Transaction Synchronization Protocol using XML in Client-Server Environment

Abstract

The problem of transaction synchronization is an important task in applications with client-server architecture, especially when both the server and clients are allowed to store data. When clients modify their local database, writing this transaction back to the server and to all other clients requires transaction synchronization. To achieve reliable and efficient transaction synchronization, there is a need for some sort of efficient protocol that can guarantee the synchronization of databases on the server and all clients. During the past decade, XML has become more popular in data transfer as well as in data storage. In this report, a protocol is proposed for transaction synchronization using XML database and XML as a transfer medium between the server and clients. Importantly, this protocol can be used in any type of database with XML as a data transfer medium using some kind of database mapping from any database to XML. The motivation of this protocol came from a client-server banking application that is also discussed in this report. The protocol presented in this report is an improved version of the protocol used in this banking application in terms of efficiency in data transfer. This protocol significantly reduces the cost of data transfer between server and clients, thus increasing efficiency.