Patent ID: 7702689

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at an application at a computer, a query indicator for a query of metamodel data that is hierarchically structured into sets of parent and child nodes and stored in a database accessed by the application via a network connection, the query indicator comprising a type of query and a value to be queried in the metamodel data; performing the query, by the application and based on the query indicator, the performing of the query comprising recursive querying by the application of the sets of parent and child nodes in the metamodel data to identify a set of parent and child nodes in the metamodel data that includes the value, the application continuing to recursively call itself until a first one of the sets of parent and child nodes that includes the value to be queried is identified and ceasing to recursively call itself prior to completion of the recursive querying of all of the sets of parent and child nodes in the metamodel data, the ceasing occurring upon identification of the first one of the sets of parent and child nodes that includes the value to be queried; and providing, as a result, the value to be queried and at least one node from the one of the sets of parent and child nodes identified by the recursive query.