1. A method for maintaining persistence in a shared object system, comprising: receiving a request to update a persistent record of a shared object's state wherein the persistent record of the shared object's state is contained in a database; dynamically generating at least one SQL statement in response to the request, the SQL statement generated using a data structure comprising data reflecting at least a portion of the state of the shared object and a map comprising a plurality of entries, each entry associating an attribute of the shared object with the location of that attribute in the database; and sending the SQL statement to the database.