Patent ID: 7310634

Claim:
In a computer system that provides access to data described by an eXtensible Markup Language (“XML”) schema, wherein storage for the data is abstracted from an XML data manipulation language for interacting with the data while enabling any of one or more storage mechanisms to be implemented without necessarily requiring corresponding changes to the XML data manipulation language, a method of data access comprising acts of: receiving an initial request to manipulate data of an underlying data store provider, wherein the initial request is structured in accordance with an XML data manipulation language, and wherein the data to manipulate is structured in accordance with a format supported by the data store provider; creating an intermediate representation of the initial request that is suitable for conversion into any of one or more requests supported by any of one or more data store providers; and creating a generic category representation of the intermediate representation of the initial request and thereafter converting the generic category representation into a specific initial native request supported by the data store provider.