Patent ID: 6853997

Claim:
A method for sharing data between a relational database and a hierarchical database, comprising: defining a hierarchical data entity including a plurality of simple and compound elements, comprising: identifying an entity path and mapped fields in each simple element; and identifying an entity path, a database name, a database command, and database fields in each compound element; mapping each of the plurality of elements in the hierarchical data entity to information in a relational dataset contained in a relational database, comprising: for each compound element, specifying a data source, specifying a database command, executing the database command, receiving database field names from the relational database, and adding the database field names to the compound element; for each simple element, selecting a database field name in a parent element corresponding to the simple element, and specifying a data transformation algorithm associated with the simple element; transforming the relational dataset information into corresponding mapped elements in the hierarchical data entity to form a hierarchical data structure; and accessing data from the hierarchical data structure corresponding to the relational dataset information in the relational database.