Patent ID: 7949675

Claim:
A method of retrieving data from any one of a plurality of data sources, the data stored by each data source being arranged according to an associated data format, the method implemented in a computer system comprising a processor for executing program instructions, a storage device for storing program instructions to be executed by the processor and data to be processed by the processor, and program instructions to perform the method steps comprising: i) issuing a retrieval request for data stored on a designated one of the plurality of data sources to a control software process; ii) passing the retrieval request from the control software process to one of a plurality of retrieval software processes that is associated with the designated data source, each of the plurality of retrieval software processes being a different process than the control software process, said one of the retrieval software processes retrieving the requested data from the designated data source and rearranging, based on a type of the designated data source, the retrieved data into a common output format, wherein each one of the plurality of retrieval software processes is a plug-in software process; and iii) passing the data in the common output format to the control software process; wherein the common output format data is displayed as a tree in which selection of an item of common output format data causes steps i)-iii) to be performed using a unique identifier of the selected item of common output format data.