Patent ID: 7222297

Claim:
A method for using extensible markup language to normalize one or more object repositories, each of the one or more object repositories having one of a plurality of object repository types, the method comprising the steps of: determining, from the plurality of possible object repository types, the one or more object repository types of the one or more object repositories that store at least one object, wherein the object comprises metadata; identifying the at least one object stored in the one or more object repositories; extracting at least one portion of the at least one object by generating a meta-document representation of the at least one portion, the meta-document representation being generated in extensible markup language (XML) format; transmitting the meta-document representation to a processor; and processing the meta-document representation on the processor to normalize the one or more object repositories, wherein processing the meta-document representation comprises mapping a field in the meta-document representation with a field designation identifier.