System and method for searching disparate file systems

• US 20020147704A1
• Filed: 01/24/2001
• Published: 10/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Borchers, Fred C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,763,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A system and method for searching for data in disparate file systems and returning a merged list of search results. The system includes an interface for receiving a search request; a mechanism for issuing the search request in a first request format to a first search system and for receiving a first list of search results in a first format; a mechanism for issuing the search request in a second request format to a second search system, and for receiving a second list of search results in a second format, wherein the first list is received in a disparate format than the second list; and a mechanism for merging the first list and the second list into a common format.

Claims

1. A server system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, wherein the memory includes an operating system program and a search program executable by the processor, wherein the search program comprises;

an interface for receiving a search request from a client;

a first module for issuing the search request to the operating system and receiving back a first list of search results;

a second module for issuing the search request to a disparate server system and for receiving back a second list of search results, wherein the second list of search results is in a disparate format than the first list; and

a merge system for merging the first list and the second list into a merged list having a common format.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the common format comprises a hypertext markup language (HTML) format.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operating system includes a virtual memory (VM) operating system, and the first list of search results includes links to files in a VM file format.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second module issues a uniform resource locator (URL) command to the disparate server system, and wherein the second list of search results is returned in an hypertext markup language (HTML) format.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the disparate server system serves files in a non-HTML format.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the merge system further comprises a sorting system for sorting the merged list based on a predetermined criteria.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the predetermined criteria includes a date.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the search program includes a CGI script.

9. A program product stored on a recordable medium that, when executed, comprises:

an interface for receiving a search request;

a mechanism for issuing the search request in a first request format to a first search system and for receiving a first list of search results in a first format;

a mechanism for issuing the search request in a second request format to a second search system, and for receiving a second list of search results in a second format, wherein the first list is received in a disparate format than the second list; and

a mechanism for merging the first list and the second list into a common format.

10. The program product of claim 9, wherein the first request format is disparate from the second request format.

11. The program product of claim 9, wherein the common format includes a hypertext markup language format.

12. The program product of claim 11, wherein the second list of search result is received in an hypertext markup language file format.

13. The program product of claim 9, wherein the first request format is readable by a virtual machine (VM) operating system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the format of the first list of files includes a hypertext markup language format.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the common format includes a hypertext markup language format.

17. The method of claim 14, comprising the further step of displaying the merged list.

19. The server system of claim 18, wherein the second list of search results is in a disparate format than the first list.

20. The server system of claim 19, wherein the merged list is in a hypertext markup language format.

14. A method of searching for data among disparate systems, comprising the steps of:

submitting a search request to a search interface running on a host operating system;

issuing the search request to a disparate server system;

receiving a first list in format disparate from a host operating system file format;

issuing the search request to the host operating system;

receiving a second list in a format specific to the host operating system; and

merging the first list and the second list into a merged list having a common format.

18. A server system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, wherein the memory includes a host operating system and a search program executable by the processor, wherein the search program comprises;

an interface for receiving a search request from a client;

a module for issuing the search request to a first disparate server system that is disparate from the host operating system and for receiving back a first list of search results;

a module for issuing the search request to a second disparate server system that is disparate from the host operating system and for receiving back a second list of search results; and

a merge system for merging the first list and the second list into a merged list.