Patent ID: 7562298

Claim:
A method for viewing and manipulating a virtual content repository (VCR) having an application program interface (API), comprising: providing a graphical user interface (GUI), having a navigation pane and an editor window, configured to present a hierarchical namespace, shown in the navigation pane, that spans information in a plurality of content repositories represented by the virtual content repository, wherein the namespace includes at least one element, and wherein one of the at least one element can be selected; displaying a content editor in the editor window when a content mode is selected in the navigation pane wherein the content editor is configured to present and to enable editing of content associated with the selected element in the navigation pane; displaying a schema editor in the editor window when a type mode is selected in the navigation pane wherein the schema editor is configured to present and to enable editing of schema associated with the selected element in the navigation pane; wherein the VCR logically represents the plurality of content repositories as a single content repository; wherein each one of the plurality of content repositories represented by the VCR implements a different service provider interface SPI compatible with the API, wherein each SPI and the API share a content model, and wherein each SPI maps operations on the content model to operations on the content repository implementing that SPI; and wherein the SPI enables each one of the plurality of content repositories to plug into the VCR.