Unified Query Interface for Structured and Unstructured Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional systems fail to efficiently query and retrieve both structured and unstructured data due to their separate management and the inefficiency of decomposing queries into subqueries for federated execution, lacking a unified approach to leverage relationships between these data types.
Innovation Solution
A middleware-based solution provides a unified query interface and index that relates and indexes structured and unstructured data repositories, using an optimizer to plan query execution and pre-compute relationships, allowing keyword-like queries to access both data types without requiring applications to optimize query execution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional separate management systems are used for structured and unstructured data, then each data type can be managed independently, but query efficiency deteriorates due to the need to decompose queries into subqueries and federate across multiple data sources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges structured and unstructured data management into a unified system where both data types are indexed together in a single full-text index. The unified index stores both structured data (from relational databases) and unstructured data (from file systems, email servers, etc.) allowing queries to search both types simultaneously without decomposition, thus resolving the contradiction between management flexibility and query efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary component (the unified index and its maintenance mechanisms) that bridges structured and unstructured data sources. This intermediary pre-processes and indexes both data types in a unified structure, enabling efficient query execution without requiring applications to manually federate queries across multiple data sources
2Reliability
If query decomposition into subqueries is used to access both structured and unstructured data, then autonomous data sources can be queried separately, but system complexity increases due to query optimization and federation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-indexing both structured and unstructured data in a unified full-text index before queries are executed. The index maintenance processes pre-process data from autonomous sources, store it in a unified format, and pre-compute indexing structures, thereby eliminating the need for complex query decomposition and optimization at query time while preserving source autonomy
3Measurement precision
If separate search methodologies are applied to structured and unstructured data, then each data type can be searched using optimized techniques, but query efficiency deteriorates when searching both types simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal search system where a single full-text index serves multiple data types (structured and unstructured). The unified index structure and search algorithms are designed to handle both data types with the same methodology, eliminating the need to switch between different search approaches and improving combined query speed while maintaining precision through unified indexing
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems and computer products perform cost estimate to determine an efficient approach to answer a query according to one of several unified query plans. One unified query plan involves querying an unstructured database, referencing a unified index, and probing a structured database based on matches discovered in the unified index. The results of the unstructured database query are used to lookup entries in a unified index associated with the structured database. Then the structured database is probed by querying only the subset of the structured database gleaned from the unstructured database query.