Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Vivek Jawahir Jhaveri

Lev Novik

Irena Hudis

Ashish B Shah

Douglas Brian Terry

Sameet Harishanker Agarwal

Robert J Ragno

Rajesh M Rao

Muhunthan Sivapragasam

Tomas Talius

Yunxin Wu

Darshatkumar A Shah

Sanjay Anand

Shaoyu Zhou

Okechukwu C Echeruo

Don Cao

Ann Tang

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for navigating search results are provided. In response to receiving a search query, at least one individual search result is presented in an overlay window, the overlay window being configured to overlay at least a portion of a document viewing window. Navigation between the overlay window and the document viewing window may be performed in response to receiving input of at least one pre-determined command. Content associated with a selected individual search result (or other document identifier) may be presented in the document viewing window and, substantially simultaneously, the overlay window may be hidden from view. Subsequently, in response to receiving at least one pre-determined command, the overlay window may be re-presented such that it again overlays at least a portion of the document viewing window.

Efficient navigation of search results

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates synchronizing data within a data storage system. An interface component can leverage a synchronization technique within the data storage system. A sync component can provide a secure peer to peer data synchronization based at least in part upon the synchronization technique to allow a tiered access to the synchronized data.

Security in peer to peer synchronization applications

The subject invention pertains to data synchronization across replicas. Disclosed are systems and methods of detecting and handling constraint-based conflicts that occur during a synchronization session. In accordance with one particular aspect of the invention, name-constraint violations can be detected. These violations can be resolved by generating a single merged identity that can be utilized to refer to data units, for example on different replicas that had the same name. A property of the merged identity can be merge history, which specifies the identifiers subsumed by the merge.

Constraint-based conflict handling for synchronization

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 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

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

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.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Vivek Jawahir Jhaveri