Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure improve the functionality of electronic messaging systems by enabling users in an electronic chat conversation to run applications together. In some embodiments, when one user in a chat launches an application, an icon or other visual representation of the application appears in a portion of the chat window (e.g., in a “chat dock”) for other users in the chat to access.

Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure improve the functionality of electronic messaging systems by enabling users in an electronic chat conversation to run applications together. In some embodiments, when one user in a chat launches an application, an icon or other visual representation of the application appears in a portion of the chat window (e.g., in a “chat dock”) for other users in the chat to access.

Enterprise administrators in a cloud-based environment including a cloud-based server and a repository can selectively impose permissions on items (e.g., files and folders) marked for synchronization (“sync items”). The sync items can be synchronized with the client devices of users by downloading the items along with the permission attributes from the cloud-based server. However, the permissions on those sync items means that any unpermitted changes to the local copies of the sync items do not get uploaded to the cloud-based server. A synchronization client on the client devices detects any changes made locally to the sync items that are not consistent with the permission attributes, and repairs those changes so that the sync items are restored to their most recent states. This ensures that any unauthorized changes made to sync items remain local and do not propagate by the synchronization process to other users.

The present application discloses a data transmission method and system. A specific embodiment of the method includes: receiving a data transmission-instruction by a data sender, wherein the data transmission-instruction includes a thematic name indicative of a type of to-be-transmitted data required by a data receiver; creating a shared memory segment corresponding to the thematic name. It makes possible for the data sender and the data receiver to run in a separate memory space. When data is needed to be transmitted, a corresponding shared memory segment may be created for data transmission in accordance with any transmitting requirement, and the shared memory segment may be released when the transmission is done or appears abnormal. On one hand, it reduces the redundant operations of the data transmission system during data transmission, and improves the data transmission performance; on the other hand, the data transmitting procedure between the data sender and the data receiver, and other operations executed by the data sender or the data receiver are independent of each other, which improves the stability of the data transmission system.

An embodiment may involve: transmitting, by a non-production computational instance and to a central computational system, a configuration for a service provided by the central computational system, wherein the non-production computational instance is arranged to test the configuration; appending, to the configuration at the non-production computational instance, a synchronization identifier to indicate that the configuration has been synchronized with the central computational system; receiving, by a production computational instance and from the non-production computational instance, a copy of the configuration; reading, by the production computational instance, the synchronization identifier from the copy of the configuration; determining that the synchronization identifier is not reflected as part of a synchronization history maintained at the production computational instance; and, in response to determining that the synchronization identifier is not reflected in the synchronization history, transmitting, by the production computational instance, the copy of the configuration to the central computational system.

An embodiment may involve: transmitting, by a non-production computational instance and to a central computational system, a configuration for a service provided by the central computational system, wherein the non-production computational instance is arranged to test the configuration; appending, to the configuration at the non-production computational instance, a synchronization identifier to indicate that the configuration has been synchronized with the central computational system; receiving, by a production computational instance and from the non-production computational instance, a copy of the configuration; reading, by the production computational instance, the synchronization identifier from the copy of the configuration; determining that the synchronization identifier is not reflected as part of a synchronization history maintained at the production computational instance; and, in response to determining that the synchronization identifier is not reflected in the synchronization history, transmitting, by the production computational instance, the copy of the configuration to the central computational system.

A method for execution by one or more computing devices of a storage network includes identifying a storage unit of a set of storage units for testing, where a data segment of data is error encoded into a set of encoded data slices that is stored in the set of storage units. The method further includes determining whether a threshold number of favorably performing other storage units of the set of storage units will be available during the testing. When the threshold number of favorably performing other storage units will be available, the method further includes initiating the testing of the storage unit and setting a status of the storage unit to unavailable. When the testing has been completed, the method further includes updating the status of the storage unit to available. The method further includes generating a testing report regarding the testing of the storage unit.

A computer system includes a first server including a first data management module and a second server including a second data management module, and a first and second storage controller. The first and second storage controllers are interconnected by a network configured for reliable data multicasting. The computer system further includes a cross system manager for controlling one or more core storage functions on each of the first and second storage controllers. The computer system further includes computer program instructions to, responsive to a core storage function triggered by the cross system manager: Create a multicast group for each of the first server and the second server in the network, wherein the multicast group is created by a reliable multicast mechanism, and Multicast data write operations of each of the first server and the second server to the first storage controller and the second storage controller of the multicast group.

Techniques disclosed herein provide a messaging protocol for a distributed system. In one embodiment, each message constructed according to the messaging protocol includes a field for a list of globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) of nodes that should not reply to the message. A new node joining the system sends a message requesting system state information and including an empty GUID list, indicating that all nodes receiving the message should reply. In normal operation, the system's state information is synchronized among all nodes at regular intervals by exchanging messages indicating local state changes at each node, and including GUID list fields specifying all other nodes' GUIDs so that no nodes reply. A node which identifies messages that should have been received from another node but are missing transmits a message requesting the missing messages, with a GUID list including all nodes other than the other node that sent the missing messages.

A method and system for selecting servers for storage of replicas of a block of data is provided. The system selects a first server for storage of the data. The first server has a first processor utilization classification and a first reimaging rate classification. The system then selects a second server for storage of the data. The second server has a second processor utilization classification and a second reimaging rate classification. The system selects the second server so that the second processor utilization classification is different from the first processor utilization classification and the second reimaging rate classification is different from the first reimaging rate classification.