Enabling online and offline operation

• US 7,680,941 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Laszlo Systems Incorporated (Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bloch, Eric D., Carlson, Max D., Kang, Pablo, Kimm, Christopher, Steele, Oliver W., Temkin, David T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue, Larry D
• Application Number:
  US11/608,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20070083486A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/225, 709/226, 709/227, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

The present invention provides software developers with the capability to create applications that can access information online and offline without having to program such capabilities into their applications. An application can gather information from various remote data sources via a network or other communication means, and still have access to all or a portion of that information when the computing device running the application is no longer connected to the network. In one embodiment, a client manages information access, caching and synchronization for the application. When connected, information accessed is stored in a local data store on (or near) the computing device. When disconnected, requests are run against the local data store instead of the remote data source. When reconnected, information is synchronized between the local data store and the remote data source.

Claims

1. A method for enabling an application of a computing device to work offline and online, comprising the steps of:

if a computing device is online, responding to a communication from said application by forwarding said communication to a server for use in running a query involving a first data source with which said server communicates; and

if said computing device is not online, responding to said communication by processing at least a portion of said communication at said computing device using data in a local data store accessible to said computing device, said data in said local data store represents a local version of at least a subset of information stored in said first data source, said processing comprises running a query using the local data store.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the responding to said application if said computing device is not online comprises providing an executable file to the application using at least a subset of the data in the local data store.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises the following steps if the computing device is online:

receiving, at the computing device and from the server, a response to the communication;

determining whether the response includes associated data;

if the determining step determines that the response includes associated data, storing the associated data in the local data store and providing the response to the application and

if the determining step determines that the response does not include associated data, providing the response to the application without editing the local data store.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the response comprises an executable file; and

the step of determining includes parsing the executable file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the communication includes an indication of a data view for the first data source, the data view describes a portion of the first data source.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein if said computing device is not online:

the computing device parses the communication to determine whether the communication involves record accessing, editing, deleting or creating, and if the communication involves record accessing, the responding comprises accessing a record in the local data store, if the communication involves record editing, the responding comprises editing a record in the local data store, if the communication involves record deleting, the responding comprises deleting a record in the local data store and if the communication involves record creating, the responding comprises creating a new record in the local data store.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the communication is provided in response to a request from the application to edit, and the responding when the computing device is not online comprises editing a record in the local data store.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the communication is provided in response to a request from the application to delete, and the responding when the computing device is not online comprises deleting a record in the local data store.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the communication is provided in response to a request from the application to create a new record, and the responding when the computing device is not online comprises creating a new record in the local data store.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

synchronizing the local data store with the first data source when the computing device is online by sending, from the computing device to the server, information to inform the server which inserted, modified and deleted records to send to the computing device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

synchronizing the local data store with the first data source when the computing device is online by sending, from the computing device to the server, a list of updated records of the local data store.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

synchronizing the local data store with the first data source when the computing device is online by sending, from the computing device to the server, a list of IDs for records erased from the local data store when the computing device was offline.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the local data store comprises a database against which the query is run when the computing device is not online.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the executable file comprises a .SWF file.

15. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the associated data is associated with at least one of a database and a directory.

16. A method for enabling software to work offline and online, comprising:

responsive to an application, providing a communication from a proxy to a server if the proxy is online, the communication includes an identification of a first data source, and a set of records of the first data source, the server is configured to communicate with the first data source; and

if the proxy is not online, responding to the application using data in a data store local to the proxy, the data in the data store represents a local version of at least a subset of information stored in the first data source.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the responding to said application if said proxy is not online comprises providing an executable file to the application using at least a subset of the data in the data store.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the first data source comprises a database, and the communication includes a query to the database for the set of records.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the communication is provided in response to a request from the application; and

if the proxy is not online, the proxy parses the request to determine whether the request involves record accessing, editing, deleting or creating, and;

(a) if the request involves record accessing, the responding comprises accessing a record in the data store, (b) if the request involves record editing, the responding comprises editing a record in the data store, (c) if the request involves record deleting, the responding comprises deleting a record in the data store and (d) if the request involves record creating, the responding comprises creating a new record in the data store.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

synchronizing the data store with the first data source when the proxy is online by sending, from the proxy to the sewer, a request for synchronization which includes a change counter.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

providing information to the application regarding a conflict between the data store and the first data source.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the proxy comprises an HTTP proxy.

23. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied thereon, the processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

responsive to an application, providing a communication from a computing device to a server if the computing device is online, the communication includes an identification of a first data source, the server is configured to communicate with the first data source; and

if the computing device is not online, responding to the application using data in a data store local to the computing device, the data in the data store represents a local version of at least a subset of information stored in the first data source; and

synchronizing the data store with the first data source when the computing device is online, the synchronizing comprises sending, from the computing device to the server, a request for synchronization which includes a change counter.

24. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 23, wherein:

the responding comprises providing an executable file to the application using at least a subset of the data in the data store.

25. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 23, wherein:

the communication includes an indication of a data view for the first data source, the data view describes a portion of the first data source.

26. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 23, wherein:

the communication is provided in response to a request from the application; and

the computing device parses the request to determine whether the request involves record accessing, editing, deleting or creating, and;

(a) if the request involves record accessing, the responding comprises of accessing a record in the local data store, (b) if the request involves record editing, the responding comprises editing a record in the local data store, (c) if the request involves record deleting, the responding comprises deleting a record in the local data store and (d) if the request involves record creating, the responding comprises creating a new record in the local data store.

27. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 23, wherein:

the communication is provided to the server via a proxy if the computing device is online.

28. A method for enabling software to work offline and online, comprising:

responsive to an application, providing a communication from a computing device to a server if the computing device is online, the communication includes an identification of a first data source, the server is configured to communicate with the first data source;

if the computing device is online, receiving a first executable file from the server in response to the communication provided thereto, and providing the first executable file to the application; and

if the computing device is not online, providing a second executable file to the application using at least a subset of data in a data store local to the computing device, the data in the data store represents a local version of at least a subset of information stored in the first data source;

the application rendering the first and/or second executable files.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein:

the communication includes an indication of a data view for the first data source, the data view describes a portion of the first data source.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein:

the communication is provided to the server via a proxy if the computing device is online.

31. A method for enabling an application of a computing device to work offline and online, comprising the steps of:

if a computing device is online, responding to a communication from said application by forwarding said communication to a server for use in running a query involving a first data source with which said server communicates;

if said computing device is not online, responding to said communication by processing at least a portion of said communication at said computing device using data in a local data store accessible to said computing device, said data in said local data store represents a local version of at least a subset of information stored in said first data source, said processing comprises running a query using the local data store; and

synchronizing the local data store with the first data source when the computing device is online, the synchronizing comprises sending, from the computing device to the server, a request for synchronization which includes a change counter.