Security Trimmer Resolver for Enterprise Search Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Enterprise search systems face challenges in efficiently managing access rights for documents stored across multiple third-party systems, due to disparate and proprietary security APIs, leading to cumbersome and expensive storage and retrieval processes.
Innovation Solution
Associating security trimmers with documents in the search index, allowing for the identification and execution of appropriate APIs at query time to determine user access rights, using a security trimmer resolver to select and combine results for accurate access control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If access rights are stored for all documents in the search index, then access right determination at query time is fast, but storage cost and maintenance complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by storing access rights information at crawl time when documents are first indexed, rather than retrieving them at query time. This allows fast access right determination during queries while avoiding the complexity of maintaining real-time synchronization with back-end systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The search index acts as an intermediary that stores access rights information locally, decoupling the query system from the back-end systems. This mediator approach allows the search system to make fast local decisions without continuously querying back-end systems, reducing both storage complexity and query time.
2Adaptability or versatility
If custom security trimmers are written for each back-end system API, then access rights can be retrieved from disparate systems, but system complexity and development cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The security trimmer resolver acts as an intermediary layer that manages the complexity of communicating with disparate back-end systems. It selects and executes appropriate security trimmers based on document metadata, abstracting away the underlying API differences and reducing the burden on developers to write custom integration code for each system.
Solution Approach 2:
The security trimmer resolver provides universal functionality by handling multiple back-end systems through a single unified mechanism. Instead of requiring separate custom code for each back-end system, the resolver framework provides a universal approach to retrieving access rights across diverse systems through standardized security trimmer implementations.
3Speed
If security trimmers are executed simultaneously for all documents, then query response time decreases, but system resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by executing security trimmers simultaneously only for documents that match the search query criteria, rather than processing all documents in the index. This selective simultaneous execution reduces overall resource consumption while maintaining fast response times for the actual query results.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and computer-readable media are provided for associating security trimmers with documents in an enterprise search system. According to one method, a search index is maintained that includes one or more document identifiers corresponding to documents stored at back-end computing systems. Each document identifier in the search index is associated with one or more security trimmer implementations. When a query request is received from a user, the search index is queried to identify documents referenced by the search index that match search terms provided with the query request. For each document that matches the search terms, the associated security trimmer implementations are identified and executed to retrieve the access rights to view the document for the current user from the back-end computing system where the document is stored.