Patent ID: 8122380

Claim:
A computer system including: a plurality of repositories containing a variety of different types of software objects; a plurality of access units associated with said repositories to retrieve software objects from the repositories in accordance with the respective characteristics of the different types of software objects; an adaptation layer operably connected to the access units wherein the adaptation layer obtains information about the software objects and their children objects from the access units, and based on the information obtained from the access units, provides a standard set of object-based information common to each software object of the different respective type, including at least the name of the software object, the type of the software object, and information on whether there are any children objects of the software object; and presentation software operably connected to the adaptation layer, the presentation software being capable of constructing hierarchical display representations of software objects of different types based on the standard set of object-based information received from the adaptation layer, wherein the hierarchical display representations comprise an indication of at least the respective names of the software objects, the respective types of the software objects, and the presence of any children objects of the software objects.