System and method for remotely searching a local user index

• US 20060031198A1
• Filed: 08/04/2004
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Newbold, David L., Rodriguez, Raudel S., Oral, Tolga
• Granted Patent: US 7,493,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system and method are provided for enabling a user to search for documents that the user has previously viewed on its local machine. The system includes three main components: the desktop integration module, the index module, and the graphical user interface module. The desktop integration module is an application which monitors documents with which the user interacts for predetermined events, and obtains content data and metadata from the monitored documents. The index module indexes the content data and metadata received from the desktop integration module. The graphical user interface module then permits a user to utilize the desktop integration module and index module by allowing a user to search for a document.

Claims

1. A method of searching for one or more documents a user has previously accessed comprising:

receiving an input at a user device located at a remote location from a workstation of the user, for searching an index located on said workstation;

in response to receiving one or more search results in a common format, converting said one or more search results into a format readable by the user; and

presenting said converted search results to the user, wherein said search results are presented in a graphical user interface having indicia indicating whether each one or more document in said search results is accessible by the user at the remote location.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an input further comprises receiving a request from an application to search said index located on said workstation and at least one additional location.

3. A method of responding to a search query received from a remote location, the method comprising:

receiving said search query, wherein said search query is a request by a user located at the remote location to search a local index, and wherein said index includes one or more entries for one or more documents the user has previously accessed;

locating one or more documents matching said search query;

creating a list of said one or more matching documents wherein said list is formatted in a common computer readable format; and

responding to said query by providing said list of one or more matching documents to the remote location.

4. A system for responding to a search query to search a workstation of a user for one or more documents the user has previously accessed, wherein the search query is received from a remote location comprising:

an index module for creating an index having entry for one or more documents that the user has previously accessed;

a web responder module for listening for incoming requests from one or more remote locations to search said index; and

a search processing module for creating a list of said one or more matching documents wherein said list is formatted in a common computer readable format.

5. The system of claim 4 further comprising a desktop integration module wherein said desktop integration module runs as a background process to monitor each time the user accesses said one or more documents for one or more predetermined events and wherein said index module receives data regarding said predetermined events from said desktop integration module.