Defining and extracting a flat list of search properties from a rich structured type

• US 20080005135A1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raman, Balan Sethu, Gupta, Anurag, Shukla, Amit, Anand, Sanjay, Muthukrishnan, Sambavi, Thomas, Michael W., Acharya, Srinivasmurthy P., Agarwal, Sameet H., Venkatraman, Mahadevan, Mazeev, Maxim, Kaujalgi, Roopali, Trdinich, Joseph, Kline, Rodger Nickels, Jacob, Salome
• Granted Patent: US 7,502,807 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

Rich structured data for items in a file system that allows different kinds of data to be identified by metadata is mapped into a set of search properties for a desktop search service, which is a flat list. This is applicable to any rich structured data that should be mapped into search properties for a desktop search service. Included is an installation mechanism to install these mappings and an execution infrastructure for utilizing the generated SQL from the mappings to extract search properties from items.

Claims

1. A method for providing search properties of data comprising:

providing mappings of search properties of an item of a defined rich structured data type to a corresponding second set of other individual search properties utilized by a database search system;

storing said mappings;

extracting a corresponding second set of other individual search properties for the item using the mappings; and

exposing the extracted corresponding second set of other individual search properties through mechanisms of the database search system whenever an item of the defined type is created or modified.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising first providing a definition of the rich structured data type in a schema.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the storing said mappings comprises:

generating query language mapping statements corresponding to the mappings; and

storing said statements.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein corresponding second set of other individual search properties utilized by the database search system is a flat list.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracting comprises storing the results of the generated query language mapping statements corresponding to the mappings.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the generated query language mapping statements are in standard query language (SQL).

7. A computer readable medium having instructions thereon for performing the steps of claim 1.

8. A computer readable medium having instructions thereon for performing the steps of claim 2.

9. A computer readable medium having instructions thereon for performing the steps of claim 3.

10. A computer readable medium having instructions thereon for performing the steps of claim 4.

11. A computer readable medium having instructions thereon for performing the steps of claim 5.

12. A computer readable medium having instructions thereon for performing the steps of claim 6.

14. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for first providing a definition of the rich structured data type in a schema.

15. The system of claim 2 wherein the means for extracting said mappings comprises:

means for generating query language mapping statements corresponding to the mappings; and

means for storing said statements.

16. The system of claim 3 wherein the corresponding second set of other individual search properties utilized by the database search system is a flat list.

17. The system of claim 4 wherein the means for extracting further comprises means for storing the results of the generated query language mapping statements corresponding to the mappings.

18. The system of claim 5 wherein the generated query language mapping statements are in standard query language (SQL).

13. A system for providing search properties of data comprising:

means for providing mappings of search properties of an item of a defined rich structured data type to a corresponding second set of other individual search properties utilized by a database search system;

means for storing said mappings;

means for extracting a corresponding second set of other individual search properties for the item using the mappings; and

means for exposing the extracted corresponding second set of other individual search properties through mechanisms of the database search system whenever an item of the defined type is created or modified.

19. A system for providing search properties of data comprising:

an installation mechanism configured to install mappings of search properties of an item of a defined rich structured data type to a corresponding second set of other individual search properties utilized by a database search system;

an execution infrastructure configured to generate query language mapping statements corresponding to the mappings to extract said corresponding second set of other individual search properties; and

a mechanism configured to expose the extracted corresponding second set of other individual search properties for the item whenever an item of the defined rich structured data type is created or modified.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the mappings are specified in a separate file from a file which provides a schema definition of the rich structured data type.