Designing Synchronized Applications
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Design Guidelines

The user in a distributed application does not resolve conflicts in real time. Because of this, the following guidelines may be useful when designing an application:

  • Include source work unit logic to automatically handle cases that, in an interactive environment, would prompt the user.
  • Store information in the database on the status of each update so that someone can later decide how to handle the consequences of the update.
  • Make sure that any order status information (e.g., filled, back-ordered, or rejected) is in the publication and is therefore copied to the target. After the target refreshes, the target application can see this status information by querying the appropriate table.

In short, a typical Cloudscape synchronization application should perform the following steps at a target:

  1. Apply changes at the target by issuing work units.
  2. Issue a refresh to synchronize target and source.
  3. Look at the synchronized target for the status of the changes applied in step 1.