Abstract: A data structure and associated data management methods for highly flexible storage of data for a wide variety of application programs. Data is stored as a plurality of Blops, each of which has a list of Properties associated with it. Each Property contains zero or more elements. Elements are Values, each of which has a Basic Type and consists of a variable length sequence of bytes. The Basic Type defines the format of the Value, as well as meta-information such as compression and encryption. Elements can also be Compound Types, which nestably refer to another list of Properties. Blops are stored in Containers, which map to the physical medium on which the data is stored. Containers associate respective Container Handlers which are specific to the Container's physical medium. Related Blops in a Container are organized into Pools of Blops. Each Container contains one or more Pools, each Pool having a unique name within the Container. A Pool contains multiple versions of a Blop.

Abstract: A data structure and associated data management methods for highly flexible storage of data for a wide variety of application programs. Data is stored as a plurality of Blops, each of which has a list of Properties associated with it. Each Property contains zero or more elements. Elements are Values, each of which has a Basic Type and consists of a variable length sequence of bytes. The Basic Type defines the format of the Value, as well as meta-information such as compression and encryption. Elements can also be Compound Types, which nestably refer to another list of Properties. Blops are stored in Containers, which map to the physical medium on which the data is stored. Containers associate respective Container Handlers which are specific to the Container's physical medium. Related Blops in a Container are organized into Pools of Blops. Each Container contains one or more Pools, each Pool having a unique name within the Container. A Pool contains multiple versions of a Blop.

Abstract: A data structure and associated data management methods for highly flexible storage of data for a wide variety of application programs. Data is stored as a plurality of Blops, each of which has a list of Properties associated with it. Each Property contains zero or more elements. Elements can be Values, each of which has a Basic Type and consists of a variable length sequence of bytes. The Basic Type can define the format of the Value, as well as meta-information such as compression and encryption. Elements can also be Compound Types, which nestably refer to another list of Properties. Blops are stored in Containers, which map to the physical medium on which the data is stored. Containers can associate respective Container Handlers which are specific to the Container's physical medium. Related Blops in a Container can be organized into Pools of Blops. Each Container may contain one or more Pools, each Pool having a unique name within the Container. A Pool may contain multiple versions of a Blop.