Patent ID: 7254584

Claim:
A process for combining relationship-based inherited attributes in a computer environment, comprising the steps of: providing a table-driven relational database system, comprising an inheritance table and a relationship table, wherein said inheritance table comprises: an inherited ID field; an assigned object ID; and a sequence number field, wherein said sequence number indicates the order of inheritance of the object in a hierarchy; wherein said relationship table comprises: a relationship ID field, wherein said relationship ID uniquely identifies said relationship; a role; and an assigned object ID field; and wherein a table-driven relational database server queries said inheritance table and said relationship table and uses a link to link said inheritance table with said relationship table via a common element of a field of each table and obtains all linked objects that are associated with said link, wherein said linked objects are used to control a determinative business rule and access rule and wherein said sequence ID indicates a priority for said role, wherein a user writes at least one of said determinative business rule and said access rule having at least one configurable parameter.