Scalability improvement in a system which incrementally updates clients with events that occurred in a cloud-based collaboration platform

• US 9,535,924 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2014
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Mackenzie, David, Spielberg, Miles, Treyger, Alex, Luecke, Ryan, Bercovici, Tamar, Barreto, Tomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Hasan, Syed
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ahmed, Saba
• Application Number:
  US14/194,091
• Publication Number:
  US 20150039556A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• Field of Search: 707/608
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1767 Concurrency control, e.g. optimistic or pessimistic approaches

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for improving scalability in a system which incrementally updates remote clients with events that occurred in a cloud-enabled platform. In one embodiment, a method comprises, in response to an action from a user in the cloud-enabled platform, determining a list of events to update one or more collaborators of the user about the action. The method further comprises separating the list of events into a plurality of sub-lists of events such that each sub-list of events can be stored in a database within a designated amount of time, and further comprises storing the plurality of sub-lists of events into the database to be read by the one or more collaborators. Among other advantages, embodiments disclosed herein provide enhancement in scalability, robustness and availability for cloud-based collaboration platforms with large numbers of collaborators by incorporating mechanisms to divide-and-conquer the workload of event updates in such platforms.

Claims

1. A method for updating remote clients with actions that occurred in a cloud-enabled platform, the method comprising:

in response to an action from a user in the cloud-enabled platform, determining a list of events to update one or more collaborators of the user about the action;

separating the list of events into a plurality of sub-lists of events by decomposing the list of events;

determining based on evaluation of one or more criteria associated with the database, a number of events to include in each sub-list of events from the plurality of sub-lists of events;

writing each sub-list of events into queues that are stored in a database, wherein the writing occurs within a designated time window, wherein the designated time window specifies a time limit for writing each sub-list of events into the queues; and

upon detecting failure to write a sub-list of events into one or more queues, updating the designated time window for the sub-list of events that failed to be written, wherein the sub-list of events that failed to be written is included in the plurality of sub-lists of events.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more criteria includes a throughput of the database.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a number of sub-lists of events that fails to be stored in the database within the designated time window.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more criteria includes a performance of a network connection of the database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the list of events to update the one or more collaborators of the user about the action is based on requesting a business logic to return a manifest of the one or more collaborators associated with a folder where the action from the user takes place.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sub-lists are stored as rows in a table before being stored into the database, and wherein each row represents one sub-list and has an collaborator identification field that specifies which of the one or more collaborators are to be updated about the action.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

writing a timestamp for a respective row upon completion of storage of a respective sub-list into the database.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote clients of the one or more collaborators are able to update based on the database to reflect the action.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a respective remote client in the remote clients update only the action without updating other actions which have previously been updated at the respective remote client.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein a respective remote client in the remote clients sends a query to the database for synchronization of the updates specific to an associated collaborator.

11. A system for incrementally updating remote clients with actions that occurred in a cloud-based environment, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

in response to an action from a user in the cloud-enabled platform, determine a list of events to update one or more collaborators of the user about the action;

separate the list of events into a plurality of sub-lists of events by decomposing the list of events;

determine, based on evaluation of one or more criteria associated with the database, a number of events to include in each sub-list of events from the plurality of sub-lists of events;

write each sub-list of events into queues that are stored in a database, wherein the write occurs within a designated time window, wherein the designated time window specifies a time limit for writing each sub-list of events into the queues; and

upon detecting failure to write a sub-list of events into one or more queues, update the designated time window for the sub-list of events that failed to be written, wherein the sub-list of events that failed to be written is included in the plurality of sub-lists of events.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more criteria includes a throughput of the database.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further caused to:

identify a number of sub-lists of events that fails to be stored in the database within the designated time window.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more criteria includes a performance of a network connection of the database.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further caused to, in the determining the list of events to update the one or more collaborators of the user about the action, request a business logic to return a manifest of the one or more collaborators associated with a folder where the action from the user takes place.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of sub-lists are stored as rows in a table before being stored into the database, and wherein each row represents one sub-list and has an collaborator identification field that specifies which of the one or more collaborators are to be updated about the action.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor is further caused to:

write a timestamp for a respective row upon completion of storage of a respective sub-list into the database.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

in response to an action from a user in a cloud-enabled platform, determine a list of events to update one or more collaborators of the user about the action;

separate the list of events into a plurality of sub-lists of events by decomposing the list of events;

determine, based on evaluation of one or more criteria associated with the database, a number of events to include in each sub-list of events from the plurality of sub-lists of events;

write each sub-list of events into queues that are stored in a database, wherein the write occurs within a designated time window, wherein the designated time window specifies a time limit for writing each sub-list of events into the queues; and

upon detecting failure to write a sub-list of events into one or more queues, update the designated time window for the sub-list of events that failed to be written, wherein the sub-list of events that failed to be written is included in the plurality of sub-list of events.

19. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more criteria includes a throughput of the database.

20. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the processor is further caused to:

identify a number of sub-lists of events that fails to be stored in the database within the designated time window.

21. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more criteria includes a performance of a network connection of the database.

22. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the processor is further caused to, in the determining the list of events to update the one or more collaborators of the user about the action, request a business logic to return a manifest of the one or more collaborators associated with a folder where the action from the user takes place.

23. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the plurality of sub-lists are stored as rows in a table before being stored into the database, and wherein each row represents one sub-list and has an collaborator identification field that specifies which of the one or more collaborators are to be updated about the action.

24. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein the processor is further caused to:

write a timestamp for a respective row upon completion of storage of a respective sub-list into the database.

25. A system, comprising a processor, wherein the processor is configured for:

in response to an action from a user in a cloud-enabled platform, determining a list of events to update one or more collaborators of the user about the action;

separating the list of events into a plurality of sub-lists of events by decomposing the list of events;

determining, based on evaluation of one or more criteria associated with the database, a number of events to include in each sub-list of events from the plurality of sub-lists of events;

writing each writing each sub-list of events into queues that are stored in a database, wherein the writing occurs within a designated time window, wherein the designated time window specifies a time limit for writing each sub-list of events into the queues; and

upon detecting failure to write a sub-list of events into one or more queues, updating the designated time window for the sub-list of events that failed to be written, wherein the sub-list of events that failed to be written is included in the plurality of sub-list of events.