Determining when a low fidelity property value has changed during a sync

• US 7,216,134 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2005
• Issued: 05/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Starbuck, Bryan T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): FLEURANTIN, JEAN B
• Application Number:
  US11/183,467
• Publication Number:
  US 20050251414A1
• Time in Patent Office: 659 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 707200-206, 709/201, 709/203, 709/218, 709/219, 709/236, 709/240, 709/248
• US Class Current: 707/623
• 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: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

During synchronization of data between a remote device and a local device, it can be determined if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine. A remote representation of a property value is compared to a local representation associated with the same property value. If the representations are identical, it can be determined that the property value did not change on the remote device. If, however, they are not identical then the property value must have changed after the remote representation was generated.

Claims

1. A computing system capable of synchronizing data between devices, the computing system comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method of determining if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine, wherein the computer executable instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the computing system to perform the following:

receive a current value for a remote property and a remote representation for a prior value of the remote property;

receive a remote representation of time date information associated with the remote property, wherein the remote representation of the time-date information is one or more of a Hexadecimal number, stored down to the seconds, stored down to the minutes or stored in a time zone independent format;

generate a local representation of the remote property from the current value for the remote property;

compare the remote representation to the local representation;

determine, based on the comparison, that the prior value of the remote property was changed after the remote representation was generated; and

based on the determination that the prior value of the remote property was changed, determine that the remote representation of time-date information is potentially unreliable.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property and the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property.

3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the remote device is a low fidelity device that stores properties in a data base without a corresponding time-date field.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein a conflict exists between the current value and a local value associated with the remote property, and wherein the remote representation of time-date information is not used for resolving the conflict.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein a local value is used to replace the current value and the remote representation is replaced with an updated remote representation.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property, the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property, and the updated remote representation is a hash of the local value.

7. A computing system capable of synchronizing data between devices, the computing system comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method of determining if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine, wherein the computer executable instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the computing system to perform the following:

receive a remote value for a remote property and a remote representation for the remote value of the remote property;

receive a remote representation of time date information associated with the remote property, wherein the remote representation of the time-date information is one or more of a Hexadecimal number, stored down to the seconds, stored down to the minutes or stored in a time zone independent format;

generate a local representation of the remote property from the remote value for the remote property;

compare the remote representation to the local representation;

determine, based on the comparison, that the remote value of the remote property has not changed after the remote representation was generated;

determine that a conflict exists between the remote value and a local value associated with the remote property;

based on the determination that the remote value of the remote property has not changed, compare the remote representation of time date information with a local representation of time date information, the remote representation of time date information and the local representation of time date information indicating when the remote value and local value were generated, respectively; and

resolve the conflict based on the results of the comparison of the remote representation of time date to the local representation of time date information.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the remote value and the local representation is a hash of the remote value.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the remote device is a low fidelity device that stores properties in a data base without a corresponding time-date field.

10. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the local value is used to replace the remote value and the remote representation is replaced with an updated remote representation.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the remote representation is a hash of the prior value of the remote property, the local representation is a hash of the current value for the remote property, and the updated remote representation is a hash of the local value.