Progressive relaxation across tiers

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with progressive relaxation across tiers of a search system are described. One system embodiment includes a first tier of computing components that stores search data that can be used to locate documents. The system embodiment may also include a second tier of computing components that also store search data that can be used to locate documents. The system may also include a query logic that receives a query and locates a set of items relevant to the query by selectively progressively relaxing a search across the search data stored at different levels until a threshold is met.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate various example systems, methods, and other embodiments of various aspects of the invention. It will be appreciated that the illustrated element boundaries (e.g., boxes, groups of boxes, or other shapes) in the figures represent one example of the boundaries. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that in some embodiments one element may be designed as multiple elements, multiple elements may be designed as one element, an element shown as an internal component of another element may be implemented as an external component and vice versa, and so on. Furthermore, elements may not be drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 illustrates a search system having two tiers.

FIG. 2 illustrates a search system having three tiers.

FIG. 3 illustrates a dynamically reconfigurable search system.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method associated with progressive relaxation across tiers of a search system.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method associated with adapting progressive relaxation across tiers of a search system.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example computing environment in which example methods illustrated herein may operate.

Claims

1. A search system, comprising: a first tier of computing components to store a first set of search data related to a set of documents;a second tier of computing components to store a second set of search data related to the set of documents; anda query logic to receive a query and to locate a set of items relevant to the query by selectively progressively relaxing a search across one or more of, the first set of search data, and the second set of search data, until a search threshold is met.

2. The system of claim 1, the first tier of computing components being a web-tier.

3. The system of claim 1, the first set of search data including a first set of metadata.

4. The system of claim 3, the first set of metadata including document titles.

5. The system of claim 3, the first set of search data being distributed between two or more members of the first tier of computing components.

6. The system of claim 3, the first set of search data being replicated on two or more members of the first tier of computing components.

7. The system of claim 3, the second set of search data including a second set of metadata.

8. The system of claim 7, the second set of metadata including one or more of, metatags, and sets of keywords.

9. The system of claim 7, the second set of search data including portions of the bodies of documents belonging to the enterprise.

10. The system of claim 1, the second tier of computing components being a database-tier.

11. The system of claim 10, the second set of search data being distributed between two or more members of the database-tier.

12. The system of claim 10, the second set of search data being replicated on two or more members of the database-tier.

13. The system of claim 1, where the query logic distributes a progressively relaxed portion of the query to two or more members of a tier of computing components.

14. The system of claim 1, where the query logic federates a progressively relaxed portion of the query to two or more members of one or more tiers of computing components.

15. The system of claim 1, including an intermediate tier of computing components in data communication with the first tier and the second tier, the intermediate tier being logically located between the first tier and the second tier, the intermediate tier being configured to store an intermediate set of search data.

16. The system of claim 15, including a reconfiguration logic to selectively alter the number of tiers in the enterprise search system.

17. The system of claim 16, where the reconfiguration logic is controlled, at least in part, by a relaxation value that describes a distribution of relaxation levels at which a set of searches has been satisfied.

18. The system of claim 16, where the reconfiguration logic is controlled, at least in part, by a tier value that describes a distribution of tiers at which a set of searches has been satisfied.

19. The system of claim 15, including a redistribution logic to selectively alter the composition of one or more of, the first set of search data, the second set of search data, and the intermediate set of search data.

20. The system of claim 19, where the redistribution logic is controlled, at least in part, by a relaxation value that describes a distribution of relaxation levels at which a set of searches have been satisfied.

21. The system of claim 19, where the redistribution logic is controlled, at least in part, by a tier value that describes a distribution of tiers at which a set of searches has been satisfied.

22. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-executable instructions that if executed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method, the method comprising: receiving a query to locate a set of documents relevant to the query, and where search information concerning documents may be cached at different levels of a multi-level data caching system that supports searching for documents;controlling a progressive relaxation logic to identify a set of elements related to the query that can be provided to different levels of the multi-level data caching system to locate members of the set of documents;controlling the progressive relaxation logic to identify an order in which the set of elements related to the query can be provided to different levels of the multi-level data caching system to locate members of the set of documents; andproviding, in order, members of the set of elements related to the query to a selected level in the multi-level data caching system until a search threshold is reached.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 22, where the method includes selectively providing a member of the set of elements related to the query to a second level of the multi-level data caching system upon determining that providing a member of the set of elements related to the query to a first level of the multi-level data caching system did not cause the search threshold to be reached, where the second level of the multi-level data caching system is deeper than the first level of the multi-level data caching system, and where the second level of the multi-level data caching system stores more information per document than the first level of the multi-level data caching system.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 23, where the method includes dynamically reconfiguring one or more of, the number of levels in the multi-level data caching system, the number of members in a level in the multi-level data caching system, and the composition of search information stored at a level in the multi-level data caching system, where the dynamic reconfiguring depends, at least in part, on identifying one or more of, relaxation levels at which a set of queries have been satisfied, and tiers at which a set of queries have been satisfied.

25. A system, comprising: means for providing a first portion of a selectively relaxed query to a first tier of a multi-tiered search system; andmeans for selectively repetitively providing different portions of the selectively relaxed query to different tiers of the multi-tiered search system until a search criteria is satisfied.