Apple Patent – Electronic Backup of Application

Patent has been granted to Apple on Electronic Backup of Applications No.US 20140059469 A1. The disclosed implementation is related to storing and restoring of digital data.

Updated graphical user interfaces enables a huge number of graphical items or objects which can be viewed on a display screen at the same time and operating systems like Apple Mac OS offer user interfaces wherein a number of graphical user interface window are resized, viewed, overlapped, configured, moved and reformatted as per the requirements of the user or a certain application. Menus, taskbars, virtual buttons together with other user interface elements offer mechanisms to access and activate windows while they are hidden behind other windows.

With the availability of sophisticated tools, users can now revise or improve over a period of time, besides creating and saving a variety of items in their computers. For instance, a user working with a particular file who later on would want to save the file’s current version on a storage device and then, the following day inclined to change his mind about the revision or probably come up with other options and then open the file again.

Word Processing Application Program – Undo Features

The revision process is straightforward if the user tends to do more addition of material to the file or make certain changes to the existing file.

It would be difficult if the user who had second thoughts about changes which were previously done and would need the file back to its previous version. For word processing, application program enables the user to `undo’ the earlier edits of text to a predefined number of past revisions and the undo feature is usually configured in order that the previous revisions can be undone in reverse chronological order, which means that the user should first undo the recently edited text then the second edited text and so on.

Should the user save and exit from the document and later on open the said document again, the same may not be possible to automatically undo the previous edited text.

Methods/Systems – Storing/Restoring Digital Data

Methods and systems are provided for the purpose of storing and restoring of digital data which includes receiving a first user input requesting that a history view connected with the prevailing view of the application is displayed, retrieve data connected with the history view, to determine a presentation format for the data as well as display the history view in response to the first user input with the presentation format, of earlier version of the present display of application.

All this can be done while a current view of an application is displayed in user interface. Other embodiments with regards to this aspect would include corresponding systems, computer program, products, and apparatus together with computer readable media. The patent helps in the history view including consolidated data associated with at least a first visual representation of the previous  versions of the latest view of the user application.

In one aspect, a method is provided which includes identifying of application data to store during an initial backup operation which includes a variety of application files and index, storing of application data during the first backup operation as well as storing a backup index which is a subset of the index.

The aspect also include initiating a second backup operation which includes storing changed application data related to the first backup operation as well as updating the backup index which can be an email application.