Patent ID: 7363322

Claim:
A method for providing reliable notification of the implementation of high-level document commands to client applications that do not affect the implementation of the high-level document commands within a database management system that includes an operating system, a database and a database engine that receives and implements the high-level document commands, wherein the method is performed in such a way that the notification is enabled to survive failures of the database engine and client applications, the method comprising: receiving at a client application, notification of the implementation of one or more high-level document commands by a database engine, wherein the notification is generated by the database management system in response to the database engine implementing the one or more high-level document commands, wherein the notification is issued to the client application which does not affect the implementation of the high-level document command, the notification being issued subsequent to creating an entry in a persistently stored notification table to reflect implementation of the one or more high-level document commands by the database engine; upon receiving the notification, the client application sending acknowledgment of the notification to the database management system, wherein the client application only sends acknowledgement of the notification to the database management system upon first performing actions corresponding to the implementation of the one or more high-level document commands, and such that the database management system only receives acknowledgement of the notification upon the client application first performing said actions; and wherein the notification table is updated by the database management system, upon receiving the acknowledgement of the notification from the client application, to indicate that the client application no longer needs to be sent the notification after the acknowledgment is received by the database management system, and such that the notification is enabled to survive failures of the database engine and client applications.