Systems and methods are disclosed for minimizing database accesses in an object-oriented system. The disclosed systems and methods may involve opening an object in a buffer, wherein the buffer is operative to store both an active version of the object comprising active content and an inactive version of the object comprising the active content modified by one or more inactive requests. An activation manager may be operative to determine whether the one or more inactive requests are consistent with an applicable object model. Because the buffer stores is operative to store both an active version and an inactive version of the object, it may implement commands to change the object between the inactive and active states without accessing the database. Upon receiving a flush command, the buffer may also be operative to make any version of the object stored in the buffer at that time—whether active, inactive, or both—persistent on the database.