Patent ID: 7912862

Claim:
A method for generating a relational schema definition (RSD) file that includes a representation of structure and data of a relational database using a declarative description language, thereby enabling access to the represented structure and data of the relational database via the RSD file when disconnected from the relational database, the method comprising: a computer system accessing relational schema information of a relational database, the computer system including at least one processor; the computer system identifying physical information harvested directly from the relational schema information; the computer system identifying logical information that represents semantics of the relational database, including one or more annotations to the physical information defining one or more relationships between a plurality of tables of the relational database; the computer system selecting a first portion of the physical information and a first portion of the logical information that includes at least one of the one or more relationships; and the computer system generating an RSD file using a declarative description language the RSD file including structure and data of the relational database comprising the first portion of the physical information and the first portion of the logical information, wherein the RSD file contains sufficient information to regenerate the structure and data for offline processing when disconnected from the relational database.