Patent ID: 8306990

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors; data storage coupled to the one or more processors and having recorded thereon a plurality of data elements contained in a relational database structure and organized in a hierarchical data tree; wherein the elements represent files, folders, or Internet web pages; memory coupled to the one or more processors and having recorded therein one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the one or more processors to perform: receiving a network location identifier from a client computer, wherein the network location identifier is a uniform resource locator (URL) having at least a portion that specifies a plurality of identifiers of nodes associated with a first view of the data tree; creating a relational database query that includes the plurality of identifiers of nodes associated with the first view of the data tree and submitting the query to a relational database; receiving from the relational database a set of data elements that is associated with the first view; generating a first electronic document comprising the set of data elements, including generating transformative links to other network location identifiers corresponding to performing actions on nodes in the data tree; wherein a transformative link is an opening link or a closing link; providing the first electronic document to the client computer.