Self-contained indexing system for an intranet

• US 6,757,669 B1
• Filed: 01/28/2000
• Issued: 06/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Ward, Blake D., Adar, Eytan, Schuetze, Hinrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Shahid
• Assistant Examiner(s): WOO, ISAAC M
• Application Number:
  US09/493,277
• Time in Patent Office: 1,614 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/6, 707/7, 707/8, 707/9, 707/10, 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

This invention provides a device that can be plugged into an intranet and offers searchable index functionality of that intranet without requiring information about system configuration or administration.

Claims

1. A self-contained device that performs searchable indexing, the device comprising:

a server having a memory that stores instructions that allows automatic configuration of the device to enable the self-contained device to crawl and index an intranet to provide a searchable index of the content accessible through the intranet, without requiring information about the intranet configuration and administration;

an operator interface coupled to the server, the operator interface receiving input from a device operator and transmitting output to the device operator; and

an input/output interface coupled to the server and the operator interface, the input/output interface receiving input from the intranet and transmitting output to the intranet, wherein the instructions stored in the memory are installed onto the self-contained device prior to installing the self-contained device to allow the self-contained device to crawl and index with the intranet through the input/output interface.

2. The self-contained device of claim 1, wherein the operator interface includes an exposed operator terminal and a monitor for outputting information to and receiving input from the device operator.

3. The self-contained device of claim 1, wherein the operator interface allows specification of at least one of a name of the self-contained device name, an IP address of the self-contained device, a list of servers within the intranet that is to be crawled and indexing parameters.

4. The self-contained device of claim 3, wherein the indexing parameters include indexing frequency and search parameters.

5. The self-contained device of claim 4, wherein the search parameters include information retrieval algorithm selection information.

6. The self-contained device of claim 3, wherein the operator interface uses an established Internet protocol.

7. The self-contained device of claim 1, wherein the input/output interface provides a communication medium between the self-contained device and the intranet.

8. The self-contained device of claim 1, further comprising a web server running on the server of the self-contained searchable indexing device, wherein the web server includes a form for entering a query and logic to process that query.

9. The self-contained searchable indexing device of claim 1, further comprising a mail indexer coupled to the input/output interface and indexing mail received via the input/output interface.

10. The self-contained searchable indexing device of claim 1, further comprising a large permanent memory device wherein an archive of all documents on the intranet is stored.

11. A method for installing a self-contained searchable indexing device for an intranet, the method comprising:

physically connecting the self-contained searchable indexing device, that includes instructions that allows automatic configuration of the device to enable the self-contained device to crawl and index an intranet to provide a searchable index of the content accessible through the intranet, without requiring information about the intranet configuration and administration, to the intranet through an input/output interface;

writing a cgi-script in a cgi-bin directory of a server of the intranet through the input/output interface;

connecting to the intranet by running a client script that is resident in a server of the intranet and connecting to the self-contained indexing device for search results; and

setting search, index and device parameters in the self-contained searchable indexing device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the cgi-script is a custom cgi-script.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the cgi-script is a pre-made sci-script.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the self-contained searchable indexing device has a set Internet protocol address.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the Internet protocol address is set by an operator setting the Internet protocol address via an operator interface during installation of the self-contained searchable indexing device into the intranet.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the Internet protocol address is set by hard-coding the Internet protocol address into the self-contained searchable-indexing device prior to installation of the self-contained searchable indexing device into the intranet.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the Internet protocol address is set automatically.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the Intranet protocol address is set using DHCP or AutoIP.

19. A method for installing a self-contained searchable indexing device for an intranet, the method comprising:

physically connecting the self-contained searchable indexing device, that includes instructions that allows automatic configuration of the device to enable the self-contained device to crawl and index an intranet to provide a searchable index of the content accessible through the intranet, without requiring information about the intranet configuration and administration, to the intranet through an input/output interface;

writing a cgi-script in a cgi-bin directory of a server of the intranet through the input/output interface;

connecting to the intranet by installing a web server on a server in the self-contained searchable indexing device to handle searching and indexing requests for search results; and

setting search, index and device parameters in the self-contained searchable indexing device.