Patent ID: 7093200

Claim:
An instance browser comprising: a repository of class and relation definitions for an information model and a plurality of repositories of instances of classes, wherein classes correspond to sets of instances having a common characterization, and relations correspond to inter-relationships between classes and serve to relate instances of one or more classes; a server having access to said repository of class and relation definitions and to said plurality of repositories of instance of classes, for responding to queries relating to class and relation definitions and instances of classes; and a graphical user interface communicating with said server and interactively displaying icons representing instances of classes as a user browses said information model and navigates from one instance to another via the relations, wherein information about instances from more than one repository is graphically accessible from the same icon, the graphical user interface enabling a user to interactively (i) select and view an icon representing a specific instance, I 1 , of a specific class, C 1 , (ii) view a list of one or more relations relating the class C 1 to other classes, (iii) select a specific relation, R, within the list, and (iv) view an icon representing an instance, I 2 , of another class, C 2 , related to the instance I 1 according to the selected relation R.