Context-sensitive term expansion with multiple levels of expansion

• US 8,086,623 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2009
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dettinger, Richard D., Herbeck, David G., Tenner, Jeffrey W., Will, Eric W., Chute, Christopher, Buntrock, James, Pakhomov, Serguei
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, KHANH B
• Application Number:
  US12/613,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20100057811A1
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 707/759, 707/765, 707/766, 707/767, 707/783, 707/784
• US Class Current: 707/766
• 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

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 non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a program for searching fields of a data repository using multiple levels of term expansion which, when executed, causes one or more computer processors to perform operations 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.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the base search term corresponds to an instance data value of the at least one field.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein a number of expanded search terms in each set is dependent on the corresponding level of expansion.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the different levels of expansion are determined, at least in part, based on one or more credentials of the user.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a program for context-sensitive searching of fields of a data repository which, when executed, causes one or more computer processors to perform operations 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,

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.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a name of a table containing the at least one field.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a level of expansion.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the level of expansion is dependent on one or more other ones of the one or more parameters.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a program for context-sensitive searching of fields of a data repository using multiple levels of term expansion, when executed, causes one or more computer processors to perform operations 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 userspecified 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.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a name of the at least one field.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the base search term comprise a name of a table containing the at least one field.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, 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.

13. A data processing system, comprising:

one or more processors;

a collection of data;

at least one expanded term repository; and

an executable component configured to;

obtain 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;

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

provide 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;

identify, 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;

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

prior to executing the relational database query, modify the relational database query to contain one or more conditions based on one or more expanded search terms retrieved using the pointer.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the collection of data is a relational database.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the collection of data is a text document.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one expanded term repository comprises a single repository containing different sets of expanded search terms associated with the same base term.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one parameter indicative of a context of the query comprises one of a plurality of available expansion levels, each associated with one of the different sets of expanded search terms associated with the same base term.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one parameter indicative of a context of the query is indicative of a portion of the collection of data involved in the at least one condition.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one parameter indicative of a context of the query comprises a name of a table containing the at least one field.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the executable component is further configured to modify the identified set of expanded search terms after generating the pointer.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the pointer comprises a directory path to a database.