Patent ID: 7870150
Filing Date: 2011-01-11
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computer system comprising a storage medium, said storage medium comprising a database stored therein, said database comprising a plurality of tables, said plurality of tables being stored in the storage medium of the computer system, each table comprising at least one column and at least one row, said plurality of tables describing a plurality of components of a hierarchy in which hierarchical relationships between components of the hierarchy are defined, said plurality of tables comprising: a component table encompassing the plurality of components of the hierarchy, wherein the hierarchy has a level structure consisting of a top level and a plurality of levels below the top level, wherein the plurality of levels comprises a first level directly below the top level and a second level directly below the first level, wherein the top level includes a top-level root component of the plurality of components, wherein each level the plurality of levels includes at least one component of the plurality of components, wherein the plurality of components encompass all components of the hierarchy at all levels of the hierarchy, wherein the component table is a self-referential table that describes the hierarchy, wherein each row of the component table is specific to a unique component of the plurality of components, wherein the components of the hierarchy encompass a plurality of component types, wherein the at least one column of the component table comprises a component_id column that identifies each component and is a primary key for the component table, a parent_id column serving as a foreign key pointing to the component_id of a parent component of each component except the top-level root component, and a type_name column that specifies a component type of each component, and wherein each column of the component table is configured to be edited by a user through use of a worksheet; and a plurality of component-specific tables, wherein each component-specific table encompasses only components of the hierarchy such that each component has a component type that is a specific component type, wherein the at least one column of each component-specific table comprises a component_id column and a component information column, wherein the component_id column of each component-specific table identifies each component in each component-specific table, is a primary key for each component-specific table, and is a foreign key pointing to a corresponding component in the component table, and wherein the component information column of each component-specific table comprises a description or content of each component in each component-specific table.