Synchronization server process

• US 20090228509A1
• Filed: 03/04/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: McCarthy, Brendan A., Guenther, Carsten
• Granted Patent: US 7,991,740 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• 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: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Among other things, techniques and systems are disclosed for providing sync server process. Processing data sync sessions includes processing a request to initiate a sync session from one or more clients to update one or more data records that include one or more data items. The one or more clients are selectively identified as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client based on one or more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client is configured to support all dataclasses defined by the server. The one or more clients are detected as being configured to support field level differencing that sends changed data items only for the one or data records or record level differencing that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records.

Claims

1. A method performed at a server comprising:

processing a request to initiate a sync session from one or more clients to update one or more data records that include one or more data items;

selectively identifying the one or more clients as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client based on one or more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client is configured to support a schema defined by the server for the one or more data records; and

detecting whether the one or more clients are configured to support either field level differencing that sends changed data items only for the one or more data records or record level differencing that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when detecting that the one or more clients are configured to support record level differencing, performing a conversion from the record level differencing to the field level differencing to identify the changed data items in the one or more data records.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to processing the sync session,

generating a change log identifying one or more changes associated with the one or more data record; and

updating a data repository associated with the server to reflect the one or more changes to the one or more data records identified in the generated change log.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

using a bridge client to access another data repository and modify data records stored in the accessed other data repository based on the updated data repository associated with the server.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein accessing the other data repository comprises processing the generated change log to update the other data repository.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving updates to the one or more data records from the one or more clients;

identifying one or more conflicts between the received updates and data records stored at a datastore associated with the server; and

mingling the updates from the one or more clients.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising resolving the identified one or more conflicts by assigning a priority to a most recent one of the one or more clients requesting the sync session.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when detecting that the one or more clients are identified as the untrusted client, identifying one or more conflicts in a set of changes associated with the untrusted client from the schema defined by the server for the one or more data records involved in the set of changes associated with the untrusted client.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively identifying the one or more clients as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client comprises:

detecting the one or more properties of the sync session that includes unique identifiers for the data items included in the data records.

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

processing a request to initiate a sync session from one or more clients to update one or more data records that include one or more data items;

selectively identifying the one or more clients as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client based on one or more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client is configured to support a schema defined by a server for the one or more data records; and

detecting whether the one or more clients are configured to support either field level differencing that sends changed data items only for the one or data records or record level differencing that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further operable to cause a data processing apparatus to identify the changed data items in the one or more data records when detecting that the one or more clients are configured to support record level differencing.

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

generate a change log identifying one or more changes associated with the one or more data record; and

update a data repository associated with the server to reflect the one or more changes to the one or more data records identified in the generated change log.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further operable to cause a data processing apparatus to use a bridge client to access another data repository and modify data records stored in the accessed other data repository based on the updated data repository associated the server.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further operable to cause a data processing apparatus to access the other data repository including processing the generated change log to update the other data repository.

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

receiving updates to the one or more data records from the one or more clients;

identifying one or more conflicts between the received updates and data records stored at a datastore associated with the server; and

mingling the updates from the one or more clients.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further operable to cause a data processing apparatus to resolve the identified one or more conflicts by assigning a priority to a most recent one of the one or more clients requesting the sync session.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, further operable to cause a data processing apparatus to identify one or more discrepancies in a set of changes associated with the untrusted client from the schema defined by the server for the one or more data records involved in the set of changes associated with the untrusted client when detected that the one or more clients are identified as the untrusted client.

18. The computer program product of claim 10, further operable to selectively identify the one or more clients as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client by performing the following:

detecting the one or more properties of the sync session that includes unique identifiers for the data items included in the data records.

19. A server comprising:

a processor configured to operate

a transport protocol that enables opening of one or more connections to one or more clients; and

one or more sync protocols that enables the server to synchronize one or more dataclasses with the one or more clients over the opened one or more connections, wherein the one or more sync protocols enables the server to;

process a request to initiate a sync session from the one or more clients to update one or more data records that include one or more data items;

selectively identify the one or more clients as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client based on one or more properties of the sync session, wherein the trusted client is configured to support a schema defined by the server for the data records; and

detect whether the one or more clients are configured to support either field level differencing that sends changed data items only for the one or data records or record level differencing that sends all of the data items included in the one or more data records.

20. The server of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to identify the changed data items in the one or more data records when the one or more clients are configured to support record level differencing.

21. The server of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to perform the following:

in response to processing the sync session

generate a change log that indicate one or more changes associated with the one or more data record; and

update a data repository associated with the server to reflect the one or more changes to the one or more data records indicated in the generated change log.

22. The server of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to:

use a bridge client to access another data repository and modify data records stored in the accessed data repository based on the updated data repository connected to the server.

23. The server of claim 22, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to modify the other data repository by processing the generated change log to update the other data repository.

24. The server of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to perform operations comprising:

receiving updates to the one or more data records from the one or more clients;

identifying one or more conflicts between the received updates and data records stored at a datastore associated with the server; and

mingling the updates from the one or more clients.

25. The server of claim 24, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to resolve the identified one or more conflicts by assigning a priority to a most recent one of the one or more clients requesting the sync session.

26. The server of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to identify one or more discrepancies in a set of changes associated with the untrusted client from the schema defined by the server for the one or more data records involved in the set of changes associated with the untrusted client when detected that the one or more clients are identified as the untrusted client.

27. The server of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to operate the one or more sync protocols to selectively identify the one or more clients as one of a trusted client and an untrusted client by detecting the one or more properties of the sync session that includes unique identifiers for the data items included in the data records.