I posted about this a while back, and received no response. I have retested this in 6.5.5, and am still seeing the same behavior. Is it really possible that merge conflicts is broken!? Or am I missing something?
Posted by Dave A Goldberg on 24.Jun.05 at 02:24 PM using a Web browser:
For my product, we rely on replication of personal address books to Domino servers. In our environment, occasionally changes will be made both on the client and at the server. Until now we have relied on the “Merge Conflicts” option on the contact form to avoid unecessary replication conflicts. This worked fine as recently as 6.5.1.
Starting with 6.5.3, we now see that anytime we make a change to the same contact on both the client and the server (but different fields), and then replicate, we get a conflict document. We also see the issue with 6.5.4. This did NOT happen on 6.5.1 (or earlier).
After digging, it looks like the problem is likely caused by a new field being created on the document called “OriginalModTime”. This field is a time field apparently updated on every change. My guess is that since this gets updated on both sides each time the contact changes, replication sees the conflicting field and treats it as a conflict. It doesn’t appear that this field is defined anywhere in the address book template. Instead, it seems like the client itself creates the field. I don’t know that it’s limited to address book databases, that’s just what I’m working with.
Does anyone know any more about this? What is that field for? Is there any way to get Merge Conflicts to work in 6.5.3? Is this a “bug”?
SPR# AMON6DZJRW - Item merging not working correctly in all situations. If conflict handling is set to “Merge Conflicts” in the form’s properties ($ConflictAction will be set to “1” on any document created with this form). If a document has items F1 and F2, and F1 is changed on one replica, and F2 is changed on another replica, then when replication occurs, a merge does not occur, but instead a conflict document is created. This regression was introduced in 6.5.1.
I’d try to reproduce the problem on a new, bare-bones database. If you can reproduce the problem and get it submitted to Lotus Support, I’m guessing it would get addressed very quick – this is a fairly serious issue.
SPR# AML6BES4H - Prior to this fix, we were incorrectly putting the OriginalModTime item on all saved documents, when the router journalling program only needed it for sent mail. This fix, limits the scope of when we put this item on a document to only sent mail documents. This field can be added via the following Notes.ini variable:
SaveOriginalModTime=1 - will always put it on any saved document
SaveOriginalModTime=2 - will never put it on any document
Not set or any other value - will put it on sent mails only
Subject: RE: Merge Conflicts still broken in 6.5.5?
We tried it here with a fresh database and see the problem.- I have looked and I don’t see OriginalModTime in the template anywhere.
I saw the fix you mentioned in the fix database. I had seen that earlier, and it was what prompted me to try 6.5.5 to see if it fixed the problem (and it apparently did not).
-I would agree that it’s a serious issue. I honestly don’t see how they could have fixed any other merge replication issue without running into this one. This is what makes me wonder if I am missing something obvious.
I have submitted the problem, so hopefully I’ll get some kind of answer.
Subject: RE: Merge Conflicts still broken in 6.5.5?
I’m not seeing that field on any of my custom databases when I create documents in 6.5.5. If it’s restricted to NABs then it’s likely a template issue or something specific to just those.
Please do keep us informed, though - I’ll be monitoring this thread. If I get a chance to test it myself I’ll do so and report it to Lotus Support if I find the same thing. The more people that raise their hand with the problem, the faster it tends to get fixed.
I noticed that OriginalModTime started appearing in version 6.5.3 and through version 7.0. It appends the item to any form saved and subsequently to any document saved using the form as well as the UNK table. I have installed 7.0.1 and confirmed that it no longer appends this field to saved forms and documents.