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# External Applications

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In many cases, your TopLink application is not the only application that can update to the database. External, non-TopLink applications, can also update the database at any time.

In this case, your TopLink application must use the `ObjectLevelReadQuery` method `refreshIdentityMapResult` (see "Refreshing the Cache") or `Descriptor` methods `alwaysRefreshCache` and `disableCacheHits` (see "Configuring Cache Refreshing").

For more information, see "Managing Cache Access".

If the external application can update a version field in the database, your TopLink application could use `alwaysRefreshCache` in conjunction with `Descriptor` method `onlyRefreshCacheIfNewerVersion` to ensure that refresh operations are performed only when required. Another, recommended way to achieve this, is to use the descriptor isolated cache option (see "Cache Isolation"), as well as cache invalidation (see "Cache Invalidation").