Abstract: A method and apparatus detects that when properties are changed within an entry a changed property is not defaulted by another changed property. The present invention determines what properties in the data have been changed. The present invention accesses a database to obtain the defaulting definitions for the properties that were changed. Then the present invention identifies, within each defaulting definition for a changed property, properties that it is dependent upon that are also being changed by the data. A defaulting table is generated based upon the defaulting definitions for the changed properties, and the defaulting logic is executed based on this table.

Abstract: A metadata driven system for allowing various applications to extract metadata information about an application provides a method of storing metadata about the application, an apparatus for extracting metadata information about the application and an apparatus for converting the metadata information about the application into a form usable by the various applications. The metadata driven system allows updates made to the application to be conveyed to one or more of the other applications using metadata. Any of the various applications extracting the metadata information of the application may be connected to the application via a communication network, such as the Internet. An implementation of the metadata driven system allows an online help system to extract metadata information about the application and to use the metadata information to provide online help related to the application.

Abstract: Methods and data structures for the management of a data entity during an entity lifecycle. An entity having a property and at least one operation having a property characteristic are defined. The operation may be performed on the property according to the characteristic. An entity lifecycle having the at least one operation is created, and a user interface is rendered according to the operation.