Granted Patent B1

US 10,776,376 · App. 14/562,038 · Granted Sep 15, 2020

Inventors: Michael Coyle (Los Altos, CA); Rujuta Ranade (Sunnyvale, CA); Terence Chang (San Francisco, CA)

Assignee: Veritas Technologies LLC

G06F16/248G06F16/93

Abstract

Claims (78)

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying search results, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

receiving, at a document database that stores a plurality of electronic text-based files including a document family comprising a parent document and at least one child document that depends from the parent document, a search query that includes at least one keyword;

determining that text of every document within the document family satisfies a degree of relevance to the keyword of the search query by:

generating a parent data map that identifies a parent document of each document family within the document database that comprises at least one document that satisfies the degree of relevance;

generating a family data map that identifies a complete document family for each parent document identified in the parent data map;

comparing the documents identified in the family data map with a results data map that identifies each document within the document database that satisfies the degree of relevance; and

determining, based on the comparison, that each document within the document family is included within the results data map;

in response to determining that every document within the document family satisfies the degree of relevance, improving the usefulness of search results displayed to a user by automatically including, within original search results that a user interface of the computing device presents in response to the search query, a hierarchical structure that shows relationships between the parent document and each child document within the document family;

identifying an additional document family that is partially but not completely included within the original search results based on determining that:

at least one document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance; and

not every document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance;

simultaneously displaying, to the user as part of the original search results, the hierarchical structure and an additional hierarchical structure that shows relationships between documents within the additional document family despite the document family and the additional document family having different degrees of relevance to the search query;

indicating, to the user, that the document family and the additional document family have the different degrees of relevance to the search query by:

depicting, adjacent to the hierarchical structure, an icon indicating that the document family is completely included within the original search results; and

depicting, adjacent to the additional hierarchical structure, an additional icon that:

indicates that the additional document family is not completely included within the original search results; and

is visually distinct from the icon indicating the document family is completely included within the original search results.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the parent data map comprises performing the following function for each document that satisfies the degree of relevance:

determining whether to add the document to the parent data map based on determining whether the document database identifies the document as a parent document; and

adding any parent document of the document to the parent data map.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the family data map comprises referencing a cache that maps parent documents to child documents to identify each child document of every parent document identified in the parent data map.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a data map that identifies a parent document for every document family that is completely included within the original search results.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising omitting, based on determining that not every document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance, a member of the additional document family from the additional hierarchical structure.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein showing the relationships between the parent document and each child document within the document family is performed in response to the search query without requiring further user input to expand the original search results.

7. A system for displaying search results, the system comprising:

a reception module, stored in memory, that receives, at a document database that stores a plurality of electronic text-based documents including a document family comprising a parent document and at least one child document that depends from the parent document, a search query that includes at least one keyword;

a determination module, stored in memory, that:

determines that text of every document within the document family satisfies a degree of relevance to the keyword of the search query by:

generating a parent data map that identifies a parent document of each document family within the document database that comprises at least one document that satisfies the degree of relevance;

generating a family data map that identifies a complete document family for each parent document identified in the parent data map;

comparing the documents identified in the family data map with a results data map that identifies each document within the document database that satisfies the degree of relevance; and

determining, based on the comparison, that each document within the document family is included within the results data map; and

identifies an additional document family that is partially but not completely included within original search results of the search query based on determining that:

at least one document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance; and

not every document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance;

a depiction module, stored in memory, that:

in response to the determination that every document within the document family satisfies the degree of relevance, improves the usefulness of search results displayed to a user by automatically including, within a user interface of a computing device that presents the original search results in response to the search query, a hierarchical structure that shows relationships between the parent document and each child document within the document family;

simultaneously displays, to the user as part of the original search results, the hierarchical structure and an additional hierarchical structure that shows relationships between documents within the additional document family despite the document family and the additional document family having different degrees of relevance to the search query;

indicates, to the user, that the document family and the additional document family have the different degrees of relevance to the search query by:

depicting, adjacent to the hierarchical structure, an icon indicating that the document family is completely included within the original search results;

depicting adjacent to the additional hierarchical structure, an additional icon that:

indicates that the additional document family is not completely included within the original search results; and

is visually distinct from the icon indicating the document family is completely included within the original search results; and

at least one processor that executes the reception module, the determination module, and the depiction module.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the determination module generates the parent data map by performing the following function for each document that satisfies the degree of relevance:

determining whether to add the document to the parent data map based on determining whether the document database identifies the document as a parent document; and

adding any parent document of the document to the parent data map.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the determination module generates the family data map by referencing a cache that maps parent documents to child documents to identify each child document of every parent document identified in the parent data map.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the determination module further generates a data map that identifies a parent document for every document family that is completely included within the original search results.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the depiction module omits, based on the determination that not every document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance, a member of the additional document family from the additional hierarchical structure.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive, at a document database that stores a plurality of electronic text-based files including a document family comprising a parent document and at least one child document that depends from the parent document, a search query that includes at least one keyword;

determine that text of every document within the document family satisfies a degree of relevance to the keyword of the search query by:

generating a parent data map that identifies a parent document of each document family within the document database that comprises at least one document that satisfies the degree of relevance;

generating a family data map that identifies a complete document family for each parent document identified in the parent data map;

comparing the documents identified in the family data map with a results data map that identifies each document within the document database that satisfies the degree of relevance; and

determining, based on the comparison, that each document within the document family is included within the results data map;

in response to determining that every document within the document family satisfies the degree of relevance, improve the usefulness of search results displayed to a user by automatically including, within original search results that a user interface of the computing device presents in response to the search query, a hierarchical structure that shows relationships between the parent document and each child document within the document family;

identify an additional document family that is partially but not completely included within the original search results based on determining that:

at least one document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance; and

not every document within the additional document family satisfies the degree of relevance;

simultaneously display, to the user as part of the original search results, the hierarchical structure and an additional hierarchical structure that shows relationships between documents within the additional document family despite the document family and the additional document family having different degrees of relevance to the search query;

indicate, to the user, that the document family and the additional document family have the different degrees of relevance to the search query by:

depicting, adjacent to the hierarchical structure, an icon indicating that the document family is completely included within the original search results; and

depicting, adjacent to the additional hierarchical structure, an additional icon that:

indicates that the additional document family is not completely included within the original search results; and

is visually distinct from the icon indicating the document family is completely included within the original search results.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing, within the user interface, a control that enables the user to collapse at least one level of the hierarchical structure such that documents within the level are hidden from the-view of the user.

14. The system of claim 7 , wherein the depiction module further provides, within the user interface, a control that enables the user to collapse at least one level of the hierarchical structure such that documents within the level are hidden from view of the user.

15. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the parent data map comprises:

generating a bitmap that stores a plurality of bits capable of being switched between a logical low value and a logical high value; and

associating each bit within the bitmap with one document within the document database.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein adding any parent document of the document to the parent data map comprises:

identifying, within the bitmap, a bit associated with a parent document to be added to the parent data map; and

setting the bit associated with the parent document to the logical high value.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

setting at least a portion of the bits associated with child documents within the document database to the logical low value; and

setting at least a portion of the bits associated with parent documents within the document database that are not to be added to the parent data map to the logical low value.

Assignments (16)

Cited By (1)

US 12,210,548