SYNCHING DATA

• US 20090043867A1
• Filed: 08/06/2007
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Sharp, Christopher Brooke, Baumgarten, John S.
• Application Number:
  US11/834,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20090043867A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• 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: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level

Abstract

Among other things, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for synching data with one or more servers. One or more data resources are received. A version number and a unique identifier are assigned to each data resource not already assigned to an existing unique identifier. When one or more modifications to the one or more uniquely identified data resources are detected, the assigned version number is updated for the modified data resource.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving one or more data resources;

assigning a version number and a unique identifier to each data resource not already assigned to an existing unique identifier; and

when one or more modifications to the one or more uniquely identified data resources are detected, updating the assigned version number for the modified data resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to a request to access the one or more uniquely identified data resource, providing the assigned unique identifier and version number of the requested data resource to determine whether the requested data resource has been modified since a previous request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the one or more modifications to the one or more uniquely identified data resources comprises:

detecting a modification to contents of the one or more uniquely identified data resources.

4. A method comprising:

generating a current manifest of data resources residing on a server, wherein the current manifest includes a version number and a unique identifier for each data resource; and

comparing the current manifest against a previous manifest to determine whether one or more of the data resources have been modified after the previous manifest was generated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining whether one or more data resources have been modified comprises:

determining whether the version number for the one or more data resources in the current manifest is greater than the version number in the previously generated manifest.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining whether one or more data resources have been modified comprises

generating a new-list of data pairs that includes a new-key and a new-value for each data resource in the current manifest, wherein each new-key represents a storage location of each data resource in the current manifest and each new-value represents metadata for synchronizing each data resource in the current manifest with the server;

generating an old-list of data pairs that includes an old-key and an old-value for each data resource in the previous manifest, wherein each old-key represents a storage location of each data resource in the previous manifest and each old-value represents metadata for synchronizing each data resource in the previous manifest with the server; and

comparing the new-list with the old-list.

7. A method of claim 6, wherein the comparing the new-list with the old-list comprises at least one of:

determining whether each old-key exists in the new-list; and

determining whether each old-value exists in the new-list.

8. A method of claim 7, wherein the determining whether each old-value exists in the new-list comprises at least one of:

determining whether each GUID assigned to each data resource in the previous manifest exists in the new-list; and

determining whether each version number assigned to each data resource in the previous manifest exists in the new-list.

9. A method of claim 7, wherein the comparing the new-list with the old-list further comprises at least one of:

determining whether each new-key exists in the old-list; and

determining whether each new-value exists in the old-list.

10. A computer program product, embodied on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receive one or more data resources;

assign a version number and a unique identifier to each data resource not already assigned to an existing unique identifier; and

when one or more modifications to the one or more uniquely identified data resources are detected, update the assigned version number for the modified data resource.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

in response to a request to access the one or more uniquely identified data resource, provide the assigned unique identifier and the version number of the requested data resource to determine whether the requested data resource has been modified since a previous request.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to detect the one or more modifications to the one or more uniquely identified data resources comprising causing the data processing apparatus to detect a modification to contents of the one or more uniquely identified data resources.

13. A computer program product, embodied on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

generate a current manifest of data resources residing on a server, wherein the current manifest includes a version number and a unique identifier for each data resource; and

compare the current manifest against a previous manifest to determine whether one or more of the data resources have been modified after the previous list was generated.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to determine whether the one or more data resources have been modified comprising:

determine whether the version number for the one or more data resources in the current manifest is greater than the version number in the previously generated manifest.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to determine whether the data resource has been modified comprising:

generate a new-list of data pairs that includes a new-key and a new-value for each data resource in the current manifest, wherein each new-key represents a storage location of each data resource in the current manifest and each new-value represents metadata for synchronizing each data resource in the current manifest with the server;

generate an old-list of data pairs that includes an old-key and an old-value for each data resource in the previous manifest, wherein each old-key represents a storage location of each data resource in the previous manifest and each old-value represents metadata for synchronizing each data resource in the previous manifest with the server; and

compare the new-list with the old-list.

16. A computer program product of claim 15, further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to compare the new-list with the old-list comprising at least one of:

determine whether each old-key exists in the new-list; and

determine whether each old-value exists in the new-list.

17. A computer program product of claim 16, further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to:

determine whether each GUID assigned to each data resource in the previous manifest exists in the new-list; and

determine whether each version number assigned to each data resource in the previous manifest exists in the new-list.

18. A computer program product of claim 15, further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to:

determine whether each new-key exists in the old-list; and

determine whether each new-value exists in the old-list.

19. A system comprising:

one or more client applications configured to upload one or more data resources to one or more servers that are communicatively coupled to the one or more client applications;

one or more server-side applications coupled to the one or more servers, wherein the one or more server side applications are configured to assign a version number and a unique identifier to each uploaded data resource not already assigned to an existing unique identifier; and

one or more storage devices communicatively coupled to one or more servers, wherein the one or more storage devices are configured to maintain a database of the assigned identifier and the version number for each data source.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more server-side applications are further configured to

detect one or more modifications to the one or more uniquely identified data resources;

and

update the assigned version number for the modified data resource.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more server-side applications are configured to detect a modification to contents of the one or more uniquely identified data resources.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein

the one or more servers are configured receive from the one or more client applications a request to access the one or more data resources;

and

the one or more server-side applications are configured to provide to the requesting client application the unique identifier and the version number assigned to the requested data resource to determine whether the requested data resource has been modified since a previous request.

23. A system comprising:

one or more servers coupled to one or more client applications and configured to receive a query from the one or more client applications; and

one or more server-side applications coupled to the one or more servers and configured to

generate a current manifest of data resources residing on the one or more servers, wherein the current manifest includes an unique identifier and a version number for each data resource, and

compare the current manifest against a previous manifest to determine whether one or more of the data resources have been modified after the previous manifest was generated.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more server-side applications are configured to determine whether one or more of the data resources have been modified by performing operations comprising:

determine whether the version number for the one or more data resources in the current manifest is greater than the version number in the previously generated manifest,

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more server-side applications are configured to determine whether one or more of the data resources have been modified comprising:

generate a new-list of data pairs that includes a new-key and a new-value for each data resource in the current manifest, wherein each new-key represents a storage location of each data resource in the current manifest and each new-value represents metadata for synchronizing each data resource in the current manifest with the server;

generate an old-list of data pairs that includes an old-key and an old-value for each data resource in the previous manifest, wherein each old-key represents a storage location of each data resource in the previous manifest and each old-value represents metadata for synchronizing each data resource in the previous manifest with the server; and

compare the new-list with the old-list.

26. A system of claim 25, wherein the one or more server-side applications are configured to compare the new-list with the old-list comprising at least one of:

determine whether each old-key exists in the new-list; and

determine whether each old-value exists in the new-list.

27. A system of claim 26, wherein the one or more server-side applications are configured to determine whether each old-value exists in the new-list comprises at least one of:

determine whether each GUID assigned to each data resource in the previous manifest exists in the new-list; and

determine whether each version number assigned to each data resource in the previous manifest exists in the new-list.

28. A system of claim 25, wherein the one or more server-side applications are configured to compare the new-list with the old-list comprising at least one of:

determine whether each new-key exists in the old-list; and

determine whether each new-value exists in the old-list.