System for facilitating home construction and sales
DCFirst Claim
1. A method for synchronizing information among a plurality of databases, each of the databases having a replica of data stored in at least one of the other databases, the method comprising:
- receiving information altering at least a portion of the data stored in one of the databases;
determining which portion of the data has been altered from a previous state;
transferring only the altered portion of the data from one of the databases to any of the other databases that have a replica of the unaltered data stored therein at a predetermined time; and
modifying the other databases based on the altered portion of the data.
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Abstract
A system for facilitating the information transfer and processing associated with home construction and home sales. Various discrete software modules are disclosed each handling a specific task associated with home construction and sales. Also, a system for communicating between separate data bases is disclosed wherein separate and distinct sales offices, each having their own data base, may communicate with a parent, market office having its own data base wherein the data bases of the sales offices and the market office are synchronized according to the method of the present invention so that any data updates in any of the sales offices would be automatically updated in the associated market offices. This aspect of the present invention allows a corporation responsible for home construction and sales amongst various regional, market, and sales offices to coordinate a plurality of discretely separate data bases in a way such that they are all synchronized with one another at a predetermined time.
69 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for synchronizing information among a plurality of databases, each of the databases having a replica of data stored in at least one of the other databases, the method comprising:
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receiving information altering at least a portion of the data stored in one of the databases;
determining which portion of the data has been altered from a previous state;
transferring only the altered portion of the data from one of the databases to any of the other databases that have a replica of the unaltered data stored therein at a predetermined time; and
modifying the other databases based on the altered portion of the data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
providing a plurality of modification identification data fields for each data stored in the databases; and
automatically updating the plurality of modification identification data fields for each data when the portion of the data is altered.
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3. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein providing the plurality of modification identification data fields comprises providing a date/time of modification field identifying a date and time of receipt of altering data.
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4. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein determining which portion of the data has been altered further comprises:
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determining a date and time of a previous database synchronization; and
comparing the date and time of the previous database synchronization with the date/time of modification field associated with each of the data.
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5. The method as recited in claim 4 wherein transferring only the altered portion of the data further comprises:
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receiving a confirmation message from the other remote databases to which the altered portion of the data is transferred;
receiving data stored in the other databases that replicates the data stored in the one of the databases and has been altered; and
modifying the data stored in the one of the databases corresponding with the portion of the data altered in the other databases.
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6. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein receiving the confirmation message further comprises updating the date and time of the database synchronization.
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7. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein receiving information further comprises receiving site identification information identifying the location of the one of the databases and wherein receiving data stored in the other databases that has been altered includes receiving altered data that has not been altered at the one of the databases based on the site identification information.
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8. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein modifying the other databases comprises modifying the other databases in chronological order according to the date/time of modification field.
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9. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising creating and appending a unique record identification field to every new record of data that is added to each of the databases prior to receiving information altering at least a portion of the data stored in one of the databases.
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10. The method as recited in claim 9 wherein transferring only the altered portion of the data comprises transferring only the altered portion of the data to the other databases based on the unique record identification field thereby eliminating the need to copy the entire database from the one of the databases for synchronization.
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11. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein transferring only the altered portion of the data further comprises:
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storing the altered data in a redundant database at the one of the databases; and
transferring the redundant database to the other databases; and
wherein modifying the other databases further comprises comparing the altered data in the redundant database with the replica data stored in the other databases.
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12. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein modifying the other databases comprises:
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determining if any of the data has been deleted from one of the databases; and
if so, removing any deleted data from the other databases.
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13. A system for synchronizing information among a plurality of remote databases, each of the databases having a replica of data stored in at least one of the other databases, the system comprising:
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an input device associated with each of the databases for receiving information altering at least a portion of the data stored in one of the databases; and
a central processing unit associated with each of the databases for determining which portion of the data has been altered from a previous state, transferring only the altered portion of the data from one of the databases to any of the other databases that have a replica of the unaltered data stored therein at a predetermined time, and for modifying the data in the other databases based on the altered portion of the data. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification