Patent ID: 7099896

Claim:
A method of synchronizing data between a repository and handheld devices, comprising the steps of, in a synchronization server: receiving repository data objects; maintaining a repository version identifier for each repository data object; converting the repository data objects into interim data objects and then converting the interim data objects into handheld data objects suitable for sending to the handheld devices; maintaining a version identifier for each converted handheld data object, the version identifiers being derived from the repository version identifiers of the repository data objects from which the handheld data objects were converted; sending handheld data objects to the handheld devices; maintaining a handheld version identifier for each handheld data object sent to a handheld device; receiving a synchronization request on the synchronization server; identifying one or more handheld data objects and corresponding repository data objects in the repository for synchronization; checking version identifiers of the data objects to be synchronized; determining handheld data objects that need to be updated based on a comparison of the version identifiers; sending the determined handheld data objects, updated from repository data objects, to the handheld device; and updating the version identifiers of the updated handheld data objects.