System and methods for asynchronous synchronization

• US 8,069,144 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2010
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Good Technology Corporation (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Ardulov, Yuri, Joshi, Rajiv, Quinlan, Sean, Mendez, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PANNALA, SATHYANARAYA R
• Application Number:
  US12/796,969
• Publication Number:
  US 20100268844A1
• Time in Patent Office: 538 Days
• Field of Search: 707/613, 709/224
• US Class Current: 707/613
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/52 Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores
• 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: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

Aspects of the invention provide for information to be synchronized in an asynchronous manner among two or more computing devices.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a first computing device, a first triggering event;

responding to the first triggering event, by the first computing device, by connecting to temporary storage in a routing system, when the first computing device is disconnected from the routing system;

receiving, by the first computing device from the temporary storage, a synchronization message relating to a workspace element, said synchronization message having been transferred to the temporary storage in response to an asynchronously triggering second device trigger of a second computing device, said synchronization message including a set of one or more version identifiers and data indicative of a modification to the workspace element;

comparing, by the first computing device, said set of one or more version identifiers with a further set of one or more version identifiers relating to said workspace element, said further set of version identifiers being stored at said first computing device;

on the basis of the comparison, performing a first synchronization process or a second synchronization process,

the first synchronization process including;

synchronizing, at the first computing device, a locally stored copy of said workspace element based on said modification data contained in said synchronization message,

the second synchronization process including;

transmitting to the second computing device a recovery request message,

receiving from the second computing device a set of one or more recovery messages relating to synchronization of a copy of said workspace element stored locally at the second computing device, and

processing said set of one or more recovery messages at the first computing device to re-synchronize the copy of said workspace element stored locally at the first computing device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of said one or more recovery messages includes a set of one or more version identifiers relating to said workspace element, and processing said set of one or more recovery messages to re-synchronize the locally stored copy of said workspace element includes processing said set of one or more recovery messages on the basis of the respective set of one or more version identifiers included in each recovery message.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said second synchronization process further comprises:

transmitting to the second computing device a further set of one or more recovery messages relating to synchronization of the workspace element at the first computing device, said second computing device processing said further set of one or more recovery messages to re-synchronize the copy of the workspace element stored locally at the second computing device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said set of one or more recovery messages includes one or more of add, update and delete messages relating to a previous synchronization of the workspace element at said second computing device.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of said sets of one or more version identifiers includes a version indicator corresponding to the copy of said workspace element stored at said first computing device, and the comparison between the sets of one or more version identifiers includes comparing the respective version indicators corresponding to the copy of said workspace element stored at said first computing device.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

performing said second synchronization process when the comparison of the respective version indicators corresponding to the copy of said workspace element stored at the first computing device indicates that said version indicator in the set of one or more version identifiers received in the synchronization message relates to a more recent version of the workspace element than said version indicator in said further set of one or more version identifiers stored locally at the first computing device.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of said sets of one or more version identifiers includes a version indicator for said copy of the workspace element stored locally at the second computing device, and the comparison between the sets of one or more version identifiers includes comparing the respective version indicators corresponding to the copy of said workspace element stored at said second computing device.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

performing said second synchronization process when the comparison of the respective version indicators corresponding to the copy of said workspace element stored at the second computing device indicates that said version indicator in the set of one or more version identifiers received in the synchronization message relates to one of a same version or a less recent version of the workspace element than said version indicator in the further set of one or more version identifiers stored locally at the first computing device.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

performing a third synchronization process in response to a determination of a conflict between said sets of one or more version identifiers, the third synchronization process including one of;

using the modification data to update the copy of the workspace element stored locally at the first device based on a most recent version of the workspace element indicated by the sets of one or more version identifiers,

using the set of version identifiers to update the further set of one or more version identifiers stored by the first computing device based on the most recent version of the workspace element indicated by the sets of one or more version identifiers, and

duplicating, at the first computing device, the copy of the workspace element stored locally at the first computing device, and updating, using the modification data, one of the copy of the workspace element and the duplicate of the workspace element stored locally at the first computing device.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

performing said first synchronization process in response to a determination that there is no conflict between the sets of one or more version identifiers.

11. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions thereon, the computer-readable instructions when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

receiving, by a first computing device, a first triggering event;

responding to the first triggering event, by the first computing device, by connecting to temporary storage in a routing system, when the first computing device is disconnected from the routing system;

receiving, by the first computing device from the temporary storage, a synchronization message relating to a workspace element, said synchronization message having been transferred to the temporary storage in response to an asynchronously triggering second device trigger of a second computing device, said synchronization message including a set of one or more version identifiers and data indicative of a modification to the workspace element;

comparing, by the first computing device, said set of one or more version identifiers with a further set of one or more version identifiers relating to said workspace element, said further set of version identifiers being stored at said first computing device;

on the basis of the comparison, performing a first synchronization process or a second synchronization process,

the first synchronization process including;

synchronizing, at the first computing device, a locally stored copy of said workspace element based on said modification data contained in said synchronization message,

the second synchronization process including;

transmitting to the second computing device a recovery request message,

receiving from the second computing device a set of one or more recovery messages relating to synchronization of a copy of said workspace element stored locally at the second computing device, and

processing said set of one or more recovery messages at the first computing device to re-synchronize the copy of said workspace element stored locally at the first computing device.

12. A system, comprising:

means for receiving, by a first computing device, a first triggering event;

means for responding to the first triggering event, by the first computing device, by connecting to temporary storage in a routing system, when the first computing device is disconnected from the routing system;

means for receiving, by the first computing device from the temporary storage, a synchronization message relating to a workspace element, said synchronization message having been transferred to the temporary storage in response to an asynchronously triggering second device trigger of a second computing device, said synchronization message including a set of one or more version identifiers and data indicative of a modification to the workspace element;

means for comparing, by the first computing device, said set of one or more version identifiers with a further set of one or more version identifiers relating to said workspace element, said further set of version identifiers being stored at said first computing device;

means for performing a first synchronization process or a second synchronization process on the basis of the comparison,

the first synchronization process including;

synchronizing, at the first computing device, a locally stored copy of said workspace element based on said modification data contained in said synchronization message,

the second synchronization process including;

transmitting to the second computing device a recovery request message,

receiving from the second computing device a set of one or more recovery messages relating to synchronization of a copy of said workspace element stored locally at the second computing device, and

processing said set of one or more recovery messages at the first computing device to re-synchronize the copy of said workspace element stored locally at the first computing device.