1. An article of manufacture comprising software residing on non-transitory computer-readable media, the software comprising: a content management system comprising: an external data mechanism that performs the steps of: when checking into the repository an XML document that contains a query, performing the steps of: executing the query; evaluating data returned from the query to determine whether the data satisfies classification rules; when the data satisfies the classification rules, performing the steps of: creating a returned data object in the repository containing the data; creating a query object in the repository containing the query; replacing the query in the XML document with a link to the retuned data object creating a link between the query object and the returned data object; configuring a lifecycle policy corresponding to the query object that determines when the query in the query object is executed; when the data does not satisfy the classification rules, performing the step of: importing the data directly into the XML document when checking the returned data object out of the repository, performing the steps of: determine from the lifecycle policy corresponding to the query object whether the query in the query object should be executed; when the query in the query object should be executed, performing the step of updating the returned data object with results of executing the query within the query object with the link to the returned data object and when the query in the query object should not be executed, performing the step of breaking the link between the query object and the returned data object.