METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RETRIEVING DATA FROM MULTIPLE DATA SOURCES USING A SEARCH ROUTING DATABASE
First Claim
1. A method of retrieving data from a plurality of databases, comprising:
- maintaining a plurality of databases, said databases including a plurality of database records comprised of a plurality of database fields;
maintaining a search-routing database, said search-routing database including a plurality of search-routing database records comprised of search-routing database fields, said search-routing database fields including a database-identifier field and one or more database fields;
receiving a first query from a user, said first query comprised of fields of data;
extracting data from the fields of said first query to form a modified query;
searching said search-routing database for records responsive to the modified query, and returning one or more database identifiers;
routing the first query to the databases identified by said database identifiers;
searching the databases identified by said database identifiers for data responsive to said first query; and
returning data obtained from the identified databases that is responsive to said first query.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A search-routing database is used to direct database search requests to only those databases that may contain results to the search request. The search-routing database contains a subset of the data fields from the other databases in the network, along with a field indicating the database to which the search request should be routed. When a database search request is received, a modified search request is generated based on the overlap between the type of information contained in the search request and the type of information contained in the data-fields of the search routing database. This modified search request is submitted to the search-routing database, which returns a list of database candidates which could produce results to the original search request. The original search request is then submitted to those database candidates, and the results are returned to the user.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of retrieving data from a plurality of databases, comprising:
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maintaining a plurality of databases, said databases including a plurality of database records comprised of a plurality of database fields;
maintaining a search-routing database, said search-routing database including a plurality of search-routing database records comprised of search-routing database fields, said search-routing database fields including a database-identifier field and one or more database fields;
receiving a first query from a user, said first query comprised of fields of data;
extracting data from the fields of said first query to form a modified query;
searching said search-routing database for records responsive to the modified query, and returning one or more database identifiers;
routing the first query to the databases identified by said database identifiers;
searching the databases identified by said database identifiers for data responsive to said first query; and
returning data obtained from the identified databases that is responsive to said first query. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A data retrieval system, comprising:
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a plurality of databases, said databases including database records comprised of database fields;
a search-routing database, said search-routing database including search-routing database records comprised of search-routing database fields, said search-routing database fields including a database-identifier field and one or more of said database fields;
an input device for obtaining a first query from a user, said first query comprised of fields of data;
a proxy server for receiving the first query and forming a modified query, said modified query comprising a subset of the fields of data contained in the first query;
a search engine for searching said search-routing database for records responsive to the modified query and returning one or more database identifiers, said database identifiers identifying one or more target databases;
a router for sending said first query to the target databases;
a second search engine for searching the target databases for data responsive to said first query;
an output device for returning data responsive to said first query. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of retrieving data from a plurality of databases, comprising:
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receiving a query having a plurality of fields;
creating a modified query by extracting data from certain fields of the query;
searching a first database for records responsive to the modified query;
returning one or more database identifiers from records responsive to the modified query;
routing the query to databases identified by the returned database identifiers; and
searching the identified databases for data responsive to the query. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of retrieving data from a plurality of data sources, comprising:
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receiving a search request;
searching a first data source for first data responsive to the search request, said first data having an associated data source identifier that identifies a second data source;
if said first data is found in the first data source, routing the search request to the second data source;
searching the second data source for second data responsive to the search request.
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Specification