Patent ID: 8392369

Claim:
In a computing environment, a method of providing synchronization of data entities, the method comprising: at an application, receiving user input modifying a plurality of data entities; storing on a non-volatile storage medium a serialized heterogeneous representation of the modified data entities; uploading the serialized heterogeneous representation to a synchronization service; receiving an upload response from the synchronization service, wherein the upload response comprises an anchor affiliated with the synchronization service and correlated to the serialized heterogeneous representation of the modified data entities, wherein the anchor is a reference point indicating time or relative order, and information about conflicts between entities at the synchronization service and entities in the uploaded serialized heterogeneous representation including current versions of the entities as the current versions of the entities exist in the service and entities that lost a conflict resolution or failed to apply as a result of errors; and retrieving and storing the current entities from the conflict information in an upload response file along with the anchor affiliated with the synchronization service.