Patent ID: 7730097

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for storing data in a database, the data containing ordinary data and meta data, the method comprising: persisting the meta data in the database as at least a parent and a child object definition, each of said object definitions linked to one or more attribute definitions, each of said object definitions describing a format in which to store ordinary data, wherein each of said object definitions includes an identification and a table name; saving the ordinary data in the database as at least a parent instance storing ordinary data in the format described by the parent object definition and a child instance storing ordinary data in the format described by the child object definition, each of said instances of object definitions linked to one or more instances of attribute definitions, wherein each of said attribute definitions includes an identification and a column name; and storing identifiers of said parent and child object definition and said parent and child instances of said parent and child object in a relationship table in the database, wherein said storing includes storing an identification of a parent object definition and an identification of a parent instance of said parent object definition in a relationship table along with an identification of a child object definition and an identification of a child instance of said child object definition.