Patent ID: 7831633

Claim:
In a system adapted for processing data from one or more data sources, a computer-implemented method of supporting an additional data source, wherein the system includes a set of design-time drivers and a set of run-time drivers that support access to the one or more data sources but do not support access to the additional data source, comprising: loading a design-time driver for the additional data source such that the set of design-time drivers includes the design-time driver, the design-time driver supporting definition of data including one or more fields of the additional data source to retrieve from the additional data source, the design-time driver having a first application programming interface that conforms to a first pre-defined format; loading a run-time driver for the additional data source such that the set of run-time drivers includes the run-time driver, the run-time driver supporting retrieval of data corresponding to the one or more fields from the additional data source, the run-time driver having a second application programming interface that conforms to a second pre-defined format; executing the design-time driver via the first application programming interface; wherein the first application programming interface enables the definition of the data including the one or more fields to be retrieved from the additional data source to be generated or obtained; retrieving the data from the additional data source via the run-time driver using the second application programming interface, wherein each of the set of design-time drivers has a corresponding application programming interface that conforms to the first pre-defined format and wherein each of the set of run-time drivers has a corresponding application programming interface that conforms to the second pre-defined format; and generating a report from the data retrieved from the additional data source.