DISTRIBUTED INDEXING OF FILE CONTENT

• US 20090187588A1
• Filed: 01/23/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Seide, Frank, Thambiratnam, Albert J. K.
• Application Number:
  US12/018,203
• Publication Number:
  US 20090187588A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/134 Distributed indices

Abstract

Described herein is technology for, among other things, distributed indexing of file content. Content-based indexing the file involves determining whether content-based index information for the file is available from an external source. This avoids repeating already-performed content analysis, which is time consuming and computationally intensive especially for non-text files. The content-based index information, if it is available, is received from the external source and may be stored. If the content-based index information is not available or is not complete, content-based index information for the file is generated and stored. Moreover, the generated content-based index information is shared with the external source. Once content analysis of the file is performed to generate content-based index information for the file, the content-based index information is available and sharable as needed. There is no need to repeat the same content analysis on the file.

Claims

1. A method of content-based indexing a file, said method comprising:

determining whether content-based index information for said file is available from an external source;

if said content-based index information for said file is available from said external source, receiving and storing said content-based index information from said external source; and

if occurrence of any one of said content-based index information for said file is not available from said external source and said content-based index information for said file is not complete, generating and storing content-based index information for said file and sharing said generated content-based index information with said external source.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said generating and storing said content-based index information for said file comprises:

performing content analysis on entire content of said file to generate said content-based index information.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said generating and storing said content-based index information for said file comprises:

performing content analysis solely on a portion of content of said file to generate said content-based index information.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said received content-based index information for said file comprises content-based index information generated by performance of a first type of content analysis, and wherein said generating and storing said content-based index information for said file comprises:

performing a second type of content analysis on at least a portion of content of said file to generate said content-based index information.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said received content-based index information for said file comprises content-based index information generated by performance of content analysis using a first parameter setting, and wherein said generating and storing said content-based index information for said file comprises:

performing content analysis using a second parameter setting on at least a portion of content of said file to generate said content-based index information.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein said generating and storing said content-based index information for said file further comprises:

merging said received content-based index information and said generated content-based index information to form merged content-based index information having greater accuracy than accuracy of said received content-based index information and accuracy of said generated content-based index information.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

creating a unique identifier for said file that does not disclose content of said file; and

associating said unique identifier with said received content-based index information and said generated content-based index information.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

before storing said received content-based index information, evaluating a first security feature of said received content-based index information to determine whether to store said received content-based index information; and

adding a second security feature to said generated content-based index information.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said external source comprises a server.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said external source comprises a device of a peer-to-peer network.

11. A method of creating an index for files, said method comprising:

receiving and storing content-based index information for said files; and

generating and storing content-based index information for said files, wherein said index comprises said received content-based index information and said generated content-based index information.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 further comprising:

processing said received content-based index information to detect and to eliminate an irregularity.

13. The method as recited in claim 11 further comprising:

generating and storing noncontent-based index information for said files.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 wherein said index further comprises said noncontent-based index information.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

an indexing unit operable to utilize said processor to request and receive content-based index information for files from an external source, generate content-based index information for files, and create an index comprising said received content-based index information and said generated content-based index information; and

a storage unit operable to store said received content-based index information and said generated content-based index information.

16. The apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein said indexing unit comprises:

a content analyzer operable to utilize said processor to generate content-based index information for a file; and

a search unit operable to utilize said processor to search said index.

17. The apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein said indexing unit is further operable to utilize said processor to generate noncontent-based index information for files.

18. The apparatus as recited in claim 17 wherein said index further comprises said noncontent-based index information.

19. The apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein said indexing unit is further operable to utilize said processor to process said received content-based index information to detect and to eliminate an irregularity.

20. The apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein said indexing unit is further operable to utilize said processor to search a network to discover files for inclusion in scope of said index.