Patent ID: 7953766

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium having embodied therein computer-executable program codes for forming a list of attributes for uniquely identifying a plurality of items in a pageset, wherein said computer-executable program codes, when executed by a computer, cause said computer to perform a method comprising: receiving the plurality of items in the pageset, wherein each item is to be defined by a unique combination of values for a plurality of attributes, each item having equal values for a first subset of the attributes, and the first subset is less than all of the plurality of attributes; including the first subset of the attributes in the list of attributes for uniquely identifying the plurality of items in the pageset; selecting an attribute from a second subset of the attributes, wherein the second subset is less than all of the plurality of attributes, the second subset is disjoint from the first subset, and said selecting is performed by the computer; determining whether the selected attribute in combination with attributes previously included in the list of attributes uniquely identifies a greater number of items in the pageset than a number of items in the pageset uniquely identified by the attributes previously included in the list of attributes, wherein said determining is performed by the computer; including the selected attribute in the list of attributes if said determining establishes that the selected attribute in combination with attributes previously included in the list of attributes uniquely identifies a greater number of items in the pageset than a number of items in the pageset uniquely, identified by the attributes previously included in the list of attributes, wherein said including is performed by the computer; excluding the selected attribute from the list of attributes if said determining establishes that the selected attribute in combination with attributes previously included in the list of attributes does not uniquely identify, a greater number of items in the pageset than a number of items in the pageset uniquely, identified by the attributes previously included in the list of attributes, wherein said excluding is performed by the computer; and performing said selecting and including or excluding for each of the attributes in the second subset until a minimum set of attributes is included in the list of attributes such that each item in the pageset is uniquely identified by its associated values for the attributes in the list.