A computer method and system capable of searching multiple heterogeneous datastores with heterogeneous data types by employing an object oriented data model to define a federated datastore object. The federated query object translates a generic query into the appropriate queries for each datastore, the federated datastore object acts as a virtual datastore for multiple heterogeneous datastores with the ability to map concepts between datastores, and the federated collection object represents results from a federated query in a hierarchy that maintains sub-grouping information from each datastore to allow accessing of results by datastore or as a single collection of results. The federated objects thus provide user applications with enhanced accessibility of different hierarchies of information, as well as more robust search capabilities.