Selective Database Search via Data Source Tables
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data rights management systems face resource-intensive challenges in searching databases with non-uniform access restrictions, requiring extensive processing resources and time as data and contractual relationships grow, especially when multiple search requests are made.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of data source tables that identify accessible data sources based on query context, allowing for selective searching of only relevant data subsets, thereby constructing a security envelope and adhering to specific access policies, reducing the need to search the entire database.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data rights management systems review all data within the database to determine accessible data, then access restrictions are honored, but processing resources and time are substantially consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining data source tables that pre-document access restriction metadata for each data source. When a search request arrives, the system consults these pre-prepared tables to quickly identify accessible data sources without reviewing all database data, thus resolving the contradiction between ensuring access compliance and maintaining search efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces data source tables as an intermediary layer between the search system and the actual database data. These tables contain metadata about access restrictions and serve as a filtering mechanism, allowing the system to determine accessible data sources without directly examining the protected data, thereby maintaining both compliance and efficiency
2Quantity of substance
If the quantity of data and number of contractual relationships increase, then database comprehensiveness improves, but processing resource demands increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the database into multiple data sources, each represented in the data source tables with its own access restriction metadata. This segmentation allows the system to process only the relevant subset of data sources based on the search request and applicable access restrictions, rather than processing the entire database, thus managing resource consumption as data volume grows
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts access restriction metadata from the actual data and stores it separately in data source tables. This extraction allows the system to work with a smaller, more manageable representation of the data (the metadata tables) when determining accessibility, reducing processing resource demands while maintaining comprehensive data coverage
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus, method and computer program product facilitate selective searching of at least a portion of a database. With respect to a method, a query is received that has a query context. In response to the query, the method reviews one or more data source tables including a first data source table that defines each of a plurality of data sources of data stored by the database. In reviewing the one or more data source tables, the method identifies one or more data sources that are accessible in response to the query. The method also searches the database for responsive data that: (i) was provided by the one or more data sources that were identified to be accessible in response to the query and (ii) is responsive to the query. Further, the method responds to the query with a representation of the responsive data.