Patent ID: 8756257

Claim:
A system for performing a method of automatically providing applications with access to data in different structural types using an intermediate common data structure, such that applications using different structural types are interoperable, the system comprising one or more processors and computer-readable memory and comprising one or more application programs using one or more data elements that correspond to different type structures based on different data shapes, wherein the one or more processors perform the method comprising the acts of: receiving an access request from a requesting application, the access request requesting data maintained by a different application, wherein the requesting application expects the requested data to correspond to a first type structure, and wherein the different application maintains the requested data in a different type structure; identifying a proxy corresponding to the different application; sending one or more requests to initiate the identified proxy; the proxy traversing one or more data elements maintained by the different application; the proxy identifying a shape of each of the one or more data elements maintained by the different application and identifying a structural type within a common data structure corresponding to each identified shape; the proxy returning a mapped data structure that correlates the requested data with the common data structure using the identified shapes and corresponding structural types; mapping the requested data in the different type structure to the common data structure using the identified proxy; and providing the mapped data structure to the requesting application so that the requesting application can access and modify the requested data using the common data structure without the application having knowledge of the different type structure used by the different application.