Patent ID: 7464099

Claim:
A method of transferring content from a database to a file, the database including content instances, each content instance being associated with a respective database field, and each database field having a respective type, the method including: a) retrieving each content instance from the database by performing at least one query, the query being adapted to extract content instances from the database as a number of reports, wherein for each respective report: i) determining the number of content instances in the report; ii) generating a respective store field for each content instance in the report, the store field type being determined in accordance with the database field type; and, iii) determining a parent content instance; iv) transferring the parent content instance to a respective store field; v) determining any child content instances; and, vi) transferring the child content instances to respective store fields; and, vii) repeating steps (i) to (vi) for each report; b) generating store fields in a data store wherein each store field has a respective store field type in accordance with the respective report; c) storing in the data store each content instance from each respective report in a respective store field in accordance with the database field type of the associated database field; d) creating a file including a number of fields, each field having a type in accordance with the respective report; and, e) transferring from the data store each content instance into a respective field within the file, in accordance with the store field type.