XML Document Search Using Structural Inverted Index
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing keyword search methods in large collections of XML documents fail to provide meaningful results, as they do not utilize structural information, leading to users having to navigate through numerous documents to find relevant information, and lack summary displays of search results.
Innovation Solution
The creation of an inverted index that maps keywords to their structural locations within XML documents, allowing for efficient keyword lookup and displaying search results in context, along with a summary of search results across all documents.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional keyword search methods are used on large XML document collections, then the search can be performed, but the results are meaningless and users must navigate through numerous documents to find relevant information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the XML document structure into nodes and elements, creating an inverted index that maps keywords to specific structural locations (nodes, elements, attributes) rather than treating documents as homogeneous text blocks. This segmentation enables precise location of keywords within the hierarchical structure, allowing users to jump directly to relevant sections without navigating through entire documents.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an inverted index as an intermediary data structure between the XML documents and the search query. This intermediary maps keywords to their structural locations in the documents, enabling efficient retrieval of relevant information without requiring users to manually search through all documents. The inverted index acts as a mediator that translates user queries into precise location references within the document hierarchy.
2Loss of information
If users search for keywords in XML documents without structural context, then the search is simple, but users lack context about where keywords appear in the document hierarchy
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of storing documents in a traditional linear text format and searching sequentially, the patent inverts the approach by creating an inverted index that maps keywords directly to their structural locations in the XML hierarchy. This inversion provides structural context about where keywords appear (which elements, attributes, or nodes contain the keywords) while maintaining search simplicity through direct lookup operations.
3Ease of operation
If the system displays detailed search results with full document content, then users can assess relevance, but the interface becomes complex and difficult to use
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and displays only the relevant portions of documents where keywords are found, along with their structural context (which elements or attributes contain the keywords). Instead of presenting complete documents or excessive detail, the system extracts only the necessary information (keyword occurrences with structural location) to enable users to assess relevance efficiently, reducing information overload while maintaining usability.
Data Source
AI summary
The techniques presented herein are directed towards providing a user-directed keyword-based search on a large collection of XML documents, and displaying a summary of results to the user. Prior to receiving search requests from a user, an offline analysis of a large collection of XML documents is performed to construct an inverted index of keywords. For each keyword, the index stores a set of location indicators that identify all the instances of the keyword found in the collection of documents. Once the index is constructed, keyword searching can be done efficiently by a keyword lookup in the index. Various display strategies enable the user to see the specific portion of a large XML document containing the keyword and/or path frequency information allowing the user to easily refine the search to specific paths within the collection of documents.