System and Method for Searching Enterprise Application Data

• US 20100057702A1
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: GHOSH, Rajesh, Soolapani, Vikas
• Granted Patent: US 8,219,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases

Abstract

A search modeling tool is provided that can communicate with multiple enterprise applications to create object definitions describing searchable data stored in each application. The object definitions may be used to extract searchable data from the applications, thus allowing for manipulation of the data in formats usable for text searching, user presentation, and other applications. The search modeler may interface with each application using common protocols, allowing for generalization of object definitions and subsequent crawling across a variety of enterprise applications.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing searchable data within a system containing multiple enterprise applications, comprising:

establishing a first connection to a first application in the system;

using the first connection, receiving information identifying searchable data associated with the first application;

generating a first searchable data definition for a first application in the system;

adding metadata describing the searchable data to the first searchable data definition; and

storing the first searchable data definition;

wherein the searchable data definition identifies searchable data associated with the first application and the location of the searchable data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, based on metadata stored in the first searchable data definition, extracting searchable data from the first application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing a diagnostic verification of the searchable data stored in the first application using the first searchable data definition.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the diagnostic verification is performed in real time.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising indexing the searchable data in the first application based on the first searchable data definition.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a second connection to a second application in the system,

using the second connection, receiving information identifying searchable data associated with the second application;

adding metadata describing the searchable data associated with the second application to a second searchable data definition; and

storing the second searchable data definition in the second application;

wherein the second searchable data definition identifies searchable data associated with the first application and the location of the searchable data.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

using the first and second searchable data definitions, performing a diagnostic search of searchable data stored in the first and second applications using the first and second searchable data definitions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the diagnostic search is performed in real time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a second connection to a second application in the system,

using the second connection, receiving information identifying searchable data associated with the second application; and

adding metadata describing the searchable data associated with the second application to the first searchable data definition;

wherein the first searchable data definition identifies searchable data associated with the second application and the location of the searchable data associated with the second application.

10. A computer-implemented method for indexing searchable data stored in a system having multiple enterprise applications, comprising:

using one or more common protocols, communicating with the applications to identify searchable data stored by the applications, the searchable data corresponding to a plurality of objects stored by the applications;

creating searchable data definitions comprising metadata identifying one or more locations of the searchable data stored by the applications; and

using the searchable data definitions, indexing the searchable data stored by the applications.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each application provides a communication end point adapted to communicate using the one or more common protocols, the communication end point providing an interface to data stored in the application.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

running a diagnostic query on the searchable data described in the searchable data definitions using a search modeler in communication with the applications.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the search modeler communicates with each application using one or more common protocols.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the diagnostic query is run in real time.

15. A system comprising:

a plurality of enterprise applications, each enterprise application having a relational data store storing searchable data and non-searchable data;

a plurality of communication points, each communication point associated with one of the applications and configured to provide a standardized interface to the internal structure of data stored in the data store of the associated application; and

a search modeler in communication with each of the communication points, the search modeler configured to create searchable data definitions that identify searchable data in each data store.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a search crawler to extract searchable data using the searchable data definitions.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a search engine to index searchable data extracted by the search crawler

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the search modeler is further configured to perform a diagnostic verification of the metadata stored in the searchable data definitions.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the diagnostic search is performed in real time.