Patent ID: 6973460

Claim:
A framework for applying operations to nodes of an object model, the framework comprising: metadata within the object model, wherein the metadata: is available at run-time, specifies hierarchical relationships between nodes of the object model, and specifies data-type information for nodes of the object model; a hierarchy-traversal routine that includes computer-executable instruct ons that, when executed, traverse the specified hierarchical relationships to gather, from the metadata at run-time, information that is pertinent to applying operations to nodes of the object model; an operations-application routine that includes computer-executable instructions that, when executed, apply operations to nodes of the object model in accordance with the information gathered at run-time from the metadata; wherein the metadata specifies at least one service of the framework to which at least one of the nodes subscribes; and wherein the at least one service includes at least one of: a compile service that transfers data from an XML representation to the object model; a decompile service that transfers data from the object model to an XML representation; a dehydrate service that transfers data from the object model to a database representation; a rehydate service that transfers data from a database representation to the object model; an xml schema generation service that produces an XML schema definition that the compile and decompile services conform to; and a database schema that is used to configure the database to host data for the dehydrate and rehydrate services.