Patent ID: 6847384

Claim:
A method for translating objects between applications that use different formats, the method comprising: generating a hierarchical structure for organizing one or more properties of a source object being translated to a target object, wherein each level of the hierarchical structure is associated with a property of an object and wherein the source object is associated with source application and the target object is associated with the target application; using one or more filter objects to determine a location, within the hierarchical structure, to map the one or more properties of the source object, wherein each of the one or more filter objects is associated with a respective level of the hierarchical structure and associated with one or more collection objects of a set of collection objects, according to a first sub-method, comprising: determining, for a property of the one or more properties of the source object, a property value from a respective filter object that is associated with the property; comparing the property value with a respective collection value associated with each of one or more respective collection objects of the set of collection objects that are associated with the respective filter object; and determining a level within the hierarchical structure to map the one or more properties of the source object, based on the comparing the property value with a respective collection value; and storing the hierarchical structure in a target file, wherein the target file is used by the second application to construct the target object.