Patent ID: 7676486

Claim:
A method for integrating legacy data into a content management system computer, comprising: analyzing a set of legacy data residing in a legacy data repository on a persistent data source computer connected to said content management system computer over a network; generating a set of content types to represent the set of legacy data in the content management system based on the analysis of the legacy data, wherein at least one of said set of content types is defined by a user through a graphical user interface of a client computer connected to said content management system computer over said network, wherein one of the content types comprises a policy annotation, and wherein the policy annotation comprises management information for putting content instance objects created from the content type through a workflow associated with the content type; saving the set of content types in a memory of said content management system computer; generating a set of content type objects corresponding to the set of content types, wherein a content type object is an instantiation of a content type embodied in the content management system; generating a set of content instance objects from the content type objects, wherein each content instance object is an instantiation of a content instance and is associated with a content type object or a content type; associating each of the set of legacy data with at least one of the content instance objects, wherein at least one of the content instance objects is associated with two or more datum of the set of legacy data, each of the datum residing in a distinct data storage device on said network; and managing the set of legacy data residing in the legacy data repository on said persistent data source computer using the content instance objects generated by the content management system computer, wherein the two or more datum are managed by said content management system over said network as a single entity using the at least one content instance object.