Patent ID: 7620663

Claim:
In a distributed computing system having a device that stores properties in a database without a corresponding time-date field, a method of associating time-date information with a property value in the database, the method comprising the acts of: identifying, at a local machine, time-date information corresponding to one or more remote property values in a remote database at a remote device that stores properties without a corresponding time-date field; formatting, at the local machine, the identified time-date information in a standard format parsable by one or more devices in the distributed computing system; and sending, by the local machine, the formatted time-date information to the remote database at the remote device for storage in a field that is not reserved for storing time-date information and is associated with the one or more remote property values; wherein the one or more property values are a subset of a total number of associated property values, and the one or more property values are selected to have the identified time-date information formatted in the standard format based on values associated with the time-date information, and wherein a remaining portion of property values from the total number of property values not selected are represented in the field associated with the one or more remote property values by a combined representation value, the combined representation value having associated time-date information based on time-date information for the remaining portion of property values.