IN-APPLICATION HISTORY SEARCH

• US 20160357831A1
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Linn, Christopher Scott, Hrnkvist, John M., Falkenburg, Steven Jon, Prakash, Vipul Ved, Salim, David, Stattenfield, Keith
• Granted Patent: US 10,621,189 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device that performs a search using a plurality of application states is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device receives a plurality of application states from a plurality of applications running on a device. The device further creates an index of the plurality of application states. In addition, the device receives a query to search for data stored on the device. Furthermore, the device searches the plurality of application states using the index and the query. The device additionally determines a match for the query of one of the plurality of the application states and returns the match for the matching application state.

Claims

1. A machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to perform a search using a plurality of application states, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of application states from an application running on a device;

creating an index including the plurality of application states, the index stored on the device;

receiving a query to search for data stored on the device;

searching the plurality of application states using the index and the query;

determining a match for the query of one of the plurality of the application states; and

returning the match for the matching application state.

2. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of application states includes data representing a snapshot in time of an application for that application state.

3. The machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein there are multiple application states for one of the plurality of applications.

4. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the query is used to search files stored on the device in addition to the searching of the plurality of application states.

5. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of application states includes user interface state information that represents a view position of user interface data used by the corresponding one of the plurality of applications.

6. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of application states includes searchable data.

7. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of application states includes application-specific opaque data.

8. A machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to perform a query using a plurality of application states, the method comprising:

performing the query on a device using an index stored on the device;

receiving a plurality of results matching the query;

determining a subset of the plurality of results that correspond to an application state corresponding to a native application installed on the device; and

presenting, for each of the results in the subset of the plurality of results, that result and a representation of the native application corresponding to the result.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, an application state includes data representing a snapshot in time of the native application for that application state.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein there are multiple application states stored in the index for the native application.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, the application state includes user interface state information that represents a view position of user interface data used by the native application.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the application state includes searchable data.

13. A method to perform a search using a plurality of application states, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of application states from an application running on a device;

creating an index including the plurality of application states, the index stored on the device;

receiving a query to search for data stored on the device;

searching the plurality of application states using the index and the query;

determining a match for the query of one of the plurality of the application states; and

returning the match for the matching application state.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of application states includes data representing a snapshot in time of an application for that application state.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein there are multiple application states for one of the plurality of applications.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the query is used to search files stored on the device in addition to the searching of the plurality of application states.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein one of the plurality of application states includes user interface state information that represents a view position of user interface data used by the corresponding one of the plurality of applications.

18. A method to perform a query using a plurality of application states, the method comprising:

performing the query on a device using an index stored on the device;

receiving a plurality of results matching the query;

determining a subset of the plurality of results that correspond to an application state corresponding to a native application installed on the device; and

presenting, for each of the results in the subset of the plurality of results, that result and a representation of the native application corresponding to the result.

19. A device to perform a search using a plurality of application states, the device comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor though a bus; and

a process executed from the memory by the processor causes the processor to receive a plurality of application states from an application running on a device, create an index including the plurality of application states, the index stored on the device, receive a query to search for data stored on the device, search the plurality of application states using the index and the query, determine a match for the query of one of the plurality of the application states, and return the match for the matching application state.

20. A device to perform a search using a plurality of application states, the device comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor though a bus; and

a process executed from the memory by the processor causes the processor to perform the query on a device using an index stored on the device, receive a plurality of results matching the query, determine a subset of the plurality of results that correspond to an application state corresponding to a native application installed on the device, present, for each of the results in the subset of the plurality of results, that result and a representation of the native application corresponding to the result.