Method and apparatus for processing metadata
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A machine, having one or more processors, implemented method, comprising:
- in response to a search request received from a client for searching metadata stored within one or more metadata stores in a storage associated with a search facility, identifying a search scope based on the search request, wherein the search scope defines whether a search should be performed locally, remotely, or both;
matching a service scope of each of a plurality of metadata stores with the search scope of the search request, the plurality of metadata stores having registered with the search facility, wherein each metadata store is associated with a service scope specifying whether the metadata store is located locally or remotely;
generating a set of one or more search targets from the plurality of metadata stores that have the associated service scope matched with the search scope of the search request;
for each of the search targets, retrieving a plug-in interface and a plug-in application associated with the search target;
invoking the plug-in application via the associated plug-in interface to perform the requested search in the corresponding metadata store, wherein each of the metadata stores only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the storage; and
returning at least a portion of a search result to the client based on an access privilege of the client, wherein the search result is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for processing metadata search with plug-in applications is disclosed. In one embodiment, in response to a search request for metadata stored in a metadata store, a plug-in associated with the metadata store is invoked to perform the request search within the metadata store. In addition, according to another embodiment, a search result of the metadata search may be filtered based on user privileges of a client initiating the search request, and some or all of the metadata from the search result may be returned to the client dependent upon the user privileges of the client. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A machine, having one or more processors, implemented method, comprising:
-
in response to a search request received from a client for searching metadata stored within one or more metadata stores in a storage associated with a search facility, identifying a search scope based on the search request, wherein the search scope defines whether a search should be performed locally, remotely, or both; matching a service scope of each of a plurality of metadata stores with the search scope of the search request, the plurality of metadata stores having registered with the search facility, wherein each metadata store is associated with a service scope specifying whether the metadata store is located locally or remotely; generating a set of one or more search targets from the plurality of metadata stores that have the associated service scope matched with the search scope of the search request; for each of the search targets, retrieving a plug-in interface and a plug-in application associated with the search target; invoking the plug-in application via the associated plug-in interface to perform the requested search in the corresponding metadata store, wherein each of the metadata stores only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the storage; and returning at least a portion of a search result to the client based on an access privilege of the client, wherein the search result is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:
-
in response to a search request received from a client for searching metadata stored within one or more metadata stores in a storage associated with a search facility, identifying a search scope based on the search request, wherein the search scope defines whether a search should be performed locally, remotely, or both; matching a service scope of each of a plurality of metadata stores with the search scope of the search request, the plurality of metadata stores having registered with the search facility, wherein each metadata store is associated with a service scope specifying whether the metadata store is located locally or remotely; generating a set of one or more search targets from the plurality of metadata stores that have the associated service scope matched with the search scope of the search request; for each of the search targets, retrieving a plug-in interface and a plug-in application associated with the search target; invoking the plug-in application via the associated plug-in interface to perform the requested search in the corresponding metadata store, wherein each of the metadata stores only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the storage; and returning at least a portion of a search result to the client based on an access privilege of the client, wherein the search result is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. An apparatus, having one or more processors, comprising:
-
a search unit to, in response to a search request received from a client for searching metadata stored within one or more metadata stores in a storage associated with a search facility, to identify a search scope based on the search request, wherein the search scope defines whether a search should be performed locally, remotely, or both, to match a service scope of each of a plurality of metadata stores with the search scope of the search request, the plurality metadata stores having registered with the search facility, wherein each metadata store is associated with a service scope specifying whether the metadata store is locally or remotely, to generate a set of one or more search targets from the plurality of metadata stores that have the associated service scope matched with the search scope of the search request, and a plug-in application associated with each of the search targets to perform the requested search within the corresponding metadata store, wherein the search unit retrieves a plug-in interface associated with the plug-in application and invokes via the plug-in interface the plug-in application, wherein each metadata store only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the storage, wherein the search unit returns at least a portion of a search result to the client based on an access privilege of the client, and wherein the search result is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search.
-
-
16. An apparatus, having one or more processors, comprising:
-
in response to a search request received from a client for searching metadata stored within one or more metadata stores in a storage associated with a search facility, means for identifying a search scope based on the search request, wherein the search scope defines whether a search should be performed locally or remotely; means for matching a service scope of each of a plurality of metadata stores with the search scope of the search request, the plurality of metadata stores having registered with the search facility, wherein each metadata store is associated with a service scope specifying whether the metadata store is located locally or remotely; means for generating a set of one or more search targets from the plurality of metadata stores that have the associated service scope matched with the search scope of the search request; for each of the search targets, means for retrieving a plug-in interface and a plug-in application associated with the search target; means for invoking the plug-in application via the associated plug-in interface to perform the requested search in the corresponding metadata store, wherein each of the metadata stores only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the storage; and means for returning at least a portion of a search result to the client based on an access privilege of the client, wherein the search result is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search.
-
-
17. A machine implemented method, having one or more processors, comprising:
-
in response to a search request from a client for searching metadata within a metadata store, performing a search in one or more metadata stores through one or more plug-in applications associated with the one or more metadata stores by matching a search scope of the search request with a service scope of each of the one or more plug-in applications, the search scope specifying whether the search should be performed locally, remotely, or both and the service scope indicating whether the corresponding plug-in application is able to search locally, remote, or both, resulting in set of metadata, the client being a desktop application running at a desktop of a local computer, wherein the metadata store only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the local computer, wherein the search result of the metadata is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search; determining a usage privilege based on attributes of the metadata and a privilege of a user who logs onto the desktop of the local computer, wherein the privilege of the user is obtained from an access control list (ACL) maintained within a file system of the local computer; and returning at least a portion of the set of metadata to the client based on the usage privilege associated with the client. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:
-
in response to a search request from a client for searching metadata within a metadata store, performing a search in one or more metadata stores through one or more plug-in applications associated with the one or more metadata stores by matching a search scope of the search request with a service scope of each of the one or more plug-in applications, the search scope specifying whether the search should be performed locally, remotely, or both and the service scope indicating whether the corresponding plug-in application is able to search locally, remote, or both, resulting in set of metadata, the client being a desktop application running at a desktop of a local computer, wherein the metadata store only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the local computer, wherein the search result of the metadata is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search; determining a usage privilege based on attributes of the metadata and a privilege of a user who logs onto the desktop of the local computer, wherein the privilege of the user is obtained from an access control list (ACL) maintained within a file system of the local computer; and returning at least a portion of the set of metadata to the client based on a usage privilege associated with the client. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. An apparatus, having one or more processors, comprising:
-
a search unit, in response to a search request from a client for searching metadata within a metadata store, to perform a search in one or more metadata stores through one or more plug-in applications associated with the one or more metadata stores by matching a search scope of the search request with a service scope of each of the one or more plug-in applications, the search scope specifying whether the search should be performed locally, remotely, or both and the service scope indicating whether the corresponding plug-in application is able to search locally, remote, or both, resulting in set of metadata, the client being a desktop application running at a desktop of a local computer, wherein the metadata store only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the local computer, wherein the search result of the metadata is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search; an access control unit to determine a usage privilege based on attributes of the metadata and a privilege of a user who logs onto the desktop of the local computer, wherein the privilege of the user is obtained from an access control list (ACL) maintained within a file system of the local computer; and a filtering unit to return at least a portion of the set of metadata to the client based on a usage privilege associated with the client.
-
-
27. An apparatus, having one or more processors, comprising:
-
in response to a search request from a client for searching metadata within a metadata store, means for performing a search in one or more metadata stores through one or more plug-in applications associated with the one or more metadata stores by matching a search scope of the search request with a service scope of each of the one or more plug-in applications, the search scope specifying whether the search should be performed locally, remotely, or both and the service scope indicating whether the corresponding plug-in application is able to search locally, remote, or both, resulting in a set of metadata, the client being a desktop application running at a desktop of a local computer, wherein the metadata store only stores metadata extracted from one or more data files which are stored in a separate storage location of the local computer, wherein the search result of the metadata is used to determine whether the corresponding one or more data files contain information related to a search term of the search request without having to search the one or more data files to improve an efficiency of the search; means for determining a usage privilege based on attributes of the metadata and a privilege of a user who logs onto the desktop of the local computer, wherein the privilege of the user is obtained from an access control list (ACL) maintained within a file system of the local computer; and means for returning at least a portion of the set of metadata to the client based on a usage privilege associated with the client.
-
Specification