Extended Database Search

• US 20120117116A1
• Filed: 11/05/2010
• Published: 05/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Jacobson, Eric, Thomas, Les, Zhang, Gang
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,982 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/792
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2272 Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2458 Special types of queries, e.g. statistical queries, fuzzy queries or distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/256 in federated or virtual databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing

Abstract

Methods, program products, and systems implementing integrated repository of structured and unstructured data are disclosed. An integrated environment is provided for accessing, structured data (e.g., data of a relational database) and unstructured data (e.g., data stored in a text or binary file), including creating, managing, modifying, and searching the structured data and unstructured data. The integrated environment can include an integrated user interface, a set of commands and application programming interface (API), and storage for a relational database and a document repository. The integrated environment can include a database abstraction layer that allows database operations on both the structured data and the unstructured data.

Claims

1. A method executed by a computer, comprising:

receiving a search request including a query term;

based on the query term, creating one or more first queries targeting structured data, and one or more second queries targeting unstructured data;

receiving a first result in response to the one or more first queries and a second result in response to the one or more second queries, the second result being retrieved based on the unstructured data and being associated with an identifier identifying structured data that are different from the first result;

expanding the first result using the identified structured data; and

providing the expanded first result and the second result as a response to the search request.

2. The method of claim 1, where:

the structured data include data in a relational database; and

the unstructured data include one or more documents.

3. The method of claim 2, where:

creating the one or more first queries includes creating a database query for searching the relational database using the query term; and

creating the one or more second queries includes creating a text search query for searching the one or more documents and a metadata search query for searching metadata relating the one or more documents to the data in the relational database.

4. The method of claim 3, where the identifier includes a row identifier identifying a row of data in the relational database, the row of data being related to the second result according to the metadata.

5. The method of claim 3, where the metadata include attributes of the one or more documents, the attributes include at least one of a document name, a document type, a document creation date, a document update data, or an author.

6. The method of claim 3, where providing the expanded first result and the second result as a response to the search request includes providing the expanded first result and the second result for display in an integrated display environment.

7. The method of claim 1, where expanding the first result comprises:

creating a search hit context of the second result, the search hit context identifying a portion of unstructured data in the second result that matches the query term; and

inserting the search hit context into the first result.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an upload of the unstructured data;

storing the unstructured data separate from a database storing the structured data;

extracting metadata of the unstructured data; and

inserting the metadata and a document reference that refers to the unstructured data into a table of the database.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a row identifier in the structured data, the row identifier identifying a row of data in a table of a database storing the structured data, the row of data including a reference to the unstructured data; and

associating an index of the unstructured data with a database index using the row identifier.

10. The method of claim 9, where the reference to the unstructured data includes a document name.

11. A method executed by one or more processing units, comprising:

receiving structured and unstructured data, the structured data including data in a database, the unstructured data including an electronic document;

creating a first index from the unstructured data;

creating a combined index using the first index, including creating a link from the unstructured data to the structured data; and

providing a search result in response to a search request, the search result generated based on a match between the search request and the combined index.

12. The method of claim 11, where receiving the unstructured data includes:

receiving an input to insert the unstructured data into a table of the database; and

in response to the input;

storing the unstructured data separate from the database;

extracting metadata of the unstructured data; and

inserting the metadata and a document reference that refers to the stored unstructured data into the table of the database.

13. The method of claim 12, where creating the first index includes creating the first index based on content of the unstructured data.

14. The method of claim 12, where creating the combined index includes:

determining a row identifier in the structured data, the row identifier identifying a row of data in a table of the database, the row of data including the document reference to the unstructured data; and

associating the first index with the database index using the row identifier.

15. A computer program product stored on a storage device, operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a search request including a query term;

based on the query term, creating one or more first queries targeting structured data, and one or more second queries targeting unstructured data;

receiving a first result in response to the one or more first queries and a second result in response to the one or more second queries, the second result being retrieved based on the unstructured data and being associated with an identifier identifying structured data that are different from the first result;

expanding the first result using the identified structured data; and

providing the expanded first result and the second result as a response to the search request.

16. The product of claim 15, where:

the structured data include data in a relational database; and

the unstructured data include one or more documents.

17. The product of claim 16, where:

creating the one or more first queries includes creating a database query for searching the relational database using the query term; and

creating the one or more second queries includes creating a text search query for searching the one or more documents and a metadata search query for searching metadata relating the one or more documents to the data in the relational database.

18. The product of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

receiving an upload of the unstructured data;

storing the unstructured data separate from a database storing the structured data;

extracting metadata of the unstructured data; and

inserting the metadata and a document reference that refers to the unstructured data into a table of the database.

19. A system comprising:

one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving a search request including a query term;

based on the query term, creating one or more first queries targeting structured data, and one or more second queries targeting unstructured data;

receiving a first result in response to the one or more first queries and a second result in response to the one or more second queries, the second result being retrieved based on the unstructured data and being associated with an identifier identifying structured data that are different from the first result;

expanding the first result using the identified structured data; and

providing the expanded first result and the second result as a response to the search request.

20. The system of claim 19, the operations further comprising:

receiving an upload of the unstructured data;

storing the unstructured data separate from a database storing the structured data;

extracting metadata of the unstructured data; and

inserting the metadata and a document reference that refers to the unstructured data into a table of the database.