Patent ID: 7979443
Filing Date: 2011-07-12
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of encoding meta-data associated with tree-structured data, the method comprising: associating explicitly a first set of elements of a plurality of elements in the tree-structured data with explicit meta-data levels; associating by inheritance a second set of elements of the plurality of elements in the tree-structured data with explicit meta-data levels of closest ancestor elements of the first set of elements; packing the plurality of elements in the tree-structured data, including the first set of elements and the second set of elements and the meta-data levels associated with the first set of elements and the second set of elements, into a plurality of leaf nodes of an index structure; merging the plurality of leaf nodes of the index structure into a plurality of non-leaf nodes of the index structure until a root non-leaf node is generated; and associating the plurality of non-leaf nodes of the index structure with indicators representing ranges of the explicit meta-data levels in the packed first set of elements, such that explicit meta-data level ranges of descendant non-leaf nodes are subsets of explicit meta-data level ranges of ancestor non-leaf nodes.