Patent ID: 7366708

Claim:
A method used for resolving a path name that has a sequence of path elements, comprising the steps of: traversing an index to resolve said path name; wherein said index comprises at least a first entry that corresponds to a first path element of said sequence of path elements, wherein said first entry corresponds to a first node in an information hierarchy, wherein said first entry includes data identifying a second entry in said index that coffesponds to a second node that is a child of said first node; wherein said second entry corresponds to a second path element from said sequence of path elements; wherein access control data in the second entry indicates access privileges of one or more users for an item associated with the second path element; wherein traversing said index further comprises: accessing in said first entry said data identifying said second entry in said index; based on the data accessed in said first entry identifying the second entry, accessing the second entry that corresponds to said second path element from said sequence of path elements; and based on examining said access control data accessed in the second entry, determining and storing the access privileges of the item associated with the second path element.