Patent ID: 7991737
Filing Date: 2011-08-02
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method in an application server for identifying records of database tables, the application server interfacing with a database server that persistently stores the records of the database tables and interfacing with one or more clients, the method comprising: receiving from the database server records of database tables, each database table having fields with field names and field values, one or more of the fields of each database table being a key field such that field values of key fields of a record of a database table uniquely identify the record within the database table; storing locally at the application server the received records in locally stored database tables; generating a record bookmark for each received record, the record bookmark containing a table identifier of the database table and a record identifier of the received record derived from the field values of the key fields of the received record such that a record bookmark uniquely identifies a database table and the received record within the database table and such that a record bookmark is changed when a field value of a key field of the received record changes; sending to clients record bookmarks and field values of fields of the received records, the record bookmarks being opaque to the clients; receiving from a client a request to modify a record of a database table, the request including a record bookmark of the record to be modified and a new field value for a field of the record; identifying a database table and a received record from the table identifier and the record identifier of the record bookmark; performing the requested modification to the locally stored identified record of the identified database table; and when the requested modification results in a change to a field value of a key field of the identified record, sending to the database server a request to modify the identified record of the identified database table, the request including a field value of a field of the record without sending the record bookmark wherein the client identifies a record of a database table using the record bookmark received from the application server and does not need to be aware of the key fields of the database tables of the database and wherein a request received from the client need not include field values of all key fields of a record to be modified.