Patent ID: 7310653

Claim:
A computer program product for upgrading a database of objects, comprising a computer-usable medium having embodied therein computer-readable program codes for marking objects in a first database as either modifiable or read-only using a corresponding field in the respective objects, wherein modifiable objects are allowed to be changed during upgrade of the first database, and wherein read-only objects are not allowed to be changed during upgrade of the first database; creating a corresponding integration object for each modifiable object in the first database, wherein each integration object comprises at least those object fields that are allowed to be modified in the corresponding modifiable object, and wherein each integration object is independent of a software vendor-supplied type of the corresponding modifiable object; generating a second database of objects based on objects in the first database; sending a copy of each modifiable object in the first database to the second database; creating in said first database a first snapshot of a first integration object whose corresponding first modifiable object in said first database is to be modified after generation of said second database; sending said first snapshot to said second database; creating in said first database a second snapshot of said first integration object after said first modifiable object has been changed from a version used to generate the second database; sending said second snapshot to said second database; determining a first delta snapshot at said second database identifying differences between said first and said second snapshots; and updating the copy of said first modifiable object in the second database based on the first delta snapshot.