Web services apparatus and methods

A method of flattening a hierarchy in a Web Services arrangement, the method comprising:

• determining whether any portion of a hierarchical structure or relationship in the Web Services arrangement has a ‘one-to-one’ relationship between objects;
• and
• removing that portion of the hierarchy determined to have a one-to-one relationship by moving contents of attributes into at least one child portion of the hierarchy.

A computer recording medium including computer executable code for performing a Web Services method for use in a Web Services arrangement having complex UDDI object(s) having at least one non-compound data structure and at least one compound data structures, each compound data structure having at least one value, each value having a plurality of fields, comprising:

• code for providing in a Directory parent object, an attribute representing each non-compound data structure;
• and
• code for providing for each at least one value, a Directory child object having an attribute representing each field of compound data structure.

A computer recording medium including computer executable code for flattening a hierarchy in a Web Services arrangement, comprising:

• code for determining whether any portion of a hierarchical structure or relationship in the Web Services arrangement has a ‘one-to-one’ relationship between objects;
• and
• code for removing that portion of the hierarchy determined to have a one-to-one relationship by moving contents of attributes into at least one child portion of the hierarchy.