Patent ID: 7966383

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of accessing metadata across a network, comprising: opening first and second connection paths from first and second clients, respectively, to a data source through a metadata server, wherein opening the first connection path comprises: communicating, via a metadata service proxy of the metadata server, with a metadata service of a backend server to have a metadata service provider created in the backend server, wherein the metadata service provider connects to the data source for the first connection path; dynamically generating a first metadata service provider proxy for the first client at the metadata server for communicating with the data source through the metadata service provider; proxying a first request from the first client for a first subset of data from the data source over the first connection path, wherein the first request is proxied through the first metadata service provider proxy and the metadata service provider of the first connection path; receiving, at the metadata server, metadata from the data source in response to the first request; sending to the first client a first response to the first request including the metadata; during the sending of the first response to the first request, receiving, at the metadata server, a second request from the second client for a second subset of data from the data source over the second connection path; and sending, via the metadata server, the second subset of data from the data source to second client in a second response to the second request.