Patent ID: 7206796

Claim:
A method for initializing a database system having one client computer and a server computer, comprising: determining if the server computer contains a database; copying a client computer database to the server computer, if the server computer does not contain a database; synchronizing the client computer database with the server computer database if the server computer contains a database, wherein synchronizing the client computer database with the server computer database includes: receiving, at the client computer, synchronization data from the server computer; updating the entire client computer database with the server computer database if the synchronization data includes the server computer database; and updating selective client computer database data objects, if the synchronization data only includes corresponding selective server data objects; in response to receiving a user-generated command, configuring the database for: storage only on the client computer; storage on both the client computer and the server computer; deleting the server computer database if the server computer contains a database and if the user-generated command dictates that a database only be stored on the client computer; determining if the client computer database last server access time is within a predetermined period of time from a clock time maintained by the server computer; and downloading the server computer database to the client computer, if the client computer database last server access time is not within a predetermined period of time from a clock time maintained by the server computer.