Patent ID: 7640260

Claim:
A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon a plurality of computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for formulating a data structure of a particular type that has a particular schema used for validation, permitting components of the data structure to be optionally transformed while retaining the ability to validate the data structure, the method comprising: an act of formulating a data structure that includes a plurality of components, wherein the data structure is of a particular type that has a particular schema used for validation; and an act of adding transformation information to the data structure that is sufficient to identify one or more transformations that may occur on at least one component of the data structure, such that after the one or more transformations occur, which cause the data structure to be transformed in contravention of the particular schema, the data structure, including the at least one transformed component, is still enabled to be validated with the added transformation information according to the particular schema without modifying the at least one transformed component and even though the data structure having the one or more transformations causes the data structure to be transformed in contravention of the particular schema.