METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PERFORMING HIGH VOLUME SEARCHES IN A MULTI-TENANT STORE

• US 20110258199A1
• Filed: 04/14/2011
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Press, William A., Bergan, Jeffrey M., OLIVER, KEVIN, Burstein, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,666,974 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/746
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking

Abstract

Method and systems for performing high volume searches are described. In one example a method includes receiving a query directed to a database, the database including a plurality of items, determining whether the query complies with one of a plurality of search criteria, each of the plurality of search criteria corresponding to a predefined index of the database, selecting a predefined index of the database corresponding to one of the plurality of search criteria if the query complies with said search criterion, the index containing entries that comply with the corresponding search criterion, applying the query to the selected index to find database items referenced in the index, selecting items based on applying the query to the selected index, building a report for the query, the report including only items of the selected index.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a query directed to a search;

determining whether the query complies with one of a plurality of search criteria, each of the plurality of search criteria corresponding to a predefined search index, each search index being drawn from a database and containing identifiers for records of items in the database;

selecting a predefined search index corresponding to one of the plurality of search criteria if the query complies with said search criterion, the index containing entries that comply with the corresponding search criterion;

applying the query to the selected index;

selecting items based on applying the query to the selected index;

returning a result set for the query, the result set including only items of the selected index.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of search criteria is time, wherein the corresponding index is ordered based on a time sequence from most recent to least recent and wherein the query is applied to the most recent items first based on the ordering of the index.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of criteria comprises a time range and wherein the corresponding index comprises references to items having a field that complies with the time range.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of criteria comprises access privileges and wherein the corresponding index comprises references to items with a common access level.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is received from a user, the method further comprising determining characteristics of the user and wherein determining whether the query complies with one of a plurality of search criteria comprises comparing characteristics of the user to characteristics for the predefined indexes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the search criteria are ordered so that a query is applied to each complying predefined index in a specific order.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the ordering is based on a number of items in each index, wherein a query is applied to an index with fewer items before an index with more items.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the ordering is based on the size of each index, wherein a query is applied to a shorter index before being applied to a longer index.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the index is ordered based on a determined value and wherein applying the query further comprises applying the query to find database items based on the ordering of the index.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying the query to further indexes after applying the query to the selected index.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a second predefined index of the database corresponding to a second one of the plurality of search criteria and applying the query to the second selected index after applying the query to the first selected index.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the index comprises references to items in the database and wherein building a report comprises accessing selected items from the database using the references of the index.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising post-filtering the selected items against the database based on the query.

14. A method of performing a search comprising:

receiving a query from a user, the query being directed to a set of search indexes, the search indexes being drawn from a database and containing identifiers for records of items in the database;

determining a user access privilege level for the query, the database having a plurality of different user access privilege levels, the different levels allowing access to different sets of items of the database;

selecting one of a plurality of privilege level search indexes, each privilege level search index corresponding to a user access privilege level of the database, the selected privilege level search index containing only items corresponding to the determined user access privilege level;

applying the search to the selected privilege level search index;

applying the search to further indexes drawn the database;

returning a result set for the query, the result set including only items that are represented in the selected privilege level search index.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining whether the query complies with one of a plurality of additional search criteria, each of the plurality of search criteria corresponding to a predefined search index, and selecting additional predefined search indexes to which the query is applied.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the search criteria are ordered so that the results from each search index are in a specific order.

17. A machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving a query directed to a search;

determining whether the query complies with one of a plurality of search criteria, each of the plurality of search criteria corresponding to a predefined search index, each search index being drawn from a database and containing identifiers for records of items in the database;

selecting a predefined search index corresponding to one of the plurality of search criteria if the query complies with said search criterion, the index containing entries that comply with the corresponding search criterion;

applying the query to the selected index to find database items referenced in the index;

selecting items based on applying the query to the selected index;

returning a result set for the query, the result set including only items of the selected index.

18. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 17, wherein the search criteria are ordered so that a query is applied to each complying predefined index in a specific order.

19. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 17, wherein the search indexes are ordered and wherein the result set from each query is combined with the result set from each other query based on the ordering.

20. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of receiving a query directed to a search;

determining whether the query complies with one of a plurality of search criteria, each of the plurality of search criteria corresponding to a predefined search index, each search index being drawn from a database and containing identifiers for records of items in the database;

selecting a predefined search index corresponding to one of the plurality of search criteria if the query complies with said search criterion, the index containing entries that comply with the corresponding search criterion;

applying the query to the selected index to find database items referenced in the index;

selecting items based on applying the query to the selected index;

returning a result set for the query, the result set including only items of the selected index.