Patent ID: 7499928

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform steps comprising: detect a selection of a node in a hierarchical data structure; determine whether the node is a significant node by determining whether the node has a corresponding mapping that describes how to obtain additional information, the mapping including metadata describing how to obtain a location of exposed data objects in a data source; responsive to determining that the node is a significant node: transform the significant node based on the mapping into a format suitable for retrieving the additional information related to the significant node from the data source, wherein the format suitable for retrieving the additional information includes a metadata context and at least one item of data from the hierarchical data structure that describe the location of the exposed data objects in the data source; and obtain the exposed data objects from the data source based on the transformed significant node in the format suitable for retrieving the additional information related to the significant node.