1. A method of storing an object in persistent storage comprising the steps of: a) having a persistence class, a data store class and a data cursor class; b) specifying a data cursor object, including an object ID, for an object to be stored in persistent storage; c) filling the data cursor object with data invoking a storer method of the object to be stored with the data cursor as argument, said data including class member data of the class of which the object to be stored is an instance; d) proceeding from said class of which the object to be stored is an instance to all super classes in the class hierarchy invoking the storer method for each super class in ascending sequence to add class member data from each super class into the data cursor object; and e) placing the filled data cursor object in permanent storage using the object ID as a unique key.