Synchronizing events between mobile devices and servers

• US 9,432,455 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2011
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iAnywhere Solutions Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: iAnywhere Solutions Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Jeide, Scott A., Krishnapillai, Senthil, Donahue, Brett, Durai, Ponnusamy Jesudoss
• Primary Examiner(s): BURGESS, BARBARA N
• Application Number:
  US13/227,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20120066411A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,818 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/224, 709/231, 709/248
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• 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: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/554 Data synchronization

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product for synchronizing events between a mobile device and a server are described herein. In an embodiment, the method operates by detecting events to be synchronized between a source and a target, wherein the source and target are one of either a mobile device or a server. The method comprises deducing activities that occurred in order to create the detected event, reading data records corresponding to the deduced activities, and creating packets of operations needed to recreate the deduced activities on the target. The method further comprises queuing the packets of operations and data records and receiving event synchronization results at the source after the queued packets of operations have successfully executed on the target, wherein the synchronization results include a synchronization status and a unique record identifier identifying the event. In an embodiment, personal information manager (PIM) events are synchronized.

Claims

1. A synchronization method comprising:

executing a first application at a mobile device using an I/O parameter as an input to the first application;

capturing the I/O parameter at the mobile device;

performing, at the mobile device, a first application workflow event on first application data associated with the first application based on the execution of the first application using the I/O parameter;

sending the I/O parameter to a server to execute a second application using the I/O parameter as an input to the second application, wherein the execution of the second application using the I/O parameter as an input to the second application performs a second application workflow event on second application data associated with the second application to synchronize the second application data with the first application data, the second application workflow event being equivalent to the first application workflow event;

queuing the first application workflow event in a request cache on the mobile device if it is determined that the mobile device is offline, wherein the request cache includes at least a unique record identifier identifying the first application workflow event; and

receiving synchronization results at the mobile device after the second application data has been synchronized with the first application data, wherein the synchronization results include at least a synchronization status and the unique record identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the first application workflow event is a new application workflow event to be inserted into the server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the first application workflow event is an updated application workflow event to be updated on the server.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the first application workflow event is a deleted application workflow event to be deleted from the server.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether there is an application workflow event to be synchronized from the mobile device to the server with a listener running on the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the queuing comprises:

determining whether the mobile device has network connectivity.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing at least the unique record identifier in a database table accessible from the server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the queuing step at a configurable interval.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the configurable interval is based on factors, and wherein the factors include one or more of a number of synchronizations queued, types of synchronizations queued, available memory on the mobile device, overall memory on the mobile device, a CPU speed of the mobile device, available CPU capacity on the mobile device, and a network bandwidth available to the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the configurable interval is tunable on a synchronization server.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the queuing based upon occurrence of one or more events.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the queuing on an on-demand basis.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises:

receiving a timestamp indicating when the synchronization occurred on the server.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is one or more of a personal digital assistants (PDAs), a device operating according to the Microsoft Pocket PC specification with a Microsoft Windows®

CE operating system, a device running a Symbian operating system, a device running a Palm®

operating system, a mobile phone, a BlackBerry®

device, a smart phone, a hand held computer, a palmtop computer, a laptop computer, and an ultra-mobile PC.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is one or more of an email server, a relational database server, a Microsoft Exchange server, a Lotus Domino server, a Lotus Notes server, and a Novell GroupWise server.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deducing activities that occurred on the mobile device to create the first application workflow event; and

creating packets of operations and data records needed to recreate the deduced activities on the server.

17. A mobile device, comprising:

one or more processors implementing;

a first application module configured to receive an I/O parameter as an input;

a capturing module configured to capture the I/O parameter at the mobile device;

an application workflow event generation module configured to perform a first application workflow event on first application data associated with the first application module based on an execution of the first application module using the I/O parameter;

a caching module configured to save the first application workflow event to be synchronized in a request cache, wherein the request cache includes at least a unique record identifier identifying the first application workflow event and the I/O parameter;

a queuing module configured to queue the synchronization of the first application workflow event if the mobile device is determined to be offline;

a transmitting module configured to transmit the I/O parameter to a server to execute a second application module using the I/O parameter as an input to the second application module, wherein the execution of the second application module using the I/O parameter as an input to the second application module performs a second application workflow event on second application data associated with the second application module to synchronize the second application data with the first application data, the second application workflow event being equivalent to the first application workflow event; and

a receiving module configured to receive synchronization results from the server after the second application data has been synchronized with the first application data, wherein the synchronization results include at least a synchronization status and the unique record identifier.

18. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable device having instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a processing device, cause said processing device to perform operations, comprising:

executing a first application at a mobile device using an I/O parameter as an input to the first application;

capturing the I/O parameter at the mobile device;

performing, at the mobile device, a first application workflow event on first application data associated with the first application based on the execution of the first application using the I/O parameter;

queuing the first application workflow event in a request cache if it is determined that the mobile device is offline, wherein the request cache includes at least a unique record identifier identifying the first application workflow event and the I/O parameter;

transmitting the I/O parameter to a server to execute a second application using the I/O parameter as an input to the second application, wherein the execution of the second application using the I/O parameter as an input to the second application performs a second application workflow event on second application data associated with the second application to synchronize the second application data with the first application data, the second application workflow event being equivalent to the first application workflow event; and

receiving synchronization results after the second application data has been synchronized with the first application data, wherein the synchronization results include at least a synchronization status and the unique record identifier.

19. A method at a server, comprising:

receiving a captured I/O parameter from a mobile device, wherein the mobile device is configured to execute a first application that uses the captured I/O parameter as an input to perform a first application workflow event on first application data associated with the first application; and

executing a second application on the server using the captured I/O parameter as an input to the second application, wherein the execution of the second application using the I/O parameter as an input to the second application performs a second application workflow event on second application data associated with the second application to synchronize the second application data with the first application data, the second application workflow event being equivalent to the first application workflow event.