and an item data element and is associated with a feed; and

generate a generated feed item that is associated with a generated feed and that includes a second feed sync data element and a second item data element using a description of how the domain data item was modified as part of realizing the feed item on to the domain data item, wherein the second item data element includes at least a portion of the information that was used as part of realizing the feed item on to the domain data item.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a second domain data storage module configured to storage a second domain data item; and

a second realization module configured to;

realize the feed item on to the second domain data item by modifying the second domain data item using second information associated with the feed item, without changing the feed item and wherein the second domain data item is modified differently than the domain data item.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

changing the realization module so that the realization module realizes the feed item on to the domain data item by modifying the domain data item differently, without changing the feed item.