Patent ID: 7103593

Claim:
An information system for retrieving and combining information from one or more disparate, heterogeneous information sources in real-time, in response to a query and integrating the information in accordance with a domain model, the said query being based upon said domain model, said information system being based upon a computer network having one or more computer systems in communication with one another, said information system comprising: (a) a model agent residing in at least one of the said one or more computer systems, said model agent having access to said domain model; and (b) a plurality of client applications residing in one of said one or more computer systems; and (c) a plurality of integration agents in communication with one another, said model agent, and said plurality of client applications, and residing in at least one of said one or more computer systems, said plurality of integration agents having access to one of said one or more disparate, heterogeneous information sources, said plurality of integration agents publishing publication information to said model agent said publication information including information on which portion of said domain model each of said plurality of integration agents has access to, said model agent providing said publication information to said plurality of integration agents said plurality of client applications such that said plurality of integration agents and said plurality of client applications share said, publication information among themselves through said model agent only as changes occur, said plurality of integration agents including at least a first integration agent, wherein said first integration agent receives said query from one of said plurality of client applications, retrieves query results corresponding to said query from said one or more disparate, heterogeneous information sources through at least one of said plurality of integration agents, and integrates and transforms said query results, returning said query results to the requesting client of said plurality of client applications, whereby a user or application can simultaneous query multiple different systems without specific knowledge of each system's query format or data representation.