Patent ID: 8316045

Claim:
A method for linking database table elements across a plurality of databases, comprising: submitting a query to a first database wherein a first data element is specified as the query result and a second data element needed to execute the query is resident in the first database; determining that a table containing the first data element specified in the query is not present in the first database; in response to said determining that a table containing the first data element specified in the query is not present in the first database, sending, by a shim layer component resident in the first database, a message to a second database requesting identification of tables containing data element associations that include the first data element, wherein the first and second databases are disparate and have different database management systems; connecting a data element association across the first and second databases to identify at least one linking path between the first data element and the second data element; selecting one of the linking paths of data element associations to link the first data element and the second data element; and executing the query, wherein the shim layer component resident in the first database communicates with a shim layer component resident in the second database using a communication protocol, wherein the shim layer components resident in the first and second databases create and store topologies containing learned paths between data element associations described in tables in a plurality of databases including the second database, and wherein at least one of the topologies is published within a trusted group of databases for consultation and interlinking by the other shim layer components within the trusted group.