Patent ID: 7206794

Claim:
A method for providing a data object locking service in a computer system, the method comprising: receiving, with a lock service module, a request from a first data processing module to set one or more logical locks on one or more data objects to limit access of further data processing modules to the one or more data objects; automatically selecting, with the lock service module, whether a) the logical locks on the data objects are to be set when changes of the data objects are requested, or b) the logical locks on the data objects are to be set when the first or each further data processing module is started, or c) no logical locks are to be set on said data objects; in case a selection is made according to a) or b), trying, with the lock service module, to set logical locks on the one or more data objects according to the selection and sending a message on the success or failure of logically locking the data objects to the first data processing module; in case a selection is made according to c), sending, with the lock service module, a corresponding message to the first data processing module; in case a) or b), processing the successfully locked data objects with the one data processing module; in case c), processing all data objects with the first data processing module; when updating the data objects in a database, a database management system performs the locking of the data objects in the database; and storing a list on a computer-readable medium indicating which, if any, of the data objects are locked.