Patent ID: 8315996

Claim:
A method for configuring an application instance, the method comprising: determining a first path in a hierarchical file system, the hierarchical file system including a plurality of directories, wherein the application instance is configured to access a version of a resource via the first path; determining whether a configuration associated with the application instance exists in a shared resource area; if the configuration does not exist, modifying a base version of the resource to generate a customized version of the resource, determining a second path in the hierarchical file system, and storing the customized version of the resource in the shared resource area such that the customized version of the resource can be accessed via the second path, wherein the second path includes a directory, the configuration has an identity and the second path is dependent of the identity of the configuration, the directory having a name based on the identity of the configuration; if the configuration exists, determining the second path such that the resource included in the configuration can be accessed via the second path; and creating a symbolic link having an origin of the first path and a destination of the second path, the symbolic link linking a first file in a directory of a file system to a second file in the file system such that a request to access the first file results in accessing the second file instead of the first file, wherein the second file is the customized version of the resource located at the second path.