Method and apparatus for processing a complex hierarchy of data objects.

摘要

The method and apparatus of the present invention may be utilized to process a complex hierarchy of interrelated data objects so that a system user may rapidly and efficiently traverse the hierarchy from a first selected data object within the hierarchy to a second selected data object without the necessity of manually returning to a known point or "root" within the hierarchy. Each time the system user traverses the hierarchy from a known point to a selected data object (52), the data objects encountered during the traverse are stored (54), along with a set of actions which were necessary to traverse the hierarchy to that point. Upon an indication by the user that a second selected data object is required (56), the system will automatically display (58) the existing path from the known point within the hierarchy to the selected data object in current utilization and the user is then permitted to alter the data objects and actions contained therein to reflect a "path" to a second data object. Thereafter, the system will automatically traverse the complex hierarchy along this newly created path to arrive at the second selected data object. In one embodiment of the present invention, a selected path to a known data object may be saved or "bookmarked" to permit the user to selectively return to that particular data object at any time in the future.