SEARCH EXTENSIBILITY TO THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS

• US 20110252038A1
• Filed: 07/01/2010
• Published: 10/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Rahardia, David, Freedman, Gordon J., Phipps, Benjamin S., Schmidt, Edward T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,098,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90 Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

At least certain embodiments of the present disclosure include a method to extend search capabilities to third party applications installed on a device. In one embodiment, records associated with a third party application are indexed in a process isolated from other third party applications installed on the device using a search plugin specific to the third party application. Furthermore, the indexed records can be searched in response to a user search query without invoking the third party application.

Claims

1. A machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor, will cause the processor to generate an application programming interface (API) that allows an API-implementing component to perform operations, the operations comprising:

launching an application indexer to run in a process having privileges identical to privileges of a third party application executable on the processor, wherein the process is separate from other processes involving other third party applications executable on the processor;

instantiating, by the application indexer, an instance of an application search bundle specific to the third party application; and

the application indexer indexing records from the instance of the application search bundle to store the records indexed in a search database.

2. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein application search bundle specifies a set of attributes of the records to be used in indexing the records and wherein the other processes include search and index processes of the other third party applications, and wherein the instance of the application search bundle that is specific to the third party application is restricted to the same memory privileges as the third party application.

3. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

the application indexer passing identifications associated with the records in an update list to the application search bundle to request the records, wherein the identifications have been added into the update list when the third party application changes the records.

4. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

indexing records associated with a third party application installed on a device using a search plugin specific to the third party application, wherein a process for indexing the records is isolated from other third party applications installed on the device; and

searching content in response to a user search query using the records indexed.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

presenting records matching the user search query via a graphical user interface; and

allowing a user to select a record from the records matching the user search query via the graphical user interface and wherein the search plugin is restricted to the same memory privileges as the third party application.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the user selecting the record, launching the third party application to present the record.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein presenting the records matching the user search query comprises displaying a set of attributes of the records on the graphical user interface, wherein the set of attributes are specified by the search plugin specific to the third party application.

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

installing a third party application on a computing device;

checking metadata of the third party application to determine if the third party application wants to index content associated with the third party application; and

registering the third party application if the third party application wants to index content associated with the third party application.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

launching the third party application in response to a user request, wherein the third party application changes a record and sends identification of the changed record to a search daemon running on the computing device to be stored in an update list, usable by the search daemon to index the changed record.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

invoking a search plugin specific to the third party application in a separate process to pass a set of attributes of the changed record to the search daemon to be indexed.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the search plugin is invoked after the third party application has been terminated.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing to the separate process privileges identical to privileges entitled to by the third party application.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein application search bundle specifies a set of attributes of the records to be used in indexing the records and wherein another application indexer is executable on the data processing system in another process having privileges identical to privileges of another third party application executable on the data processing system.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a display device to display a graphical user interface to receive a search query from a user; and

a search daemon, executable on the data processing device, to search the indexed records in the search database for records matching the search query without invoking the third party application.

13. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

a third party application, executable on a data processing device, specifying a set of attributes of a record to be presented when the record becomes part of a search result of a search performed by a search daemon in response to a user search query; and

the third party application providing an application search bundle specific to the third party application to pass records to a search indexer instantiated by the search daemon to be indexed without launching the third party application.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the third party application changing records of content associated with the third party application;

storing identifiers of the records changed in a list accessible by the search indexer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the search indexer retrieves the identifiers from the list after the third party application has terminated and uses the identifiers to obtain the records changed from the application search bundle.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the application indexer is operable to pass identifications associated with the records in an update list to the application search bundle to request the records, wherein the identifications have been added into the update list when the third party application changes the records.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface presents the records matching the search query and allows the user to select a record from the records matching the search query, and in response to the user selecting the record, the data processing device is operable to launch the third party application to present the record selected by the user.

16. An apparatus comprising:

an application indexer, executable on a data processing device, to run in a process having privileges identical to privileges of a third party application executable on the data processing device, wherein the process is separate from other processes involving other third party applications executable on the data processing device; and

a search database stored on a data storage device coupled to the data processing device, wherein the application indexer is operable to instantiate an instance of an application search bundle specific to the third party application and to index records from the instance of the application search bundle to store the records indexed in the search database.