USE OF DATA PATTERNS FOR RAPID SEARCH OF COMPLEX RULES IN A RULES-BASED SEARCH ENGINE

• US 20100318567A1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Lin, Justin, Tata, Ravi, Arya, Manoj, Kuo, Justin
• Granted Patent: US 8,204,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

In various embodiments, systems and methods are provided that can facilitate searching for entities, such as rules, that apply to search criteria. The disclosed systems and methods can reduce some of the performance bottlenecks associated with, for example, rules-based search systems by using metadata. The metadata may be generated to reduce the size of information about a set of entities that is required to be searched. In some embodiments, the metadata may represent one or more tuple elements, such as keys and values of keys in key-value pairs.

Claims

1. A method performed by an information processing device for facilitating searches using metadata, the method comprising:

generating first metadata for a set of entities, the first metadata indicative of a first element associated with an entity;

generating second metadata for a set of entities, the second metadata indicative of a second element associated with the entity;

receiving search criteria;

determining whether an entity in the set of entities applies to the search criteria based on the first metadata and the second metadata; and

generating search results based on whether an entity in the set of entities applies to the search criteria.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the first metadata and the second metadata for the set of entities comprises generating metadata for a rule having one or more key-value pairs.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the first metadata for the set of entities comprises generating a data pattern for the entity based on one or more keys associated with the entity.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the second metadata for the set of entities comprises generating an attribute group for the entity based on values for one or more keys associated with the entity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the search results comprises generating information indicative of an entity that applies to the search criteria.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating third metadata for the search criteria based on first elements associated with the first metadata and second elements associated with the search criteria.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein generating the third metadata comprises generating a set of candidate attribute groups for the search criteria.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the search criteria comprises a request line in the search criteria.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein determining whether an entity in the set of entities applies to the search criteria comprises:

searching the second metadata in response to the third metadata to determine a match between a portion of the third metadata and the second metadata.

10. A computer-readable storage medium configured to store a set of code modules executable by an information processing device for facilitating searches using metadata, the computer-readable storage medium comprising:

code for generating first metadata for a set of entities, the first metadata indicative of a first element associated with an entity;

code for generating second metadata for a set of entities, the second metadata indicative of a second element associated with the entity;

code for receiving search criteria;

code for determining whether an entity in the set of entities applies to the search criteria based on the first metadata and the second metadata; and

code for generating search results based on whether an entity in the set of entities applies to the search criteria.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the code for generating the first metadata and the second metadata for the set of entities comprises code for generating metadata for a rule having one or more key-value pairs.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the code for generating the first metadata for the set of entities comprises code for generating a data pattern for the entity based on one or more keys associated with the entity.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the code for generating the second metadata for the set of entities comprises code for generating an attribute group for the entity based on values for one or more keys associated with the entity.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the code for generating the search results comprises code for generating information indicative of an entity that applies to the search criteria.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 further comprising:

code for generating third metadata for the search criteria based on first elements associated with the first metadata and second elements associated with the search criteria.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the code for generating the third metadata comprises code for generating a set of candidate attribute groups for the search criteria.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the search criteria comprises a request line in the search criteria.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the code for determining whether an entity in the set of entities applies to the search criteria comprises:

code for searching the second metadata in response to the third metadata to determine a match between a portion of the third metadata and the second metadata.

19. A system for facilitating searches using data patterns, the system comprising:

a database configured to store setup a set of data patterns and a set of attribute groups, the set of data patterns corresponding to one or more attribute keys associated with a set of setup rules, the set of attribute groups corresponding to values for the one or more attribute keys associated with the set of setup rules;

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store a set of instructions which become operational with the processor to;

receive input specifying at least one request line having an associated key-value pair;

generate a set of candidate attribute groups for the request line in the search criteria based on the set of data patterns in the database;

analyze set of the attribute groups in the database based on the set of candidate attribute groups to identify one or more setup rules that apply to the request line; and

generate search results indicative of the one or more setup rules that apply to the request line.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein one or more instructions are operational with the processor to determine a price associated with an object based on the one or more setup rules that apply to the request line.