Patent ID: 8145668

Claim:
A computer readable storage medium containing programming instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of associating information related to a component in a structured document that is stored in its native format in a database system comprising instructions for: a) generating a node slot array and a hierarchical node tree, wherein the hierarchical node tree comprises a plurality of nodes, wherein each node represents a component in the structured document, wherein each node comprises a header section and a child pointer section, wherein the child pointer section comprises a plurality of child pointers to minimize node size, and wherein at least one child pointer points to a node slot within the node slot array, which in turn, includes an entry which points to a node corresponding to the child node; b) for each node, generating a path associated with the node, wherein the path follows the hierarchical structure of the structured document from a root node to the node; c) storing in each node an identifier associated with the path for the node; and d) providing a table that correlates the identifier with the information related to the associated path, wherein the information applies to the component represented by the node.