Obtaining and verifying search indices

• US 8,990,215 B1
• Filed: 06/14/2007
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Reztlaff, James R. II, Lattyak, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAYE, CHELCIE L
• Application Number:
  US11/763,357
• Time in Patent Office: 2,840 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 707/741, 707/621
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/109 by using specially-adapted hardware at the client
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

Electronic items may be searched using search indices. A user device may determine a manner in which to obtain a search index for an electronic item from among multiple possible manners of obtaining the search index, and the search index may be obtained in the determined manner. Verification may also be performed to determine if electronic items stored in memory of the user device have changed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an electronic item at a device;

receiving, by the device, a hint indicating whether a searchable index comprising an item index of terms for the electronic item is available for download by the device;

determining, by the device, based on the hint a manner in which to obtain the searchable index for the electronic item from among multiple possible manners of obtaining the searchable index, the possible manners of obtaining the searchable index include generating the searchable index at the device and downloading the searchable index from a remote data store; and

obtaining the searchable index in the determined manner.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the searchable index comprises the item index of terms in the electronic item, and a master index.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining the searchable index comprises downloading the item index and the master index, and wherein the master index comprises an item-specific master index including only terms from one electronic item which can be merged into an existing master index including terms from a collection of electronic items.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining the searchable index comprises generating the item index at the device, and updating an existing master index on the device to include terms in the electronic item.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying a status of index generation at the device.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising presenting a priority interface, by which a user may set an order in which indexes are to be generated at the device.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising pausing index generation in response to one or more of the following:

operation of a button of the device, insertion of memory into the device, receipt of a new electronic item, or updating software of the device.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising slowing index generation in response to one or more of the following:

playing an audio file or executing an application program.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining based on the hint that the remote data store has a searchable index for the electronic item, and requesting the searchable index for the electronic item from the remote data store.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises requesting to download the searchable index for the electronic item in response to determining that a queue of electronic items to be indexed by the device exceeds a predetermined size.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the hint includes an indication that a searchable index for the electronic item is available at a remote data store;

and the method further comprises requesting to download the searchable index for the electronic item from the remote data store.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising re-requesting the searchable index for the electronic item when a queue of electronic items to be indexed by the device exceeds a predetermined size and the searchable index was not sent in response to the first request.

13. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions to implement the method of claim 1.

14. A method comprising:

receiving, by a handheld electronic reader device, a hint indicating whether a searchable index is available for download from a remote data store;

deciding, by the handheld electronic reader device, to generate the searchable index at the handheld electronic reader device, instead of downloading the searchable index from the remote data store; and

initiating search index generation on the handheld electronic reader device, in response to deciding to generate the searchable index at the handheld electronic reader device instead of downloading the searchable index from the remote data store.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing one or more search indices in memory of the handheld electronic reader devices upon completion of search index generation.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining that the search index generation fails, and re-initiating search index generation a predetermined number of times in response to determining that the search index generation failed.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining that the search index generation fails the predetermined number of times, and in response to determining that the search index generation failed the predetermined number of times terminating the search index generation.

18. A handheld electronic book reader device comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable on the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving an electronic item at the handheld electronic book reader device;

receiving, by the handheld electronic book reader device, a hint indicating whether a searchable index comprising an item index of terms for the electronic item is available for download by the handheld electronic book reader device;

determining, by the handheld electronic book reader device, based on the hint a manner in which to obtain the searchable index for the electronic item from among multiple possible manners of obtaining the searchable index, the possible manners of obtaining the searchable index include generating the searchable index at the handheld electronic book reader device and downloading the searchable index from a remote data store; and

obtaining the searchable index in the determined manner.

19. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 18, wherein the searchable index comprises the item index of terms in the electronic item, and a master index.

20. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 19, wherein obtaining the searchable index comprises downloading the item index and the master index, and wherein the master index comprises an item-specific master index including only terms from one electronic item which can be merged into an existing master index including terms from a collection of electronic items.

21. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 19, wherein obtaining the searchable index comprises generating the item index at the handheld electronic book reader device, and updating an existing master index on the handheld electronic book reader device to include terms in the electronic item.

22. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise displaying a status of index generation at the handheld electronic book reader device.

23. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise presenting a priority interface, by which a user may set an order in which indexes are to be generated at the handheld electronic book reader device.

24. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise pausing index generation in response to one or more of the following:

operation of a button of the handheld electronic book reader device, insertion of memory into the handheld electronic book reader device, receipt of a new electronic item, or updating software of the handheld electronic book reader device.

25. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise slowing index generation in response to one or more of the following:

playing an audio file or executing an application program.

26. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 18, wherein the determining comprises determining based on the hint that the remote data store has a searchable index for the electronic item, and requesting the searchable index for the electronic item from the remote data store.

27. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 18, wherein the determining comprises requesting to download the searchable index for the electronic item in response to determining that a queue of electronic items to be indexed by the handheld electronic book reader device exceeds a predetermined size.

28. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 18, wherein the hint includes an indication that a searchable index for the electronic item is available at a remote data store;

and the operations further comprise requesting to download the searchable index for the electronic item from the remote data store.

29. The handheld electronic book reader device as recited in claim 28, wherein the operations further comprise re-requesting the searchable index for the electronic item when a queue of electronic items to be indexed by the handheld electronic book reader device exceeds a predetermined size and the searchable index was not sent in response to the first request.