Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Irena Hudis

Lev Novik

Yunxin Wu

Raymond W McCollum

Vivek Jawahir Jhaveri

Ashish B Shah

Douglas Brian Terry

Tomas Talius

Alan Geoffrey Boshier

Rajesh M Rao

Sameet Harishanker Agarwal

Darshatkumar A Shah

Sanjay Anand

Shaoyu Zhou

Okechukwu C Echeruo

Balan Sethu Raman

Michael Ray Clark

Corina Eva Feuerstein

Muhunthan Sivapragasam

Ann Tang

Roger W Booth

Mark Scurrell

Jin He

Jeremie E Sartor

Don Cao

Sameet H Agarwal

Tombstones can be removed from a data store without data corruption. Tombstones placed into a forgotten knowledge list can be compared against each other and/or items in a tombstone table, and deleted when tombstones representing subsequently deleted items are extant. Also, creation database version information can be kept along with database items, and databases can record database version information when they synchronize. If a synchronizing database discovers an item that it does not have, but the creation database version information associated with the item reflects that the synchronizing database 'should' have the item, then it can be inferred that the item was subsequently deleted, and item resurrection can be prevented.

Multi-master database synchronization without loss of convergence

Update-delete conflicts detected during synchronization can be resolved in favor of the update or the deletion. Resolving the conflict in favor of the deletion results in the entity deleted on one replica being deleted on all selected replicas. Resolving the conflict in favor of the update results in the updated entity, which includes an entity moved from one hierarchy to another, being replicated on all selected replicas. To resolve the conflict in favor of the update, the deletion is treated as though it were reported erroneously. The deleted entity is resurrected in the form of the updated entity. Change version information is maintained in all replicas. Update-delete conflicts are resolvable in accordance with various resolution policies such as the update wins, deletion wins, changes occurring on a particular device wins, and most recent event wins, for example.

Resolving update-delete conflicts

Several embodiments of the present invention employ synchronization adapters for synchronizing information between 'WinFS' and non-'WinFS' data sources. Examples of adapters include an adapter that synchronizes address book information between a &#x201c;WinFS&#x201d; contacts folder and a non-WinFS mailbox. In these instances, adapter developers might use the &#x201c;WinFS&#x201d; synchronization core services API described herein for accessing services provided by the &#x201c;WinFS&#x201d; synchronization platform in order to develop schema transformation code between the &#x201c;WinFS&#x201d; schema and the non-&#x201c;WinFS&#x201d; data source schema. Additionally, the adapter developer provides protocol support for communicating changes with the non-&#x201c;WinFS&#x201d; data source. A synchronization adapter is invoked and controlled by using the synchronization controller API and reports progress and errors using this API.

Systems and methods for providing synchronization services for units of information manageable by a hardware/software interface system

A system and method for synchronizing a database having metadata and raw data. Metadata may be fully synchronized between two systems, with copies stored on both systems. Raw data may be selectively synchronized, so that a client system need not store all of the raw data locally. When disconnected, the client system may identify certain portions of the raw data to store locally, and such data may be synchronized when reconnected to a server system.

Ghosted synchronization

Systems and methods for synchronizing data stores. A framework including a sync runtime enables consistent and manageable synchronization between a data store and multiple, diverse back end data stores. The sync runtime provides services such as change enumeration, conflict detection, metadata management, item ID matching, sync interruptability, and the like that are accessible to configurable adapters over an application programming interface. Each synchronizing data store can uses a sync controller to initialize an adapter that can access the services provided by the sync runtime. The sync controller can use a profile to configure each adapter. The profile can identify conflict resolution policies, synchronization filters, source and destination folders, sync direction, and the like.

Systems and methods for synchronizing with multiple data stores

A system and method for synchronizing a database comprising raw data and metadata derived from the raw data, but when the metadata has not yet been updated. The raw data and the metadata are first synchronized, with the raw data having been assigned a version number. After synchronization, any stale metadata will be updated and assigned the same version number as the raw data.

Synchronization with derived metadata

Extending hierarchical synchronization (sync) scopes to non-hierarchical scenarios may involve a method for synchronizing differently organized data stores comprising mapping different physical organizations to similar logical organizations and utilizing an organization-based synchronization algorithm to synchronize the differently organized stores. Also, the uniqueness constraints of the organizations may be preserved as well as the parent-child ordering constraints of the organizations.

Extending hierarchical synchronization scopes to non-hierarchical scenarios

A uniform data structure contains a number of data fields. Some of the data fields are dedicated to contain information concerning the transfer of a data segment of a particular type (such as an XML segment) using one particular transfer mechanism (such as transferring as a string or DOM object, or transfer using an interface such as ISAXContentHandler, ITextSource, ITextSink, or IDOMSink interfaces). Other data fields are dedicated to contain information concerning the transfer of data segments of the same particular type using another transfer mechanism. When a module is to transfer a data segment, the module will cause the unified data structure to be altered as appropriate for the desired transfer mechanism.

Uniform transfer of data independent of the transfer mechanism

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and method for detecting conflicts and applying conflict resolutions during manual and automatic conflict resolution operations. Several embodiments are directed to preventing both: (a) non-convergence of conflict resolutions, where partners can end up in a divergent steady state (i.e. have different data in the absence of outstanding conflicts); and (b) a non-terminating ping-pong of conflict resolutions between partners (which can occur with certain inefficient solutions that continuously update metadata for each conflict resolution without end). Certain specific embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method for maintaining knowledge that guarantees convergence of data, even when different partners apply different conflict resolutions.

Systems and methods for the propagation of conflict resolution to enforce item convergence (i.e., data convergence)

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to conflict handling for conflicts that occur in a peer-to-peer synchronization system, where the ability to correctly and efficiently handle conflicts minimizes data loss while retaining good usability and reduces the need for user intervention during synchronization. Conflict handling in the synchronization service is divided into three stages: (1) conflict detection; (2) automatic conflict resolution and logging; and (3) conflict inspection and resolution. Certain embodiments are directed to a conflict handling schema comprising one or more of the follow conflict handling elements: (a) schematized representation of conflicts; (b) detection of conflicts; (c) logging of conflicts into a durable store; (d) automatic resolution of conflicts according to a flexible and configurable azqsxqxwdconflict resolution policy; (e) composable and extensible conflict handlers to filter and resolve conflicts; (f) automatic detection and removal of obsolete conflicts; and (g) programmatic conflict resolutions.

Systems and methods for providing conflict handling for peer-to-peer synchronization of units of information manageable by a hardware/software interface system

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for synchronizing mixed elements (MEs) comprising structure data and unstructured filestreams between peer computer systems in a hardware/software interface system environment that does not permit snapshotting of large unstructured ME filestreams during synchronization. For several such embodiments, the method comprises synchronizing the ME in two steps, one for snapshotting the structured data component of the ME (as well as the cv of the filestream but not the filestream itself) and one for locking and transmitting the filestream to the receiving sync peer if and only if, after being locked, it is determined that the filestream is unchanged from the time of the ME data component snapshot.

Systems and methods for synchronization of items without snapshots

Methods for enabling mult-master synchronization of particular sets of data using filters. In a synchronization request, data including knowledge and filters may be supplied. A response may comprise data including changes that are identified by the filter and that have versions that are not known by the requestor.

Filtered replication of data stores

Systems and methods for replicating replicas in a sync community. Each replica in the sync community stores knowledge that represents changes the replica is aware of. Because each replica has its own knowledge, each replica does not need to know how many replicas are in the sync community or the topology of the sync community. By sending the knowledge with a request for changes, a replicating replica can enumerate the changes to replicate by comparing its knowledge with the received knowledge. After replication, the knowledge is updated. Knowledge may also include made-with-knowledge change IDs that permit each resolution to identify what a replica was aware of when a particular change was made. The made-with-knowledge values are used to detect conflicts during replication.

Systems and methods for replicating data stores

A protocol for replicating replicas in a sync community. Each replica maintains a knowledge that represents changes that the replica is aware of. Each replica does not typically maintain knowledge about other replicas. The protocol includes messages that include knowledge about changes on the various replicas. Using the knowledge, the replicas can enumerate changes and send the changes using asynchronous messages that do not need to be received in any particular order. The protocol enables filters to ensure that a valid replication is possible using a minimum knowledge argument. The protocol also enables replicas to partially replicate using filtered knowledge.

Replication protocol for data stores

A common information model (CIM) enables management application programs to receive uniformly rendered results regardless of the source of the information. A CIM object manager isolates the applications from internal components which retrieve the information from various sources and through various other components, and provides refinements to that model that improve the exchange of information. In addition to providing uniform rendering of management information to a client applications, the CIM object manager dynamically adapts to complement the capabilities of the information providers, whereby the information providers may do so in a highly flexible manner. The CIMOM also decomposes a client query to determine the appropriate source or sources of information necessary to resolve that query, and further handles client queries having inherited object classes to render appropriate results in a uniform manner.

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Irena Hudis