SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR METADATA SEARCH

• US 20100106729A1
• Filed: 09/25/2009
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yuan, Ni, Xie, Guo Tong, Pan, Yue
• Granted Patent: US 9,275,144 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A system, a method, and a computer readable article of manufacture for metadata searching. The system includes: a receiving module for receiving a search query with respect to a plurality of metadata resources; a query module for parsing the search query and searching related metadata resources and the structural information among the related metadata resources according to the parsing of the search query; and an output module for outputting the search results so as to realize a fuzzy structural search with respect to the plurality of metadata resources. The method includes the steps of: receiving a search query that does not designate complete structural information of the metadata resources; parsing the search query and searching related metadata resources to form search results that include the complete structural information; and outputting the search results.

Claims

1. A system for metadata searching, comprising:

a receiving module configured for receiving a search query with respect to a plurality of metadata resources, the search query designating textual information in metadata resources without designating all the structural information among metadata resources;

a query module configured for parsing the search query and for searching related metadata resources and the structural information among the related metadata resources according to the parsing of the search query to form search results, the search results including the complete structural information among the related metadata resources; and

an output module configured for outputting the search results so as to realize a fuzzy structural search with respect to the plurality of metadata resources.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an indexer module configured for indexing the plurality of metadata resources to generate text indexes with respect to the texts in the plurality of metadata resources, and structure indexes storing information on the relationship paths between pairs of metadata resources in the plurality of metadata resources;

wherein the query module is used to (i) process the search query by using the text indexes and the structure indexes and (ii) generate a search result.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the text indexes store the mapping between the text segments or part thereof in the plurality of metadata resources and the corresponding metadata resources and attributes to which the text segments belong in the corresponding metadata resources, and further store the type information of the metadata resources.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the structure indexes are implemented by a two-level hash table, wherein entries in the first level hash table are identifiers of the metadata resources as the end nodes of the relationship paths and entries in the second level hash table are identifiers of the metadata resources as the start nodes of the relationship paths and information on the relationship paths.

5. The system according to claim 2, wherein the relationship paths include:

direct relationship paths between pairs of metadata resources;

relationship paths including an equivalence relationship between pairs of metadata resources; and

relationship paths including a containment relationship between pairs of metadata resources.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the type of the search query is selected from a group including at least one of the following types:

query type one designating a group of keywords to obtain the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords;

query type two designating a group of keywords to obtain the metadata resources which have relationship paths to the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords;

query type three designating a group of keywords and the type of metadata resources, to obtain the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords and the type is the designated type;

query type four designating a group of keywords and a type of metadata resources to obtain the metadata resource of which the type is the designated type and having relationship paths to the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords; and

query type five designating a first group of keywords, a second group of keywords and a relationship to obtain a first metadata resources, the first metadata resources having relationship paths to second metadata resources and the relationship paths including the designated relationship, the first metadata resources containing the first group of keywords or having relationship paths to the metadata resources containing the first group of keywords, and the second metadata resources containing the second group of keywords or having relationship paths to the metadata resources containing the second group of keywords.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein query type two is for searching (i) metadata resources S of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords, (ii) metadata resources S′

having direct relationship paths to any one of the metadata resources in S, and (iii) metadata resources having relationship paths including an equivalence relationship or a containment relationship to any one of the metadata resources in S′

; and

query type four is for searching (i) metadata resources S of which the type is the designated type and the text segments of which include the designated group of keywords;

(ii) metadata resources S′

of which the type is the designated type and having direct relationship paths to any one of the metadata resources in S, and (iii) metadata resources of which the type is the designated type and having relationship paths including an equivalence relationship or a containment relationship to any one of the metadata resources in S′

.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the output module is further configured for:

displaying the search results, including the metadata resources obtained in response to the search query or part thereof and/or a link to the metadata resources, and the relationship paths between the metadata resources obtained in response to the search queries and the metadata resources containing the keywords designated in the search query or a link for displaying the relationship paths when clicked.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the output module is further configured for:

sorting the metadata resources obtained in response to the search query in the search results, the sorting being performed according to a measurement based on keyword matching and a measurement of the paths between the obtained metadata resources and the metadata resources containing the keywords designated in the search query.

10. A method implemented on an electronic data processing system for performing a metadata resources search, comprising the steps of:

receiving a search query with respect to a plurality of metadata resources, wherein the search query does not designate all the textual information in metadata resources;

parsing the search query;

searching related metadata resources and the structural information among the related metadata resources according to the parsing of the search query so as to form search results, wherein the search results include the complete structural information among the metadata resources; and

outputting the search results so as to realize a fuzzy structural search to the plurality of metadata resources.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

indexing the plurality of metadata resources to generate text indexes with respect the texts in the plurality of metadata resources, and structure indexes storing information on the relationship paths between pairs of metadata resources in the plurality of metadata resources;

wherein the searching step is executed by using the text indexes and the structure indexes.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the text indexes store (i) the mapping between the text segments in the plurality of the metadata resources and the corresponding metadata resources as well as the attributes to which the text segments belong in the corresponding metadata resources and (ii) the type information of the metadata resources.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the structure indexes are implemented by a two-level hash table, where entries in the first level hash table are the identifiers of the metadata resources as the end nodes of the relationship paths, and entries in the second level hash table are the identifiers of the metadata resources as the start nodes of the relationship paths and information on the relationship paths.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the relationship paths include:

direct relationship paths between pairs of metadata resources;

relationship paths including an equivalence relationship between pairs of metadata resources; and

relationship paths including a containment relationship between pairs of metadata resources.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the search query is one of a group including at least one of the following types:

query type one, wherein the search query designates a group of keywords to obtain the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords;

query type two, wherein the search query designates a group of keywords to obtain the metadata resources which have relationship paths to the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords;

query type three, wherein the search query designates a group of keywords and a type metadata resources, to obtain the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords and the type of which is the designated type;

query type four, wherein the search query designates a group of keywords and a type of metadata resources to obtain the metadata resource of which the type is the designated type and having relationship paths to the metadata resources of which the text segments include the designated group of keywords; and

query type five, wherein the search query designates a first group of keywords, a second group of keywords and a relationship to obtain the first metadata resources, the first metadata resources having relationship paths to a second metadata resources and the relationship paths including the designated relationship, the first metadata resources containing the first group of keywords or having relationship paths to the metadata resource containing the first group of keywords, and the second metadata resources containing the second group of keywords or having relationship paths to the metadata resources containing the second group of keywords.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein query type two is for searching (i) metadata resources S of which the text segments include a group of keywords, metadata resources S′

having direct relationship paths to any one of the metadata resources in S and (ii) metadata resources having relationship paths including an equivalence relationship or a containment relationship to any one of the metadata resources in S′

; and

query type four is for searching;

(i) metadata resources S of which the type is the designated type and the text segments of which include the designated group of keywords;

(ii) metadata resources S′

of which type is the designated type and having direct relationship paths to any one of the metadata resources in S; and

(iii) metadata resources of which the type is the designated type and having relationship paths including an equivalence relationship or a containment relationship and to any one of the metadata resources in S′

.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of outputting the search results further comprises:

displaying (i) the search results, including the metadata resources obtained in response to the search query or a part thereof and/or a link to the metadata resources, and (ii) the relationship paths between the metadata resources obtained in response to the search query and the metadata resources containing the keywords designated in the search query or a link for displaying the relationship paths when being clicked.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of outputting the search results further comprises:

sorting the metadata resources in the search results obtained in response to the search query, the sorting being performed according to a measurement based on keyword matching and a measurement based on the paths between the obtained metadata resources and the metadata resources containing the keywords designated in the search query.

19. A computer readable article of manufacture tangibly embodying computer readable instructions which, when executed by the computer, cause it to carry out the steps of:

receiving a search query with respect to a plurality of metadata resources, wherein the search query does not designate all the textual information in metadata resources;

parsing the search query and searching related metadata resources and the structural information among the related metadata resources according to the parsing of the search query so as to form search results, wherein the search results include the complete structural information among the metadata resources; and

outputting the search results so as to realize a fuzzy structural search to the plurality of metadata resources.