Patent ID: 7730073

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for presenting related items in a universal data storage device to a user, the method comprising: accepting a user input representing a selection to view items in the universal data storage device which are related to a selected item; accessing data in said universal data storage device, wherein said universal data storage device stores a plurality of items in accordance with a universal data schema, and wherein at least a portion of said plurality of items contain relational information which allows relationships between said plurality of items to be determined, wherein said relational information corresponding to the selected item includes a set of item characteristics associated with the selected item and wherein said user input represents a selection to view one or more items in the universal data storage device which share one of said set of item characteristics with the selected item; utilizing said relational information to determine a relationship between a selected item and one or more of the items containing said relational information in the data storage device, wherein said relationship has a relationship type; and displaying said selected item and one or more related items to the user, wherein said displaying includes presenting the displayed items with a shell view schema, wherein said displaying further includes presenting one or more item decorations defined by at least a portion of the displayed items, wherein conflicts between said shell view schema and said one or more item decorations are resolved in favor of said shell view schema such that the selected item and one or more related items are displayed using only said shell view schema and without said one or more item decorations defined by the displayed items.