Patent ID: 7962447

Claim:
A method for replicating modified data to a hierarchical database, the method comprising: for each pre-modification record included in a first list and each post-modification record included in a second list for which the pre-modification record and the post-modification record have equal values for at least one unique identifier field, wherein the first list comprises records included in a set of records before at least one modification to the set of records, and wherein the second list comprises records included in the set of records after the at least one modification to the set of records: (a) if the pre-modification record includes an index and the post-modification record includes an index corresponding to the same field as the index included in the pre-modification record: removing information about a first structure pointed to by the pre-modification record from an index included in a target record, the target record stored at the hierarchical database and having the same value as the post-modification record for the at least one unique identifier field, and adding information about a second structure pointed to by the post-modification record to the index included in the target record, and (b) if neither the pre-modification record nor the post-modification record includes an index, modifying the target record so that the target record contains at least one value included in the post-modification record and not included in the pre-modification record, wherein modifying the target record is performed by a computer.