KR20100077311A - Metadata synchronization method for database, storage medium of storing program for executing the same and information processing apparatus performing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a method for synchronizing metadata in an information processing apparatus database for synchronizing data of an information processing apparatus with metadata thereof, a recording medium recording a program for performing the same, and an information processing apparatus performing the same. The method of synchronizing metadata of a database includes (a) acquiring metadata about the latest data of the information processing apparatus, (b) storing the acquired metadata in a first table of a database of the information processing apparatus; (c) comparing the first table with the second table in which metadata about the existing data of the information processing device is stored, and (d) updating the second table based on the difference between the first table and the second table. Include. Therefore, comparing and comparing items in the database using a query language improves data synchronization speed, reduces the use of computing resources because there is no need to maintain a separate metadata list, and reduces maintenance costs by simplifying implementation code. .

Description

Method of synchronizing metadata in a database, a recording medium recording a program for performing the same, and an information processing apparatus for performing the same.

The present invention relates to a data synchronization method of a database, and more particularly, to a metadata synchronization method of a database for data of an information processing apparatus, a recording medium recording a program for performing the same, and an information processing apparatus for performing the same.

Information Processing Apparatus is a concept that includes portable devices such as MP3 players, mobile phones, PMPs, PDAs, and computers such as PCs and workstations. Currently, the most widely used method of data transmission between such information processing devices is USB (Universal Serial Bus (USB)). In particular, the USB Mass Storage Class (MSC) is a USB Implementer. It is a computing communication protocol defined by the Implementers Forum. In addition to Windows, Microsoft's operating system (OS), most existing operating systems such as UNIX, Linux, OS / 2, Mobile Device OS Nucleus, and Rex support MSC. Recognized portable devices in the same form as removable disks (Removable Disk), and has been widely adopted in various portable devices because of their ease of use.

On the other hand, metadata is data for data. A piece of data, that is, information that is followed together after the data to analyze and classify structured information and add additional information. For example, a file of a computer or a portable device is accompanied by metadata called a file property, such as a file name, a file size, a file creation date and time, a directory property, and the like. As another example, in a digital camera, each time a picture is taken and recorded, the digital camera stores information of the camera itself and picture information such as time, exposure, flash use, resolution, and picture size at the time of shooting together with the image data. Analyzing and using this data can be very useful for later rearranging or reprocessing the picture.

Recently, a protocol supporting digital rights management (DRM) for digital content has been requested. Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) is a standard for transmitting digital content files to which DRM is applied. Portable devices connect to MTP devices on Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP). A portable device supporting a protocol such as MTP may have a database storing information on its data, that is, metadata, for data synchronization with other information processing devices.

However, the portable device synchronizes the metadata of the database and the actual data periodically or at a specific point in time, which causes a problem that synchronization is inevitably broken during the use of the portable device. That is, in the state of synchronization, the synchronization is broken when the user connects the portable device to another information processing device to add, change or delete a file by the user's operation or the automatic synchronization method included in the information processing device. In this case, the conventional data synchronization method is a method of updating files added, changed, and deleted by sequentially comparing the file list of the portable device with the items in the database one by one.

However, this conventional file synchronization method compares and compares the file list of the portable device with the item list in the database one by one, so that the file synchronization speed is particularly low when the number of files increases. In addition, since the file list of the portable device must be maintained separately during file synchronization, the use of computing resources such as main memory increases. In addition, there is a disadvantage in that the code is complicated to implement, which requires a large amount of time and expense to maintain.

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a metadata synchronization method that can speed up metadata synchronization and reduce resource usage in a database of an information processing apparatus.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium on which a program of instructions that can be executed by a digital processing apparatus that performs the above method is tangibly embodied, and which records a program that can be read by the digital processing apparatus. It is.

It is also a third object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus for performing the above method.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for synchronizing metadata of a database, the method including: (a) acquiring metadata about latest data of an information processing apparatus; Storing the obtained metadata in a first table of a database of an information processing apparatus; (c) comparing the first table with a second table storing metadata about existing data of the information processing apparatus; (d) updating the second table based on the difference between the first table and the second table.

The information processing device may support at least one of an MSC mode, an MTP mode, and a Bluetooth synchronization profile mode.

The data is a file, and the metadata may include at least one of a file name, a file size, a file creation time, and a directory attribute.

At least one of the first table and the second table may be stored in a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory.

Step (c) and step (d) may be performed using a query language supported by the DBMS of the information processing device.

The step (c) may perform a query language for filtering the metadata not present in the first table but present in the second table and retrieving a column in which the metadata filtered from the second table exists. have.

Step (c) may perform a query language for filtering metadata existing in the first table but not present in the second table, and retrieving a column in which the metadata filtered in the first table exists. have.

The query language may be SQL.

In order to achieve the above-described second object of the present invention, a program of instructions that can be executed by a digital processing apparatus for performing a metadata synchronization method of a database according to an embodiment of the present invention is tangibly implemented, and the digital processing The recording medium which records the program which can be read by the apparatus comprises (a) acquiring metadata about the latest data of the information processing apparatus, and (b) obtaining the obtained metadata from the first database of the database of the information processing apparatus. Storing in a table, (c) comparing the first table with the second table in which metadata about the existing data of the information processing apparatus is stored, and (d) the difference between the first table and the second table. Based on updating the second table.

An information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above-described third object of the present invention includes a database for storing metadata about existing data of the information processing apparatus and metadata about the latest data of the information processing apparatus. And a synchronizer for updating the metadata for the existing data based on a result of comparing the metadata with respect to the existing data.

The database stores the metadata of the latest data of the information processing device in a first table, the metadata of the existing data of the information processing device in a second table, and the synchronizer is configured to store the first table and the first table of the database. The two tables may be compared and the second table may be updated based on the difference between the first table and the second table.

The information processing device may support at least one of an MSC mode, an MTP mode, and a Bluetooth synchronization profile mode.

The data is a file, and the metadata may include at least one of a file name, a file size, a file creation time, and a directory attribute.

At least one of the first table and the second table may be stored in a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory included in the database or the synchronization unit.

The synchronizer may compare the metadata of the latest data of the information processing apparatus with the metadata of the existing data by using a query language, and update the metadata of the existing data based on the result of the comparison. .

According to the method of synchronizing the metadata of the database as described above, the recording medium which records the program for performing the same, and the information processing apparatus which performs the same, the data synchronization speed is improved by comparing and comparing the items of the database using a query language. This eliminates the need to maintain a separate list, reducing computing resource usage and simplifying implementation code, thereby reducing maintenance costs.

As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

Terms such as first, second, A, and B may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as the second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as the first component. And / or < / RTI > includes any combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another component, it may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but it may be understood that other components may be present in between. Should be. On the other hand, when a component is said to be "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another component, it should be understood that there is no other component in between.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this application, the terms "comprise" or "have" are intended to indicate that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, and one or more other features. It is to be understood that the present invention does not exclude the possibility of the presence or the addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, components, or a combination thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Terms such as those defined in the commonly used dictionaries should be construed as having meanings consistent with the meanings in the context of the related art, and, unless expressly defined in this application, are construed in ideal or excessively formal meanings. It doesn't work.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, it will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, the same reference numerals are used for the same components in the drawings, and duplicate descriptions of the same components are omitted.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a metadata synchronization method of a database according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the data stored in the information processing device is not limited to a specific kind, but may be any type of file, document, digital content, and the like.

Data included in the data, that is, metadata about the data in an embodiment of the present invention may vary according to the type of the data. For example, when the data is a file, the metadata may include a file name, file size, file creation date and time, directory attribute, and the like. For example, when the data is digital music content, the metadata may include a song name, artist name, album name, production date, genre name, and the like.

In addition, the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a storage device for storing data such as a portable device such as an MP3 player, a mobile phone, a PMP, a PDA, a computer such as a PC, a workstation, and a processing device for processing the data. It can be any possible type of device having a.

Hereinafter, a portable device as the information processing apparatus, a file as the data, and file information as the metadata will be described as an example.

Referring to FIG. 1, a synchronizer for performing metadata synchronization of a database according to an embodiment of the present invention first obtains latest file information of a portable device (S110). The file of the portable device may be stored in a separate storage unit (not shown) of the portable device.

The synchronization unit accesses a file system of a portable device or a storage unit to obtain file information or a file list. The file system includes FAT16 (File Allocation Table 16), FAT32, exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table), and NTFS (New). Technology File System (HFS), High Performance File System (HPFS), UNIX File System (UFS), Hierarchical File System Plus (HFS Plus), etc. Since the process of obtaining the information or the file list can be easily understood by ordinary knowledge in the related field, the following description is omitted.

A file is accompanied by file information. The file information (File Information, File Attribute, File Property) includes file size, file name, file creation date and time, and directory attribute ( Information such as Directory Attribute). The file information serves as a criterion for determining whether a predetermined file is added, changed, or deleted in the file information comparison and file information update to be described later.

The synchronizer may exchange file information or a file list obtained by accessing the file system of the portable device with another information processing device according to a data transmission standard. The data transmission standard may be USB (Universal Serial Bus) or IEEE 1394 (Firewire). data transmission between information processing devices such as eSATA (External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), Bluetooth, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Wi-Fi, Wibro, and Infrared Communication (IrDA) It can be any kind of data transmission standard that can be adopted by the method.

Next, the synchronizer stores the latest file information obtained from the portable device or the storage unit in the first table of the database (S120).

The database may be a volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM) or a read only memory (ROM), a flash memory, a magnetic computer storage device (for example, a hard disk, a diskette drive, a magnetic tape). And a storage unit (not shown) including non-volatile memory such as an optical disc drive, and an external transmission standard and file system connected to the synchronization unit. C) or a controller.

The database may be interoperable with any kind of DBMS (Data Base Management System) that can be employed, and the synchronization unit may support at least one DBMS.

A table of a database is composed of a table column and a table row, and each file of the portable device corresponds to the table row, and the file size, file name, file creation time and directory included in the file information. Information such as attributes corresponds to attributes of the table rows, respectively.

For example, the first item of file information obtained from a portable device may contain information such as "525,824," "MTP.MP3," "Friday, December 12, 2008, 9:30:48 AM," and "N." If included, "525,824" in the first row and the first column of the first table, "MTP.MP3" in the first row and the second column, "Friday 12 December 2008," in the first row and the third column, 9:30:48 "," N "is stored in the first row and the fourth column so that the latest file information of the portable device and the table column and the table row of the first table may correspond.

Next, the synchronizer compares the second table in which the existing file information of the portable device is stored with the first table (S130). That is, the existing file information of the portable device is stored and maintained in the second table in the database, and the portable device regards the data of the second table as its latest file information until the data of the second table is updated through resynchronization. do.

The comparison between the first table and the second table is to find a portion where inconsistency occurs between the file of the portable device and the file information of the database, and is mainly for finding a file in which the addition, change, and deletion of the file has occurred.

The comparison process may be performed using a query language supported by a DBMS interworking with a database, and the synchronizer may interpret and execute at least one kind of query language. The query language is not limited to a specific type of query language, and may be any possible query and response syntax supported by the DBMS. Hereinafter, a structured query language (hereinafter referred to as SQL) will be described as an example of the query language.

The first table and the second table may include all the attribute information about the file, or only the attribute information about the file (directory, folder, music file, movie file, image file, document file, etc.) having a specific attribute. You may.

For example, the name of the first table is NewFilesInfo, the file name property of the first table is newfilesname, the file size property of the first table is newfilessize, the name of the second table is ExistingFilesInfo, the file name property of the second table is existingfilesname, If the file size attribute of the second table is called existingfilessize, the second table that contains the existing file information of the portable device, but not in the first table that contains the latest file information of the portable device, that is, deleted from the portable device The SQL syntax for finding an entry for a compiled file is shown in SQL statement 1 below.

[SQL Syntax 1]

SELECT *

FROM ExistingFilesInfo

WHERE (existingfilesname || existfilessize) NOT IN (SELECT newfilesname || newfilessize FROM NewFilesInfo)

Also, for example, SQL that searches for an entry for a file added to a portable device that is not in the second table that contains existing file information on the portable device, but that is in the first table that contains the latest file information on the portable device. The syntax is shown in SQL Syntax 2 below.

[SQL Syntax 2]

SELECT *

FROM NewFilesInfo

WHERE (newfilesname || newfilessize) NOT IN (SELECT existingfilesname || existingfilessize FROM ExistingFilesInfo)

In the above example, various comparison statements may be executed by adding a file creation date and time as a condition.

Finally, the synchronizer updates the second table based on the difference between the first table and the second table (S140). The difference refers to a difference between the existing file information and the latest file information due to the addition, change, or deletion of a file of the portable device. Specifically, the difference refers to a table row that differs between the first table and the second table. The update of the second table is performed by adding a new table row to the second table, changing the contents of the existing table row, or deleting the existing table row. This update process may be performed using an SQL statement in a manner similar to that described above.

The first table or the second table may be stored in a volatile memory of a database or a synchronization unit. When a table in a database is stored in volatile memory, disk I / O (Disk Input / Output) does not occur, so the access speed is faster and the processing of SQL statements is faster.

Alternatively, the first table or the second table may be stored in a nonvolatile memory of a database or a synchronization unit. When a table of a database is stored in a nonvolatile memory, even when processing and maintaining a large amount of file information, the amount of computing resources such as memory is constant.

The method for synchronizing metadata of a database according to an embodiment of the present invention is not limited to a specific type of portable device in its implementation, but the portable device may be a mass storage class (MSC) device or a media transfer protocol (MTP). ) Or a device that supports a Bluetooth synchronization profile. When the portable device is an MSC device, the portable device is recognized as a removable disk by a computer such as a PC to which the portable device is connected. When the portable device is an MTP device, the portable device is recognized as a local file in a computer such as a PC to which the portable device is connected, and the MTP device is used in PC software such as Windows Media Player (WMP). Are recognized separately.

The metadata synchronization method of the database according to an embodiment of the present invention described above may be initiated when the portable device is initially powered on, when entering a specific operation mode, or by user selection. While the portable device is playing or manipulating a file, the method can be prevented from being disclosed to prevent data corruption or synchronization failure.

2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The information processing apparatus 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a synchronizer 310, a database 320, and a storage 330.

The storage unit 330 stores data such as a file, a document, and digital content of the information processing device 300.

The storage unit 330 may have an external storage device having a standard such as SD, MicroSD, SDHC, Comact Flash, etc. in addition to the internal memory, but the synchronizer 310 stores the external storage device. As long as it can be accessed through the file system of the storage unit 330 does not affect the implementation of the present invention.

The database 320 stores the latest file information of the storage unit 330 in the first table, and stores the existing file information of the storage unit 330 in the second table.

The synchronizer 310 updates the existing file information based on a result of comparing the latest file information of the storage unit 330 with the existing file information. In particular, the synchronizer 310 may compare the first table and the second table of the database 320 and update the second table based on the difference between the first table and the second table. In this case, the synchronizer 310 may perform a comparison operation between the first table and the second table and an update operation of the second table by using a query language such as an SQL syntax.

The synchronizer 310 stores the latest file information obtained from the storage 330 in the first table of the database 320, and imports the first table and the second table from the database 320, and then stores the first table and the second table. The second table can be compared. In this case, the first table and the second table may be stored in a separate storage unit (not shown) provided in the synchronizer 310 to perform the comparison operation, and the storage unit (not shown) may include a volatile memory. It can be provided. The synchronizer 310 may update an item of the second table based on the comparison result, and reflect the updated second table to the second table of the database 320 again.

Alternatively, unlike the above description, the latest file information obtained from the storage unit 330 may be stored as a first table in a storage unit (not shown) included in the synchronizer 310. In particular, the storage unit (not shown) of the synchronizer 310 may be configured as a volatile memory. In this case, the latest file information obtained from the storage unit 330 is not stored in the database 320 as a separate first table.

Other operations of the database 320 and the synchronizer 310 may be understood in the same manner as described with reference to FIG. 1 with respect to the database and the synchronizer in the metadata synchronization method of the database.

The file information, the first table, the second table, and the query language are described with reference to FIG. 1 for the file information, the first table, the second table, and the query language in the metadata synchronization method of the database. Since it can be understood as in the same manner as the description below will be omitted.

Although described with reference to the above embodiments, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Could be.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a metadata synchronization method of a database according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

300: information processing apparatus 310: synchronization unit

320: Database 330: Storage

Claims (15)

(a) obtaining metadata about the latest data of the information processing apparatus; (b) storing the obtained metadata in a first table of a database of an information processing apparatus; (c) comparing the first table with a second table storing metadata about existing data of the information processing apparatus; And (d) updating the second table based on the difference between the first table and the second table. The method of claim 1, The information processing apparatus supports at least one of the MSC mode, MTP mode, Bluetooth synchronization profile mode. The method of claim 1, The data is a file, And the metadata includes at least one of a file name, a file size, a file creation time, and a directory attribute. The method of claim 1, At least one of the first table and the second table is stored in a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory. The method of claim 1, (C) and (d) are performed using a query language supported by the DBMS of the information processing device. The method of claim 5, Step (c) is to perform a query language for filtering the metadata not present in the first table but present in the second table and retrieving the column in which the metadata filtered in the second table exists. A method for synchronizing metadata in a database. The method of claim 5, Step (c) filters the metadata that is not present in the second table but exists in the first table, and performs a query language to retrieve a column in which the metadata filtered from the first table exists. Metadata synchronization method of the database, characterized in that. The method of claim 5, And the query language is SQL. A program of instructions that can be executed by a digital processing apparatus that performs a metadata synchronization method of a database is tangibly implemented, and a recording medium recording a program that can be read by the digital processing apparatus, (a) obtaining metadata about the latest data of the information processing apparatus; (b) storing the obtained metadata in a first table of a database of an information processing apparatus; (c) comparing the first table with a second table storing metadata about existing data of the information processing apparatus; And (d) a recording medium having recorded thereon a program for updating the second table based on a difference between the first table and the second table. A database that stores metadata about existing data of the information processing apparatus; And And a synchronization unit for updating the metadata of the existing data based on a result of comparing the metadata of the latest data of the information processing device with the metadata of the existing data. The method of claim 10, The database stores the metadata of the latest data of the information processing device in the first table, the metadata of the existing data of the information processing device in the second table, And the synchronization unit compares the first table and the second table of the database and updates the second table based on a difference between the first table and the second table. The method of claim 10, And at least one of an MSC mode, an MTP mode, and a Bluetooth synchronization profile mode. The method of claim 10, The data is a file, And the metadata includes at least one of a file name, a file size, a file creation time, and a directory attribute. The method of claim 10, At least one of the first table and the second table is stored in a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory included in the database or the synchronization unit. The method of claim 10, The synchronization unit compares the metadata of the latest data of the information processing apparatus with the metadata of the existing data by using a query language, and updates the metadata of the existing data based on the result of the comparison. An information processing apparatus.

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