Patent ID: 7401064

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: receiving a user request pertaining to source metadata objects residing in a plurality of source metadata repositories within an organization, the plurality of source metadata repositories being maintained by a plurality of different data management applications; and in response to the user request, analyzing the user request to determine which of the source metadata objects a user expects to view, identifying one of the plurality of different data management applications that corresponds to the expected source metadata objects, and retrieving the expected source metadata objects using an application program interface (API) with the corresponding data management application, wherein the user request is a request for one or more source metadata objects that are dependent on a user-specified source metadata object, and retrieving the expected source metadata objects comprises: retrieving one or more source metadata objects that are dependent on the user-specified source metadata object from a corresponding source metadata repository based on internal relationships between the plurality of source metadata objects, and retrieving source metadata objects that are dependent on the user-specified source metadata object from any other source metadata repository based on external relationships between the plurality of source metadata objects.