Exploiting metadata for performing structure-oriented operations on content-specific data representations

A method for exploiting metadata for performing structure-oriented operations on content-specific data representations, the method comprising:

• deserializing serialized data into a content-specific data representation for use with a programming language;
• creating metadata that includes any information not found in said deserialized data that is needed to reconstruct said serialized data;
• and
• performing structure-oriented operations on said content-specific data representation, wherein said engine is operative to employ a priori knowledge regarding said metadata to perform said operations.

A method for performing XSL Transformations on deserialized XML data, the method comprising:

• parsing an XSL expression to form an expression tree corresponding thereto;
• selecting an execute method corresponding to a node of said tree to evaluate an object generated by an XML binding tool;
• and
• verifying a characteristic of said node against metadata generated by said XML binding tool prior to executing said method.