Abstract: A data services layer is disclosed which maintains a dictionary of conceptual information and physical information about the data. Machine-readable requests to access the data are in a form related to a conceptual organization of the data, and is not specific to a physical organization of the data. A machine-readable query to obtain a subset of the data is produced by referencing the dictionary of conceptual and physical information about the data. The conceptual information is obtained from an object-relational-model of the data, and the physical information indicates how the data is organized on the data storage medium. Requests are written in a conceptual query language (CQL) which substantially uses terms belonging to or derived from a natural language. CQL includes terms in the classes of names and concepts, and wherein name terms are used to describe objects in the object-relational-model of the data, and concept terms are used to specify the data subset desired.

Abstract: An information server system is responsive to page specifications to render information pages at a plurality of clients that use different client software and that have widely different characteristics. Information pages are authored in a generic page specification format that is not limited to any particular client or client software. In response to a request for the information page, the server system selects and executes a page renderer that is compatible with the client software of the client requesting the information. The page renderer converts the page specification of the information page to an instruction sequence that is tailored particularly for the requesting client. The conversion is accomplished by selecting and executing a plurality of independently-executable pane renderers.

Abstract: A computer program for automatically generating queries to a database management system (DBMS) is disclosed. The computer program receives a high level specification of the data sought to be retrieved from an application program. The high level specification includes the columns from which data is sought, and any constraints on the data to be retrieved from those columns such as filter constraints. The computer program also receives a context for the columns to be queried, so that it can be determined which tables of the DBMS the columns are associated with. The computer program further receives a specification of the schema of the DBMS, with the schema specifying the relationship between the various data storage entities of the DBMS.