Patent ID: 8019787

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of storing information about tree structures, comprising: for each given tree, identifying nodes and relationships between the nodes, each of the identified nodes including one or more parameters; for each parameter of the identified nodes, if more than one node of any of the given tree shares the parameter, then defining a scoping for the parameter to cover all of the nodes to which the parameter is applicable; applying, to each node covered by the defined scoping, one or more scope types having a varying specificity, the varying specificity identifying whether a node, among the nodes covered by the scoping, should be updated depending upon a location of the node in the given tree; assigning each scope type a scope priority value; receiving a query related to the shared parameter for which the scoping is defined; if the shared parameter has more than one parameter value assigned to the nodes covered by the scoping, then determining a parameter value assigned to a node, from among the nodes covered by the scoping, having a highest scope priority value based on the one or more scope types applied to the nodes and the corresponding scope priority value assigned to the one or more scope types; and presenting the determined parameter value with the highest scope priority value in response to the query.