PROVIDING CONTEXT AWARE SEARCH ADAPTIVELY

• US 20110302189A1
• Filed: 06/02/2010
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Liu, Zhen Hua, Baby, Thomas, Chakraborty, Sukhendu, Novoselsky, Anguel, Arora, Vikas, Ding, Junyan
• Granted Patent: US 8,447,785 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/835 Query processing

Abstract

A method, computing device, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided for facilitating a context-aware search on documents stored in an unstructured database column. The database server determines whether a document stored in an unstructured database object is marked up according to a recognized markup language. Documents that conform to the markup language are indexed with value-to-node mappings and node-to-physical-location mappings to provide a context-aware search of marked up nodes within the documents. Documents that do not conform to the markup language are indexed with value-to-document mappings to provide a full-text search of the documents. The database server evaluates a context-aware search against documents that conform to the markup language within the unstructured column without requiring the user identify the documents as XML documents and store the documents in an XMLType structured column.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an expression that specifies a value and a context;

determining that an unstructured database column in a database stores marked up text that contains the specified value;

determining a location of the marked up text that is stored within the unstructured database column;

accessing the marked up text from the location; and

determining that the marked up text is marked as having the specified context;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified context is a hierarchical path, wherein the marked up text is marked according to a hierarchical markup language as being under the hierarchical path in a document that is stored in the unstructured database column, and wherein the document stores other marked up text that is not marked according to the hierarchical markup language as being under the hierarchical path.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the unstructured database column is one of a variable character field, a character large object, or a binary large object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the expression comprises an XQuery that specifies an XPath, wherein the marked up text comprises a portion of an XML document, and wherein the unstructured database column stores the XML document in the database in a manner that maintains document fidelity for the XML document.

5. The method of claim 1, the method comprising accessing one or more indices to determine that the unstructured database column in the database stores marked up text that contains the specified value, and to determine the location of the marked up text within the unstructured database column, wherein the one or more indices use a key to identify the marked up text.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified context is a hierarchical path, wherein the marked up text comprises a node that is marked with tags according to a hierarchical markup language, and wherein the determining that the marked up text is marked as having the specified context comprises determining that the node is under the hierarchical path by accessing another node that is linked to the node in a node tree, wherein the other node is marked with tags according to the hierarchical markup language.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified context is a hierarchical path, comprising determining, from an index that maps a hierarchical order key of the marked up text to the hierarchical path, that the marked up text is marked as having the specified context, wherein the method is performed without accessing any of the one or more other nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the marked up text is at least part of a first document, wherein the expression is a first expression, wherein the value is a first value, and wherein the location is a first location, the method comprising:

receiving a second expression that specifies a second value;

determining that the unstructured database column in the database stores a second document, wherein the second document comprises non-marked up text that contains the specified value;

determining a second location of the second document; and

accessing the second document from the second location;

wherein the first document and the second document are stored in the unstructured database column without indicating whether the first document conforms to the markup language, and without indicating whether the second document conforms to the markup language.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising rewriting the second expression to reference a virtual node that represents the second document, wherein the virtual node does not appear in the second expression, and wherein the virtual node does not appear in the second document.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the marked up text is at least part of a first document, the method comprising:

determining that the unstructured database column in the database stores a second document of non-marked up text;

in response to the determining, skipping the second document of non-marked up text when evaluating the expression;

wherein the first document and the second document are stored in the unstructured database column without indicating whether the first document conforms to the markup language, and without indicating whether the second document conforms to the markup language.

11. A method comprising:

storing a document in an unstructured database column in a database;

determining that the document comprises one or more nodes that are marked according to a markup language as having a specified context;

in response to the determining, storing one or more indices that map the one or more nodes to a location where the one or more nodes is stored within the document;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining is performed in response to detecting a change to the document, and wherein the change comprises an addition of one or more tags that mark the one or more nodes as having the specified context.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the document is a first document, and wherein the location is a first location, further comprising:

storing a second document in the unstructured database column in the database;

determining that the second document does not conform to the markup language;

in response to the determining that the second document does not conform to the markup language, storing in the one or more indices a mapping of a virtual node to a second location of the second document;

wherein the first document and the second document are stored in the unstructured database column without indicating whether the first document conforms to the markup language, and without indicating whether the second document conforms to the markup language.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more indices map one or more values to the one or more nodes by mapping the one or more values to the document and a hierarchical position within the document.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the document is a set of raw text data that conforms to XML, and wherein the storing the set of data in the unstructured database column in the database maintains document fidelity for the document.

16. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of:

receiving an expression that specifies a value and a context;

determining that an unstructured database column in a database stores marked up text that contains the specified value;

determining a location of the marked up text that is stored within the unstructured database column;

accessing the marked up text from the location; and

determining that the marked up text is marked as having the specified context.

17. One or more non-transitory storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the specified context is a hierarchical path, wherein the marked up text comprises a node that is marked with tags according to a hierarchical markup language, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the performance of determining that the marked up text is marked as having the specified context by causing the one or more computing devices to determine that the node is under the hierarchical path by accessing another node that is linked to the node in a node tree, wherein the other node is marked with tags according to the hierarchical markup language.

18. One or more non-transitory storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the specified context is a hierarchical path, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause performance of determining, from an index that maps a hierarchical order key of the marked up text to the hierarchical path, that the marked up text is marked as having the specified context, wherein the method is performed without accessing any of the one or more other nodes.

19. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of:

storing a document in an unstructured database column in a database;

determining that the document comprises one or more nodes that are marked according to a markup language as having a specified context;

in response to the determining, storing one or more indices that map the one or more nodes to a location where the one or more nodes is stored within the document.

20. One or more non-transitory storage media as recited in claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the performance of determining in response to detecting a change to the document, and wherein the change comprises an addition of one or more tags that mark the one or more nodes as having the specified context.