Patent ID: 8326839

Claim:
A computer-executed method for resolving a path expression to a node in a hierarchy of resources comprising: determining whether information corresponding to the path expression is stored at a session-level hash table; in response to determining that information corresponding to the path expression is not stored at the session-level hash table: identifying first information, stored in a first hash table, based, at least in part, on a first segment of a plurality of segments in the path expression, wherein the first segment refers to a particular container resource in the hierarchy of resources, wherein the first information includes a resource identifier for the particular container resource and a pointer to a second hash table, and identifying second information, stored in the second hash table, based, at least in part, on a second segment of the plurality of segments in the path expression; wherein the first and second hash tables are part of a hierarchy of hash tables, each hash table of the hierarchy of hash tables storing information for resources in the hierarchy of resources; wherein the session-level hash table is distinct from the hierarchy of hash tables; and wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.