Caching name-based filters in a full-text search engine

• US 20090222465A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Bernard, Emmanuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,612,467 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536

Abstract

Techniques for filtering a full-text search result in a full-text search engine level are described herein. According to one embodiment, in response to a search query received at an ORM system for a full-text search in a relational database, a full-text search engine is invoked to perform the requested full-text search based on the search query. A filter is utilized to filter a search result generated from the full-text search engine using a filter object representing a filter associated with the search query and returning the filtered result to the application client. Thereafter, the filter object is cached in a cache memory of the ORM system such that the cached filter object can be used in subsequent search queries without having to recreating the same filter object. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving at an object-relational mapping (ORM) system a search query for a full-text search in a relational database received from an application client, the search query written in a first query language incompatible with the relational database being searched;

invoking a full-text search engine to perform the requested full-text search based on the mapped search query;

filtering a search result generated from the full-text search engine using a filter object representing a filter associated with the search query and executing the zero or more queries to the relational database to return the filtered result to the application client; and

caching the filter object in a cache memory of the ORM system such that the cached filter object can be used in subsequent search queries without having to recreating the same filter object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the search query, search within the cache memory of the ORM system to determine whether the filter object has been cached within the ORM system;

creating the filter object to be used to filter the search result if the filter object has not been cached within the ORM system; and

retrieving the filter object from the cache memory of the ORM system to be used to filter the search result.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising defining the filter represented by the filter object, including indicating whether the filter object should be cached within the ORM system, wherein the filter object is cached within the ORM system if the filter represented by the filter object is defined with caching enabled.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein defining the filter comprises:

declaring the filter using a filter name in a declaration section; and

associating the filter name with a filter factory that is used to create and implement a functionality of the filter, wherein the filter factory is invoked by referencing the filter name of the filter.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the filter is one of a plurality of filters associated with the search query, wherein any one of the plurality of filters can be enabled or disabled by referencing the filter name of the respective filter.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising in response to an update event from an indexing engine associated with the full-text search engine that an index associated with an underlying database has been changed, reaching the filter object within the ORM system reflecting the change of the index.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising in response to a request to set a parameter of the filter identified by the filter name, invoking the filter factory associated with the filter name to configure the parameter of the filter.

8. A computer readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving at an object-relational mapping (ORM) system a search query for a full-text search in a relational database received from an application client, the search query written in a first query language incompatible with the relational database being searched;

invoking a full-text search engine to perform the requested full-text search based on the mapped search query;

filtering a search result generated from the full-text search engine using a filter object representing a filter associated with the search query and executing the zero or more queries to the relational database to return the filtered result to the application client; and

caching the filter object within the ORM system such that the cached filter object can be used in subsequent search queries without having to recreating the same filter object.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to the search query, search within the cache memory of the ORM system to determine whether the filter object has been cached within the ORM system;

creating the filter object to be used to filter the search result if the filter object has not been cached within the ORM system; and

retrieving the filter object from the cache memory of the ORM system to be used to filter the search result.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises defining the filter represented by the filter object, including indicating whether the filter object should be cached within the ORM system, wherein the filter object is cached within the ORM system if the filter represented by the filter object is defined with caching enabled.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein defining the filter comprises:

declaring the filter using a filter name in a declaration section; and

associating the filter name with a filter factory that is used to create and implement a functionality of the filter, wherein the filter factory is invoked by referencing the filter name of the filter.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the filter is one of a plurality of filters associated with the search query, wherein any one of the plurality of filters can be enabled or disabled by referencing the filter name of the respective filter.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises in response to an update event from an indexing engine associated with the full-text search engine that an index associated with an underlying database has been changed, reaching the filter object within the ORM system reflecting the change of the index.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises in response to a request to set a parameter of the filter identified by the filter name, invoking the filter factory associated with the filter name to configure the parameter of the filter.

15. An object-relational mapping (ORM) system, comprising:

an object-relational mapping (ORM) unit to receive a search query for a full-text search in a relational database received from an application client, the search query written in a first query language incompatible with the relational database being searched;

a search unit to invoke a full-text search engine to perform the requested full-text search based on the mapped search query;

a filtering unit to filter a search result generated from the search unit using a filter object representing a filter associated with the search query and executing the zero or more queries to the relational database to return the filtered result to the application client; and

a caching mechanism to cache the filter object in a cache memory of the ORM system such that the cached filter object can be used in subsequent search queries without having to recreating the same filter object.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the filtering unit in response to the search query, is configured to search within the cache memory of the ORM system to determine whether the filter object has been cached within the ORM system, wherein the filtering unit creates the filter object to be used to filter the search result if the filter object has not been cached within the ORM system, and wherein the filtering unit retrieves the filter object from the cache memory of the ORM system to be used to filter the search result.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a filter definition unit to define the filter represented by the filter object, including indicating whether the filter object should be cached within the ORM system, wherein the filter object is cached within the ORM system if the filter represented by the filter object is defined with caching enabled.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a filter factory, wherein the filter definition unit is configured to declare the filter using a filter name in a declaration section and to associate the filter name with the filter factory that is used to create and implement a functionality of the filter, wherein the filter factory is invoked by referencing the filter name of the filter.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the filter is one of a plurality of filters associated with the search query, wherein any one of the plurality of filters can be enabled or disabled by referencing the filter name of the respective filter.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the caching mechanism, in response to an update event from an indexing engine associated with the full-text search engine that an index associated with an underlying database has been changed, is configured to recache the filter object within the ORM system reflecting the change of the index.