Patent ID: 6915311

Claim:
In a database system wherein a group of users have access to create and edit a plurality of documents stared in the database, a system for periodically clearing the database of stored document replication conflicts comprising: means for designating one document in each pair of a plurality of stored pairs of replication conflicting documents as the main document and the other of said pair as the secondary document; means for storing all documents involved in each of said plurality of pairs of replication conflicting documents; means for defining a prioritized sequence of predetermined attribute values to be applied to distinguish between the stored documents in each of said pairs of replication conflicting documents; and means for automatically periodically applying at predetermined time intervals said sequence of predetermined attribute values to each of said pairs of said plurality of replication conflicting documents to resolve each conflict by eliminating one of the documents in a pair of conflicting documents for insufficient value of a predetermined attribute in said applied sequence of attributes.