Patent ID: 6947950

Claim:
A method for managing a plurality of hierarchies of data containers from a single native hierarchy, each hierarchy including a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to a data container, the method comprising the steps of: for each foreign hierarchy that is not the native hierarchy, registering a set of routines for a set of operations, which routines, when invoked, perform one or more operations of the set of operations on one or more data containers in the hierarchy; wherein the step of registering includes generating a mapping that associates a set of routines with a path to a virtual link that associates a data container in the native hierarchy with a data container in a foreign hierarchy; receiving a user request that indicates a particular operation on a particular data container that corresponds to a node of a first foreign hierarchy; based on the user request, determining a first operation to perform on a first set of one or more data containers of the first foreign hierarchy; selecting, based on the mapping, a first set of routines registered for the first foreign hierarchy; selecting, from the first set of routines, a particular routine that corresponds to the first operation; and invoking the particular routine to operate on the first set of one or more data containers.