Preserving memory resources by limiting time-date information for a subset of properties

• US 7,269,609 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2005
• Issued: 09/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Starbuck, Bryan T.
• Primary Examiner(s): FLEURANTIN, JEAN B
• Application Number:
  US11/109,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20050289194A1
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 707200-206, 709/218, 709/248, 709/236, 709/240
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Example embodiments provide for preserving memory resources by selecting property values to be assigned time-date information used in resolving conflicts between sync values. The property values may be selected based on the available resources of a remote device, e.g., when the time-date information is to be stored in a field of limited space. Further, the property values may be selected based on historical information, such as the most recently or frequently modified values. Other example embodiments also provide for storing an upper and/or lower boundary of time-date information for the remaining property values not selected. For example, the most recently modified property time-date value may be used for the upper boundary and the oldest modified time-date value may be used for the lower boundary.

Claims

1. In a distributed computing system capable of synchronizing data between distributed computing devices including work or home computers and mobile computing devices, a method of preserving memory resources at the smaller mobile computing device which has limited physical resources for storing data and thus is incapable of maintaining time-date information for all properties of a data structure item that is to be synchronized with other local computing systems, the method comprising acts of:

receiving at a local computing device a plurality of property values from a remote device with limited physical resources for storing data;

selecting at the local computing device a limited set of property values from among the plurality of property values based on the available resources of the remote device;

identifying at the local computing device a set of time-date information corresponding to the limited set of property values selected;

formatting at the local computing device the limited set of property values selected using a standard URI format that identifies the property and includes the identified time-date information associated with each selected property; and

receiving at the remote device the standard URI format for the limited set of property values selected, and then storing the formatted time-date information in one or more unused fields of a remote database of the remote device, the one or more unused fields comprising any property field not reserved for storing time-date information in order to take advantage of the unused fields to conserve memory resources at the remote device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising acts of:

identifying a portion of time-date information from a plurality of time-date information for one or more remaining property values not being in the limited set of property values, and the portion of time-date information corresponding to when at least one of the one or more remaining property values where modified by a user; and

storing the identified portion of time-date information in one location in the remote database such that the identified portion of time-date information corresponds to all of the one or more remaining property values.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more remaining property values are represented by a combined representation value.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the combined representation value is a hash of the remaining portion of property values.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the property values in the limited set are stored as a representation of the corresponding property value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the representation of the corresponding property values are a hash of the corresponding property value.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the available resources is a limited size of a field.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of the limited set of property values is also based on historical information associated with the modification of the plurality of property values.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the historical information is the frequency for which each of the plurality of property values are modified, and wherein the most frequently modified property values are selected.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the historical information is time-date information for the plurality of property values, and wherein the most recently modified property values are selected.

11. In a distributed computing system capable of synchronizing data between distributed computing devices including work or home computers and mobile computing devices, a computer program product for implementing a method of preserving memory resources at a smaller computing device which has limited physical resources for storing data and thus is incapable of maintaining time-date information for all properties of a data structure item that is to be synchronized with other local computing systems, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium containing computer executable instructions for implementing the method, and wherein the method is comprised of the acts

receiving at a local computing device a plurality of property values from a remote device with limited physical resources for storing data;

selecting at the local computing device a limited set of property values from among the plurality of property values based on the available resources of the remote device;

identifying at the local computing device a set of time-date information corresponding to the limited set of property values selected;

formatting at the local computing device the limited set of property values selected using a standard URI format that identifies the property and includes the identified time-date information associated with each selected property; and

receiving at the remote device the standard URI format for the limited set of property values selected, and then storing the formatted time-date information in one or more unused fields of a remote database of the remote device, the one or more unused fields comprising any property field not reserved for storing time-date information in order to take advantage of the unused fields to conserve memory resources at the remote device.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer executable instructions that can cause the distributed computing system to perform the following:

identify a portion of time-date information from a plurality of time-date information for one or more remaining property values not being in the limited set of property values, and the portion of time-date information corresponding to when at least one of the one or more remaining property values where modified by a user; and

store the identified portion of time-date information in one location in the remote database such that the identified portion of time-date information corresponds to all of the one or more remaining property values.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the one or more remaining property values are represented by a combined representation value.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the identified portion of time-date information for the one or more remaining property values most recently time-date value, oldest time-date value, or both.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein each of the property values in the limited set are stored as a representation of the corresponding property value.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the representation of the corresponding property values are a hash of the corresponding property value.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein each of the property values in the limited set are stored as a representation of the corresponding property value.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the selection of the limited set of property values is also based on historical information associated with the modification of the plurality of property values.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the historical information is the frequency for which each of the plurality of property values are modified, and wherein the most frequently modified property values are selected.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the historical information is time-date information for the plurality of property values, and wherein the most recently modified property values are selected.