Patent ID: 7606818

Claim:
A method, comprising: creating, on a server device having access to a plurality of hierarchical data structures, a virtual hierarchical data structure from elements of the plurality of hierarchical data structures, wherein each of the plurality of hierarchical data structures describes a respective plurality of web services, and wherein the virtual hierarchical data structure describes only web services relied upon by a distributed application; receiving, by the server device, a request for a subscription to the virtual hierarchical data structure to enable execution of the distributed application; receiving, by the server device, a change notification regarding a first hierarchical data structure of the plurality of hierarchical data structures; determining, by the server device, whether the virtual hierarchical data structure contains elements based on the first hierarchical data structure; and modifying, by the server device, the virtual hierarchical data structure based on the change notification when the virtual hierarchical data structure contains elements based on the first hierarchical data structure.