replication and synchronization

I am *not* a Database person, but I am submitting a question for one who is in our company.

We currently develop a product which uses Oracle 7.3 in Delphi 3 C/S. We are currently two-tier and we want to be able to enable replication of the master database to laptops running Personal Oracle, and have those laptops be able to do normal database operations. Then sometime later be able to synchronize with the master when they dial in.

We have no clue as to how to procede! There seems to be a minimum of information on it.

Can someone please point us in the right direction?

Also, if we were to get replication and synchronization going, in the above scenario, what would happen say to something like parts inventory. Lets say three laptops went out each saying that the inventory on a specific part was 5 items. And all three laptops used up 2 items each thinking there were enough parts on hand. When they came back to synchronize then there would be 6 parts used and only 5 on hand. What could we do to prevent something like this?

I hope I have stated the problem correctly. I am a Delphi programmer not a database programmer (although, I would like to learn more about databases, I just never seem to have the time). Received on Mon Aug 11 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT