VIRTUAL PRODUCT HIERARCHIES

摘要

A base hierarchy of products or the like can be user-modified into a virtual hierarchy that is represented as a collection of changes to the base hierarchy rather than a new hierarchy stored in memory. The collection of changes can be used to enable user interactions such as queries, displays, and writes using the virtual hierarchy as thought it were an actual hierarchy stored in memory, with aspects of the virtual hierarchy dynamically created using a collection of procedures based on the changes and corresponding inverses. The representation of the modified hierarchy can be dynamically displayed to a user or otherwise processed in the same manner as other hierarchies and hierarchical data.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
identifying a base hierarchy that categorizes a number of consumer products into a number of levels of categories; receiving a plurality of desired changes to the base hierarchy, wherein the desired changes collectively characterize a modified hierarchy categorizing the number of consumer products; storing the plurality of desired changes logically separately from the base hierarchy; and dynamically displaying a representation of the modified hierarchy to a user.