USER INTERFACE FOR SEARCH METHOD AND SYSTEM

摘要

A user interface for searching records in a database is provided. Each record may contain information regarding one or more categories. The user interface may receive search criteria of one or more categories and provide search results comprising exact and/or inexact matching records. An inexact matching record may have a relevance value representing the relevance of the record to the search query, and inexact matching records may be displayed in an ordering based on the relevance values. The user interface may provide slider tools for receiving changes in a weight value or search criterion of an associated category. A new ordering of the inexact matching records may be displayed in real-time based on newly received weight values or search criterion. The user interface may also provide a mapping tool, a search-result selection function, and/or one or more drill down tools. The user interface may provide any tool or function alone or in any combination.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, from a user, a search query comprising a plurality of search criteria associated with a plurality of categories for searching a database that comprises a plurality of records arranged in the categories; receiving, from the user, through a graphical user interface, a weight value for at least one of the categories to ascribe an importance of the category to a search result; comparing the search criteria of the search query with information in the records of the database for each category; identifying, in response to the search query, one or more inexact matching records that comprises records with information that does not exactly match the search criteria of one or more of the categories; generating a relevance value for each of the inexact matching records to represent a degree of relevance of the inexact matching record to the search query based, in part, on weight values associated with the categories; and determining one or more characteristics for displaying the inexact matching records based on the relevance values of the inexact matching records.