System for and method of accessing multiple data sources

摘要

The preferred embodiment of the invention provides a hybrid file system associated with an interactive application running on an interactive television device. The implementation of the hybrid file system is configured according to rules defined by the interactive application. The interactive application makes references to data in the context of the hybrid file system using a common referencing syntax (i.e. without reference to a specific data source, although this is not precluded). The hybrid file system provides means to associate a data request to a specific data source using a process that can be opaque to the interactive application at the time of the request. Specifically, a mapping table is used to map each location within the file space provided by the hybrid file system to a location within one or more data sources.