UI State Preservation During Asynchronous Record Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Search databases in enterprise systems often provide stale data due to periodic indexing, leading to discrepancies between record databases and search databases, which can result in user confusion and an unpleasant experience when changes made by users are not reflected in the user interface.
Innovation Solution
A user interface mechanism that tracks record identifiers for changed records and sends them to an application server, which performs queries to both search and record databases to ensure data accuracy by merging results from both sources, replacing outdated search database records with updated record database records.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If search database is updated periodically through indexing, then search query efficiency is improved, but data freshness deteriorates causing stale data to be displayed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by tracking record identifiers that have changed in the record database before the periodic search database indexing occurs. When a user performs a data lookup, the system proactively checks the record database for any changes to the records that would have been returned by the search database, and pre-prepares updated results to ensure data freshness is maintained without requiring a full re-indexing of the search database.
2Reliability
If search database is updated frequently to maintain data freshness, then data accuracy is improved, but system complexity and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the specific record identifiers that have changed from the record database, rather than updating the entire search database. This selective extraction approach maintains data accuracy for changed records while avoiding the complexity and resource consumption of frequent full database re-indexing. The change tracking mechanism isolates and handles only the necessary updates.
3Ease of operation
If search database is updated frequently to reflect user changes, then user experience is improved, but loss of time for synchronization increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs partial updates by only synchronizing the specific records that have changed, rather than performing excessive full database synchronization. This partial action approach ensures user experience is improved by reflecting changes promptly, while minimizing synchronization time by handling only the necessary subset of records that require updates.
Data Source
AI summary
A records request from a search database can result in a set of records displayed at a device, when one or more records are updated at a record database, record identifiers are maintained at the device. Another records request provides the record identifiers. A search is provided based on the records request and point reads are performed on the record database based on the record identifiers. The results may be combined to remove stale data provided by the search database and use the point reads data. The combination records may be provided to the device for updating the display of the device to reflect the updated records while the search database is not yet up to date.