Patent ID: 7260579

Claim:
A method of accessing data within a research system by an application external to an electronic system comprising the steps of: a. formatting a searchable database within the research system into a directory tree structure, wherein the directory tree structure includes nodes comprising related data and branches comprising links between the nodes, wherein each related item of data is categorized by a navigation path through the directory tree structure and by one or more parameters, each parameter is set with a corresponding value associated with the data item thereby forming a set parameter, wherein the parameters are specific to the node in which the related data is included; and b. an external application different than the research system accessing one or more nodes within the directory tree structure and obtaining data from the one or more nodes by utilizing an applications programming interface (API) associated with the research system, wherein the external application formats a query language string using the API such that the formatted query language string is used directly by the research system to access the directory tree structure and obtain data from the searchable database specified by the query language string, further wherein the query language string is a command string written according to a query language, wherein accessing one or more nodes is performed utilizing a research module, further wherein the research module includes a keyword search, a hierarchical search, a dichotomous key search, and a parametric search, and further wherein each utilization of the research module includes availability of each search at any location, including at any displayed page, within the searchable database, wherein the keyword search, the hierarchical search, the dichotomous key search, and the parametric search are available at any displayed page within the searchable database without requiring user input.