Synchronization only applies to clients that support offline use (ClayStation, ClayOutlook, ClayIntegrator) and which have the offline option on. This topic deals with various synchronization problems and cases where the offline database may not match the online database.

Note that synchronization is always based on deltas and dates. I.e. only items that have been modified since the last synchronization date are transferred and synchronized. This is one of the many reasons why changes should never be made to the database directly.

While the synchronization is running, a Digital-Clay progress bar is shown. If a synchronization is interrupted, the offline database may not be up-to-date. This may happen due to one of the following reasons:

• A disconnection while synchronizing
• An error message box or a crash while synchronizing
• An error due to changes to custom fields and tables while synchronizing
• If the client was closed before the synchronization window closed

In all these cases, a manual synchronization (Tools/Synchronize) should correct any discrepancies by simply selecting the last known successful synchronization date.

ClayStation and ClayStation for Outlook (but not ClayIntegrator) both maintain a separate offline database per Digital-Clay user. This is because each user may have different permissions or settings and therefore his offline database will only contain data that is visible to that user.

This means that there may be different data offline if you switch to a different username, or if you work offline and then go online using a different username.

The synchronization behaves differently depending on whether this is the first time the user is synchronizing:

During the first synchronization, ClayCentral by default only sends active and open records. I.e. a user will only have active Tasks, open Opportunities, active Contacts, etc. in his offline database. This is by design for two reasons:

1. Inactive records are typically not meant to be used. I.e. inactive means they are archived or used for analysis data only.
2. To avoid cases where the user's client would synchronize tens of thousands of inactive tasks/opportunities from the past.

If inactive records are needed offline:

• A manual synchronization (Tools/Synchronize) will also retrieve inactive records. It is recommended that you select the specific table for which inactive records are needed instead of synchronizing all tables.
• A future version will address this by allowing the administrator to configure synchronization settings.

During all subsequent synchronizations after the first, all changes are retrieved, including records that are made inactive, changes to inactive records, and deleted records.

Since Validation is part of Automation, it only works while connected to ClayCentral. This means that, while offline, a user can:

• Make changes or add records that do not pass validation rules.
• In ClayOutlook, add records with missing values in required fields.

However, as soon as the user logs in, ClayCentral will reject all records that do not pass Validation rules or have missing required values. The user will get an active list of records that were not updated/added and which need correction.

If these are not corrected, they will remain in the offline database but not appear online. To correct this situation, either a manual synchronization can be run to popup the validation errors form again and correct the records, or the records may be deleted while offline.

There are two types of scenarios where changes affect the visibility of records:

1. A record change. For example, a Customer may be assigned to someone else which then becomes invisible to the former assignee due to security permissions. In this case, the synchronization is smart enough to detect the change and the client deletes the record from its offline database.

Note that even though the user may not be able to view the new record, he may have had permissions in the past during which he made a change while offline, or he may have permission to change without read permissions. In both cases, any changes he is allowed to make will be synchronized, or ClayCentral will ignore any changes made while offline for which he currently doesn't have permissions.

2. Changes to permissions. This includes changes to security permissions themselves or changing the role of a user. In this case, a user may have records in his offline database for which he had read permissions in the past. If this is an issue, then after changing the user's permissions, all of his offline databases must be deleted (in c:\DigitalClay\<Client>) and re-synchronized.