Patent ID: 7873649

Claim:
A method for accessing data within a relational database, the method comprising steps of: receiving, at a relational database system that includes a database server and the relational database, a request including a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) wherein the URL includes an Xpath expression, wherein the Xpath expression specifies a particular relational table of the relational database and a particular column, of the particular relational table, that stores target data; the relational database system determining, based at least on the Xpath expression, the particular column of the particular relational table of the relational database that corresponds to the target data; and the relational database system retrieving the target data from the particular column of the particular relational table of the relational database; wherein retrieving the target data includes converting the Xpath expression into a Structured Query Language (SQL) statement that selects data from the particular column of the particular relational table; wherein the method is performed by a computer system programmed to be a special purpose machine pursuant to instructions from program software.