Structured content item synchronization

摘要

A content management system defines a synchronization application programming interface (API) used by applications executing on client devices to synchronize content items after the content items are changed. Functions of the API specify changes to the content items in terms of semantically-meaningful locations within the content items, rather than physical file locations. The content management system can represent the state of a content item in terms of change descriptors that reference the semantic locations of the API. The content management system can then distribute the change descriptors to the client devices, which refer to the semantic locations of the change descriptors when determining how to reconcile changes made by other client devices.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method performed by a content management system, the method comprising:
receiving, by the content management system from a first client device, a notification of a change to a content item stored on the first client device, the content item having a data format with data semantics unknown to the content management system, the notification of the change comprising an indication of a first semantic location of the change within the content item and an indication of a first version of the content item at a time of the change; determining, based on the indication of the first version of the content item, whether a second client device has already made a second change to the content item with respect to the first version of the content item; responsive to determining that the second client device has already made the second change, providing a notification of change rejection to the first client device, the notification of change rejection comprising an indication of a second semantic location of the second change within the content item, the indication of the second semantic location having been provided by the second client device; receiving a request from the second client device to receive changes to the content item; registering the second client device to receive changes to the content item; receiving from the first client device a notification of a third change resulting from the first client device combining the change and the second change, the notification of the third change comprising an indication of a third semantic location of the third change within the content item; and responsive to receiving the notification of the third change, providing a notification of the third change to the second client device.