Patent ID: 7398263

Claim:
A method of using a logical framework for defining abstract modification operations to modify physical data comprising a plurality of physical entities, comprising: providing an abstract model for defining abstract modification specifications logically describing operations to modify the physical data, the abstract model comprising a plurality of logical field definitions, each logical field definition comprising a logical field name and a reference to at least one access method selected from at least two different types of access methods, wherein the at least one access method comprises a simple access method, a filter access method, or a composed access method, wherein the at least one access method is configured to associate the logical field name to a physical data representation; providing a run-time component to transform, according to the abstract model, each of a plurality of single abstract modification specifications into at least two separate physical modification specifications consistent with the physical data, wherein: the abstract modification specifications include logical values and references to logical field definitions, and each of the at least two physical modification specifications modifies the physical data defining a different physical entity; and modifying the physical data according to the at least two separate physical modification specifications.