Patent ID: 7962497

Claim:
A computer-implemented relationship system comprising the following computer-executable components: a processor; system memory; an item receiver component that obtains two or more programmatic items, wherein the programmatic items are of two different formats, wherein at least one of the programmatic items is of a newer format that includes data not permitted by the data items of a different, older format; a relationship generation component that receives items from the receiver component and generates a construct external to the items that defines one or more relationships between the items, wherein the relationships are represented by a static class that provides one or more static methods that allow for navigation between items using the relationship represented by the static class and wherein the relationship generation component generates the relationships between the items without modifying the items, the relationships comprising at least two of the following associations: a reference association which comprises a primary-key or foreign-key relationship, a common value association in which a common value is shared across two or more of the items, a condition association in which the relationship is expressed by query criteria and an entity association which comprises n-end points around at least one of the items such that the item acts as a hub to one or more other items via one or more other associations, wherein the relationship generated between the newer format item and the older format item allows data previously not permitted to be stored with the older format data item to be stored by the older format data item; a navigation component that navigates the items using the relationship represented by the static class from a collection of class instances, wherein the relationships are accessed using a simplified expression and a mapping stored in metadata, wherein the mapping links to a corresponding verbose expression; and an influence component to generate item specific names for relationships, the influence component includes an artificial intelligence component to infer relationship names based on names of related elements, and aids the relationship generation component by receiving and providing a naming scheme driven by external metadata information.