METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A FLEXIBLE AND EXTENSIBLE DATABASE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE ELECTRONIC CATALOG

An on-line interactive catalog system having a plurality of catalog agent metaphors (CAM's), each comprising a set of components, portions of a knowledge representation and a design for the creation of components, facilitating the creation of different forms of interactions with an electronic catalog knowledge representation. The CAM's further provide a methodology in which rich knowledge representations about cataloged information can be created iteratively. The creation of the knowledge representation or information model for the electronic catalog is driven by a particular set of desired interactions, thereby providing a unique approach to the creation and dynamic maintenance of electronic catalogs, information models and user interfaces. The CAM system also provides a method for providing flexible catalogs, allowing for simple interaction metaphors having simple information and modeling requirements to be created and become operational without overwhelming design demands, while still providing for dynamic flexible growth and extensibility of the product knowledge representation and interaction approaches.