Patent ID: 6487556
Filing Date: 2002-11-26
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for implementing a datastore for a plurality of terminal objects in a data processing system, a terminal object being a generic object to be stored in the datastore, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:determining a relation for a plurality of terminal objects; generating an association object to represent the relation for the plurality of terminal objects, the association object comprising: a data value for an association type corresponding to a type of the relation to be represented for the plurality of terminal objects; a data value for an association state corresponding to a state of the relation to be represented for the plurality of terminal objects; and a role object, for each terminal object being related by the association object, that represents a relation between the association object and a terminal object, the role object comprising a data value of a role type corresponding to a type of the relation to be represented between the associated object and the terminal object, wherein the data value of the role type is unique amongst each role object within the association object; and storing the association object and the plurality of terminal objects on a computer-readable medium.