Search Indexing for Nested Markup Tag Structures

The patent applies nesting by creating a hierarchical index structure where higher-level tags contain references to lower-level tags. The index stores nested relationships by recording that data units within a lower-level tag are also within the scope of higher-level tags, enabling the index to represent nested tag structures like <div><p>text</p></div> where both div and p tags are preserved in the search index.

The patent adds a hierarchical dimension to the traditional flat full-text search index. Instead of only indexing character positions, the index now includes tag hierarchy information, creating a multi-dimensional index structure that tracks both character positions and their associated tag contexts at multiple levels of nesting.

The patent performs preliminary action by pre-processing markup files during index generation to identify and record all nested tag relationships before search operations. The index is built with pre-computed hierarchical information including parent-child tag relationships, allowing search operations to directly utilize tag attributes without complex runtime analysis.

The patent introduces an intermediary hierarchical index structure that mediates between the raw markup files and search queries. This intermediate index captures tag nesting relationships and attributes, serving as a bridge that enables sophisticated search control while keeping the search operation itself relatively simple by pre-processing the complex hierarchical information.