Synchronization of metadata

A system for field-level synchronization of metadata records for a plurality of applications running in a broadcast or content delivery platform, the metadata records describing at least one of a material asset or a logical content asset, the system comprising:

• memory for storing computer executable instructions;
• and
• a processing unit for accessing the memory and executing the computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions comprising:
• a matching engine programmed to detect an occurrence of a match between a metadata record received from a first application of the plurality of applications and a corresponding master metadata record stored in a master database based on a first set of content administration rules, wherein each of the metadata record received from the first application and the master metadata record comprises a plurality of metadata fields;
• a rules engine that is programmed to control updating metadata fields of the corresponding master metadata record based on an application of a second set of content administration rules to at least a substantial portion of metadata fields of the metadata record received from the first application, the matching engine providing the rules engine with the at least a substantial portion of the metadata fields of the metadata record received from the first application in response to detecting the occurrence of a match;
• and
• wherein the second set of content administration rules comprises:
• precedence rules that define a ranking among the plurality of applications for each of a plurality of metadata fields of a given metadata record of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, the rules engine applying the precedence rules determine if a given metadata field in the metadata record from the first application has priority to overwrite a corresponding metadata field in a corresponding metadata record in the master database that has been set by another of the plurality of applications in the system;
• and
• ownership rules that define which of the plurality of applications is an owner of each respective metadata field of the plurality of metadata fields for a given metadata record of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, wherein at least two different applications of the plurality of applications are owners of different metadata fields of the plurality of metadata fields for the given metadata record, the rules engine applying the ownership rules determine if the first application has authority to modify the corresponding metadata field in the corresponding metadata record in the master database, the master database being updated depending on application of the precedence rules and the ownership rules by the rules engine;
• and
• an update component programmed to publish updates in metadata records to at least some of the plurality of applications for field-level synchronization according to updates made to the corresponding master metadata record in the master database, such that at least one of the plurality of applications represents field-level information in at least one metadata field differently from the master database.

A method for synchronizing fields of metadata records, each metadata record describes associated data residing in at least two applications and in a master database, the method comprising:

• receiving at a synchronization system executing on a computer system, from a first application, a message that includes at least one metadata record comprising plurality of metadata fields;
• in response to matching the at least one metadata record with a corresponding master record from the master database stored in memory, applying a set of content administration rules to control selectively updating metadata fields in the corresponding master record, wherein the content administration rules comprise:
• precedence rules that define a ranking among the at least two applications for each of a plurality of metadata fields of a given metadata record of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, the precedence rules being applied to determine if a given metadata field in the metadata record from the first application has priority to overwrite a corresponding metadata field in a corresponding metadata record in the master database that has been set by another of the at least two applications in the system;
• and
• ownership rules that define which of the plurality of applications is an owner of each respective metadata field of the plurality of metadata fields for a given metadata record of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, wherein the at least two different applications are owners of different metadata fields of the plurality of metadata fields for the given metadata record, the ownership rules being applied determine if the first application has authority to modify the corresponding metadata field in the corresponding metadata record in the master database, the master database being updated depending on application of the precedence rules and the ownership rules by the rules engine;
• and
• publishing changes in the corresponding master record to at least one other application according to applicability rules defined for the at least one other application, such that in response to the publishing, the at least one other application represents information in at least one metadata field of the corresponding master record differently from the master database.