Context-sensitive term expansion with multiple levels of expansion

• US 7,617,196 B2
• Filed: 10/22/2003
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pakhomov, Serguei V., Dettinger, Richard D., Tenner, Jeffrey W., Herbeck, David G., Will, Eric W., Chute, Christopher G., Buntrock, James D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Khanh B
• Application Number:
  US10/691,308
• Publication Number:
  US 20050091197A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,211 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Methods, articles of manufacture, and systems for searching collections of data using context sensitive expanded term searching are provided. The collection of data may be a relational database, text document, or any other type of searchable collection of data. In either case, a query including a search condition based on a specified search term may be modified to include additional conditions based on a set of expanded (e.g., conceptually-related) search terms. For some embodiments, a user may be given the ability to control the level of expansion and the context in which the terms may be expanded.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for context-sensitive searching of fields of a data repository using multiple levels of term expansion, comprising configuring one or more computer processors to perform an operation comprising:

receiving, from a user, a relational database query containing a plurality of conditions, wherein at least one condition is a condition for searching at least one field of the data repository, wherein the at least one condition includes at least one base search term providing a keyword to search for in an unstructured text field of the data repository;

providing a plurality of sets of expanded search terms for the base search term, each set corresponding to a different level of expansion of a plurality of levels of expansions ranging from a lowest level of expansion to a highest level of expansion, and each set comprising all expanded search terms from any lower level of expansion;

obtaining one or more parameters associated with the base search term, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a user-specified level of expansion selected from the defined plurality of levels of expansions and further include at least a credential associated with the user and a role associated with the user;

obtaining, based at least in part on the user-specified level of expansion and the credential associated with the user and the role associated with the user, one or more expanded search terms, wherein obtaining the one or more expanded search terms comprises selecting a set of expanded search terms from the plurality of sets of expanded search terms; and

prior to executing the relational database query, modifying the relational-database query to contain one or more additional conditions based on the one or more expanded search terms and by operation of the one or more computer processors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a name of the at least one field.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a name of a table containing the at least one field.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein different one or more expanded search terms are obtained for the at least one base search term depending on the name of the at least one field.

5. A computer-implemented method for searching fields of a data repository using multiple levels of term expansion, comprising configuring one or more computer processors to perform an operation comprising:

receiving, from a user, a relational database query containing a plurality of conditions, wherein at least one condition is a condition for searching at least one field of the data repository, wherein the at least one condition includes at least one base search term providing a keyword to search for in an unstructured text field of the data repository;

providing an interface allowing a user to specify a level of expansion associated with the base search term, the level of expansion selected from the defined plurality of levels of expansions ranging from a lowest level of expansion to a highest level of expansion;

determining one or more parameters specifying at least a credential associated with the user and a role associated with the user;

providing a plurality of sets of expanded search terms for the base search term, each set corresponding to a different level of expansion of the plurality of levels of expansions, and each set comprising all expanded search terms from any lower level of expansion;

obtaining the level of expansion associated with the base search term;

obtaining, based on the base search term, the associated level of expansion, and the one or more parameters, one or more expanded search terms, wherein obtaining the one or more expanded search terms comprises selecting a set of expanded search terms from the plurality of sets of expanded search terms; and

prior to executing the relational database query, modifying the relational database query to contain one or more additional conditions, wherein each additional condition includes one of the one or more expanded search terms and by operation of the one or more computer processors.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the base search term corresponds to an instance data value of the at least one field.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the number of expanded search terms in each set is dependent on the corresponding level of expansion.

8. A computer-implemented method for context-sensitive searching of fields of a data repository, comprising configuring one or more computer processors to perform an operation comprising:

receiving, from a user, a relational database query containing at least one condition for searching at least one field of the data repository, wherein the at least one condition includes at least one base search term;

determining one or more parameters specifying at least a credential associated with the user and a role associated with the user;

providing a plurality of sets of expanded search terms for the base search term, each set corresponding to a different level of expansion of a defined plurality of levels of expansions ranging from a lowest level of expansion to a highest level of expansion, and each set comprising all expanded search terms from any lower level of expansion;

obtaining, based on the one or more parameters associated with the base search term, one or more expanded search terms, wherein obtaining the one or more expanded search terms comprises selecting a set of expanded search terms from the plurality of sets of expanded search terms; and

prior to executing the relational database query, modifying the relational database query to contain one or more conditions based on the one or more expanded search terms and by operation of the one or more computer processors,

wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term further comprise at least a name of the at least one field and different one or more expanded search terms are obtained for the at least one base search term depending on the name of the at least one field.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a name of a table containing the at least one field.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a level of expansion.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the level of expansion is dependent on one or more other ones of the one or more parameters.

12. A computer-implemented method of searching fields of a data repository using dynamic term expansion, comprising configuring one or more computer processors to perform an operation comprising:

obtaining a relational database query containing at least one condition for searching at least one field of the data repository, wherein the at least one condition includes at least one base search term providing a keyword to search for in an unstructured text field of the data repository;

determining one or more parameters specifying at least a credential associated with the user and a role associated with the user;

providing a plurality of sets of expanded search terms for the base search term, each set corresponding to a different level of expansion of a plurality of levels of expansions ranging from a lowest level of expansion to a highest level of expansion, and each set comprising all expanded search terms from any lower level of expansion;

identifying, based on the base search term and the one or more parameters, a set of expanded terms associated with the base search term, wherein identifying the set of expanded search terms comprises selecting a set of expanded search terms from the plurality of sets of expanded search terms;

generating a pointer to the identified set of expanded search terms; and

prior to executing the relational database query, modifying the relational database query to contain one or more conditions based on one or more expanded search terms retrieved using the pointer and by operation of the one or more computer processors.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising modifying the identified set of expanded search terms after generating the pointer.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the pointer comprises a directory path to a database.

15. A computer-implemented method for context-sensitive searching of fields of a data repository using multiple levels of term expansion, comprising configuring one or more computer processors to perform an operation comprising:

receiving, from a user, a relational database query containing a plurality of conditions, wherein at least one condition is a condition for searching at least one field of the data repository, wherein the at least one condition includes at least one base search term providing a keyword to search for in an unstructured text field of the data repository;

determining one or more parameters associated with the at least one base search term, the one or more parameters specifying at least a credential associated with the user and a role associated with the user;

providing a plurality of sets of expanded search terms for the at least one base search term, each set corresponding to a different level of expansion of a plurality of levels of expansions ranging from a lowest level of expansion to a highest level of expansion, and each set comprising all expanded search terms from any lower level of expansion;

determining a level of expansion of the plurality of levels of expansions, based on at least the credential associated with the user and the role associated with the user;

obtaining, based at least in part on the determined level of expansion, one or more expanded search terms, wherein obtaining the one or more expanded search terms comprises selecting a set of expanded search terms from the plurality of sets of expanded search terms; and

prior to executing the relational database query, modifying the relational-database query to contain one or more additional conditions based on the one or more expanded search terms and by operation of the one or more computer processors.