Methods and systems for optimizing text searches over structured data in a multi-tenant environment

• US 20070130137A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Weissman, Craig, Oliver, Kevin, Nakada, Paul, Walters, Jeanine, Hansma, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 9,135,304 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking

Abstract

Search systems and methods for searching structured data and enhancing the relevancy of search results provided to a requesting user or application. Enhanced search results are provided by searching a cache of a users most recently used items to eliminate or reduce search indexing latency. Also, more relevant search results are provided by re-ranking results based on use history, data security models and/or hierarchical user role models. Further, enhanced search results are provided by including user information in the search index.

Claims

1. A method of performing a text search over structured data in a database system, the method comprising:

formulating a search query including a first search parameter;

sending the search query to a query server;

searching indexed data records in the database system using the first search parameter;

returning a plurality of matching records and associated relevancy scores;

modifying the relevancy scores based on activity data associated with the matching records; and

ordering the matching records in an order based on the modified relevancy scores.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein formulating a query is performed by an application server in response to a specific search request received from a user system including the search parameter.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes one of data in a last activity field and/or data in a last update field.

4. The method of claim 1, further including displaying at least a portion of the search results in said order.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the indexed data records include a user ID field and/or a user role field, and wherein the search query includes one or both of a user ID and a role of the user from which the search request originated.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the returned matching records based on a set of sharing rules.

25. A multi-tenant database system that implements the method of claim 1.

6. A method of reducing or eliminating the effects of indexing latency when performing a text search over structured data in a database system, wherein an indexing process asynchronously indexes the database as users add or modify records in the database, the method comprising:

receiving a search request including a search parameter from a first user system;

performing a first search over indexed data records in the database system using the search parameter;

performing a second search using the search parameter on a data structure containing a copy of the most recent database records that have been added or modified in response to a request from the first user system; and

providing the results of the first search and the second search to the first user system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first search results and the second search results are intermixed.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first search results and the second search results are separated.

9. The method of claim 6, further including displaying at least a portion of the first search results and the second search results together.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and second search results are intermixed when displayed.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and second search results are displayed separately.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the steps of performing the first search and performing the second search are performed substantially simultaneously.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the steps of performing the first search and performing the second search are performed sequentially.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the most recent database records includes the last N records that have been added or modified in response to a request from the first user system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein N is 25 or more.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the most recent database records includes the database records added or modified within a specified time period in response to requests from the first user system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the specified time period is between about 2 minutes and about 5 minutes.

26. A multi-tenant database system that implements the method of claim 6.

18. A method of performing a backup search in a database system when a search index query over structured data in a database system times-out, the method comprising:

formulating a search query by an application server, the search query including a first search parameter;

sending the search query to a query server to search over indexed data records in the database system; and

if no response to the search query is received within a specified timeout period, automatically performing a database lookup using the search parameter in a search name table that stores name information for data objects in the database system.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein formulating a search query is performed by the application server in response to a specific search request received from a user system including the first search parameter.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising providing the results of the database lookup to the user system.

27. A multi-tenant database system that implements the method of claim 18.

21. A method of performing a text search over structured data in a database system, the method comprising:

receiving a search request including a search parameter from a first user system;

formulating a search query including the first search parameter and user information;

sending the search query to a query server; and

searching indexed data records in the database system using the first search parameter and the user information, wherein the indexed data records include at least one user information field,

returning records matching on the search parameter, and a relevancy score for each returned record, wherein relevancy scores of records matching on the search parameter and matching on the user information field are higher than the relevancy scores for matching records not matching on the user information field.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one user information field includes a user ID field and/or a user role field, and wherein the user information in the search query includes one or both of a user ID and a role of the user from which the search request originated.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising filtering the returned records based on a set of sharing rules.

28. A multi-tenant database system that implements the method of claim 21.