Patent ID: 7020659

Claim:
A method for setting a new reference value for managing bi-directional relationships between objects in an object model of a relational database, the method comprising the steps of: receiving bi-directional relationship information indicating interrelation between objects having one or more bi-directional relationships, creating proxy objects based on the bi-directional relationship information for selected peer objects having bi-directional relationships, wherein the proxy objects have knowledge regarding a host object to which the proxy objects belong and one or more peer objects with which the host relates through a bi-directional relationship, and wherein the host object is included as a first peer object of the selected peer objects; receiving a first new peer value relating to a bi-directional relationship to be set in the host object, determining, using one or more of the proxy objects, a second new peer value to be set for a second peer object which has the bi-directional relationship with the host object; setting the first new peer value into the one or more proxy objects; and setting the second new peer value in a proxy object created for the second peer object so that the second peer object has a bi-directional relationship with the host object without a developer of the object model having to ensure all associated references are maintained; wherein the bi-directional relationship is managed so that pairs of corresponding bi-directional pointers get updated together.