Patent ID: 8566312

Claim:
An apparatus for accessing database attributes stored in a first database, comprising: a memory configured to store a first data access layer having a second database and a second data access layer having a third database, the first data access layer for: mapping a first visible attribute to first non-spatial data components of a first proprietary spatial attribute of the first database, wherein the first visible attribute is stored in the first data access layer by topic, and providing access to retrieve the non-spatial data components while hiding a first database implementation of the first proprietary spatial attribute, the second data access layer for: mapping a second visible attribute to second non-spatial data components of a second proprietary spatial attribute of a fourth database, wherein the second visible attribute is stored in the second data access layer by topic, and providing access to retrieve the second non-spatial data components while hiding a second database implementation of the second proprietary spatial attribute, and the second database and the third database comprising meta data, wherein the meta data comprises a first artificial attribute used to create a first artificial attribute post processor and a second artificial attribute used to create a second artificial attribute post processor, wherein the first artificial attribute describes a formula for a first real attribute and first visible attribute for dynamically calculating the first real attribute, and wherein the second artificial attribute describes a spatial data type of a second real attribute and second visible attribute for dynamically building the second real attribute, and a processor configured to: execute an attribute pre-processing module for: scanning a user request to verify whether the request includes the first artificial attribute and the second artificial attribute, and obtaining, according to a usage rule for the first artificial attribute, the formula and the first non-spatial data components, create the first artificial attribute post processor suitable for dynamically calculating, according to the formula, the first real attribute from a first combination of the first artificial attribute received from the first attribute pre-processing module and the first non-spatial data components received from the first data access layer, and create the second artificial attribute post processor suitable for dynamically building the second real attribute from a second combination of the second artificial attribute received from the second attribute pre-processing module and the second non-spatial data components received from the second data access layer, wherein the second database and the third database comprise a plurality of artificial attributes stored in meta data, wherein the plurality of artificial attributes are stored by topic for selecting the first artificial attribute and the second artificial attribute from the plurality of artificial attributes.