Method and apparatus for employing a searchable abstraction layer over enterprise-wide searchable objects

摘要

A mechanism for dynamically configuring searchable fields of interest within an enterprise-wide search center is provided. Such functionality is provided through the creation and maintaining of an abstraction layer that represents the searchable fields of interest, which are gathered from the total available fields from enterprise-wide searchable objects. The abstraction layer is defined through the use of a field mappings file that relates searchable fields of interest in searchable objects with fields within a search index accessible to the search center. The field mappings file can provide the defined relationships between searchable object fields and search index fields at runtime of a user session, thus avoiding a rigid configuration at the time of search center initialization. Through such runtime modification of the abstraction layer, costly downtime due to revision of a configuration of the search center can be avoided and a dynamic flexibility in the presentation of the fields in the searchable objects can be provided without a need for modification of the searchable objects themselves.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
performing a first search in a set of fields of a set of searchable objects; after said performing the first search, mapping the set of fields to a set of searchable fields, wherein
the set of fields comprises a first set of fields defined by a configurable field mappings file, wherein
the configurable field mappings file provides an abstraction layer between a plurality of search engines and the set of searchable objects,first set of fields is a subset of a set of all the fields of the searchable objects,the fields of the searchable objects are defined when the searchable objects are designed,said mapping is performed subsequent to a design of the searchable objects,accessible by a search center through a search index that corresponds to the configurable field mappings file, andthe configurable field mappings file is configured to define a relationship between the fields of the searchable objects and the searchable fields; modifying the set of searchable fields by modifying the fields of searchable objects within the configurable field mappings file, wherein
said modifying is based at least in part on a second set of fields that are fewer than all the fields of the searchable objects, andthe first and second sets of fields are distinct; updating a search index in response to said modifying the set of searchable fields; and performing a second search in the set of fields based at least in part on the updated search index.