A method for sorted-paged retrieval of hierarchical data from a relational database
is disclosed, which includes the use of one or more relational table equi-join
terms in a query to increase the retrieval efficiency, suitable restrictions imposed
on the join terms to further increase the retrieval efficiency, partial de-normalization
or replication of information to improve the efficiency of the join operation(s)
and thus further increase the retrieval efficiency, and proper cursor management
to keep track of the current location of the cursor(s) involved. As a result, specific
pages of objects can be efficiently retrieved from a database, while the specified
sort orders and restrictions imposed by the original retrieval requests can be maintained.
