Patent ID: 7383249
Filing Date: 2008-06-03
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method of providing a Spread of Activation, the Spread of Activation used for determining at least one instance in a second class in a customised information system which is related to at least one selected instance in a first class in the customised information system, the method including the steps of: (1) retrieving a pre-defined pathway between the first class and the second class from a join class, wherein the pre-defined pathway retrieved from the join class includes a list, the list including a first class name, being a name of the first class, and a second class name, being a name of the second class; (2) activating the at least one selected instance in the first class to provide an active instance, wherein activating the at least one selected instance is achieved by creating a first temporary instance in a select instance class, and wherein the first temporary instance includes the first class name and a first key for the active instance; (3) using a first relationship rule, from a relationship class, associated with both the first class and a next class in the pathway, to create and execute a first database query used to identify a related instance associated with the next class, whereby the first class name and a next class name, being a name of the next class, are obtained from the list, and the next class not being the second class; (4) activating the related instance in the next class by creating a temporary instance in the select instance class to set the related instance as a new active instance, and wherein the temporary instance includes a key for the new active instance; (5) using a relationship rule, from the relationship class, associated with both the next class and a further next class in the pathway, to create and execute a database query used to identify a further related instance, associated with the further next class, related to the new active instance; (6) activating the further related instance in the further next class by creating a new temporary instance in the select instance class to set the further related instance as the new active instance, and wherein the new temporary instance includes a key for the new active instance; (7) setting: (8) repeating steps (5), (6) and (7) until the further next class is the second class or no further related instances are identified; wherein for an iteration of step (5):