APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STORING, RETRIEVING AND PRESENTING INTERRELATED DATA

A method and apparatus for managing and sub-classifying units of data (objects) through the use of codified linkages between objects and for querying and presenting such objects, their linkages, and the codified data concerning their linkages. The query and presentation method is called Query-By-Outline (QBO). The method of retrieving and displaying interrelated data stored according to class memberships, linkages between individual objects, or linkages between classes, upon identification of an object of interest, including the steps of (1) creating an inventory of related objects related to the object of interest, the inventory including information about the objects themselves as well as relationship information about their relationships to the object of interest; (2) developing an arrangement of the inventory making use of the relationship information as well as information about the related objects themselves; (3) simplifying the arrangement for presentation by intelligently grouping the inventory into groups determined at least in part by the relationship information and the information about the related objects; and (4) displaying the arrangement.