Arbitration mechanisms to deal with conflicting applications and user data

A computer readable storage medium having instructions thereon for managing data between different software applications, the instructions comprising:

• identifying a data property conflict between a first application and a second application, wherein the first application and the second application map to a same data property;
• retrieving a first entity category and a second entity category, wherein the first entity category and the second entity category are associated with the same data property;
• determining, via a processor, an arbitration policy to resolve the data property conflict, wherein:
• the arbitration policy is determined by selecting a first entity type in the first entity category having priority over a second entity type in the second entity;
• the arbitration policy specifies that a filestream property has priority over a property native to the first application or the second application;
• the arbitration policy specifies that a first mapping defined in an item schema that contains the first entity category has priority over a second mapping defined in another schema for the first entity category;
• and
• resolving the data property conflict based on the arbitration policy, wherein file system data is provided to a user in a consistent manner when the data property conflict is resolved.

A system for managing data between different software applications, the system comprising:

• a processor for executing computer-executable instructions comprising:
• identifying a data property conflict between a first application and a second application, wherein the first application and the second application map to a same data property;
• retrieving a first entity category and a second entity category, wherein the first entity category and the second entity category are associated with the same data property;
• determining an arbitration policy to resolve the data property conflict, wherein the arbitration policy is determined by selecting a first entity type in the first entity category having priority over a second entity type in the second entity, wherein the arbitration policy specifies that a filestream property has priority over a property native to the first application or the second application, and wherein the arbitration policy further specifies that a first mapping defined in an item schema that contains the first entity type has priority over a second mapping defined in another schema for the first entity type;
• and
• resolving the data property conflict based on the arbitration policy, wherein file system data is provided to a user in a consistent manner when the data property conflict is resolved.