United States Patent US006728702B1

(12) (10) Patent N0.: US 6,728,702 B1 Subramaniam et al. (45) Date of Patent: *Apr. 27, 2004

(54) SYSTEM AND METHOD TO IMPLEMENT (56) References Cited AN INTEGRATED SEARCH CENTER SUPPORTING A FULL-TEXT SEARCH AND U_S_ PATENT DOCUMENTS QUERY ON A DATABASE

5,828,376 A * 10/1998 Solimene et a1. ......... .. 345/352

(75) Inventors: Pavitra Subramaniam, Alameda, CA 6,026,409 A * 2/2000 Blumenthal ............ .. 707/104.1 (Us); Jason Z055, Foster City, CA 6,564,225 B1 * 5/2003 Brogliatti et al. ...... .. 707/104.1 (Us); Jian_Jung Ying, Foster City, CA 6,567,805 B1 * 5/2003 Johnson et a1. .............. .. 707/5

(US); Marc Caltabiano, San Francisco, CA (US); Matthew S. Malden, San * cited by examiner Francisco, CA (US)

(73) Assignee: Siebel Systems, Inc., San Mateo, CA Primary Examiner—Uyen Le (US) (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—James W. Soong; Siebel

Systems, Inc. ( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this

patent is extended or adjusted under 35 (57) ABSTRACT U.S.C. 154(b) by 179 days. _ _ _

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method _ _ _ _ _ includes displaying a search tool bar including a search icon.

Thl_s Patent 15 Sublect to a termmal (115' The method also includes displaying a search center pane Clalmer' after a user selects the search icon, Wherein the search center

pane includes a search frame. The method further includes (21) APPL NOJ 09/883,765 selecting a search category from a dropdoWn list of search

- _ categories in the search frame. In addition, the method (22) Flled' Jun‘ 18’ 2001 includes entering a search keyword. Furthermore, the (51) Int. Cl.7 .............................................. .. G06F 17/30 method includes searching a database for data records (52) ______________ __ 707/3; 707/9 matching the search category and the search keyword.

(58) Field of Search ..................... .. 707/1—5, 10, 104.1,

707/9; 345/700, 810, 843 18 Claims, 44 Drawing Sheets

505 515

TOOLBAR, TABS, ——I:::l / & VlSlBlLITY __ SEARCH

FRAME SEARCH = CENTER

CONTENT AREA -— RESULTS / FRAME FRAME

/ 500 510 520

fol

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 1 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

at cm?

@ E

2 2.330

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 3 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

/ M

WEB BROWSER 31o

’\/

WEB APPLICATION 315 {GENERATED HTML PAGES) ?g/

32o WEB SERVER *v

WEB SERVER “325 EXTENSION

I f 330 SERVER

APPLICATION OBJECT MANAGER APPLICATION

DEFINITION (.SRF) ‘A’ H TEMPLATES WEB ENGINE

\ 360 \ 340

\ 335

-

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 4 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

‘IE-EH01 @IID

Favorites > v I I?l 405 410 SEARCH ICON

415

FIG. 4

505 515

TOOLBAR, TABS, —I:::I / & VISIBILITY SEARCH

FRAME SEARCH CENTER

RESULTS EQIIIIEENTAREA ——‘ FRAME / / ' / 500

510 520

FIG. 5

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 5 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

600

610 CREATING ONE OR MORE SEARCH ENGINE OBJECTS W

615 CREATING ONE OR MORE SEARCH INDEX OBJECTS W

620 CREATING ONE OR MORE SEARCH CATEGORY w

OBJECTS

CREATING ONE OR MORE SEARCH DEFINITION @255 OBJECTS

@

FIG. 6

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 6 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

700

N

710 DEFINING A SEARCH ENGINE OBJECT 'V

I CREATING AND CONFIGURING RESULT FIELD OBJECTS 715 ASSOCIATED WITH THE DEFINED SEARCH ENGINE

OBJECT .

FIG. 7

s00

/“\_/

NAME 595

CLASS m

FIG. 8

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 7 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

900

COLUMN NAME 9.05

CREATE COLUMN FLAG 91.0 (OPTIONAL)

DATA TYPE g1; (OPTIONAL)

INDEX MODE E (OPTIONAL)

NAME 915

TEXT LENGTH m (OPTIONAL) .

TYPE 9.35

FIG. 9

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 8 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1000

DEFINING A SEARCH INDEX OBJECT w

I CREATING A SEARCH TABLE OBJECT FOR THE DEFINED "\./

SEARCH INDEX OBJECT

I CREATING ONE OR MORE INDEX FIELD OBJECTS FOR ’\/

THE CREATED SEARCH-TABLE OBJECT

I 4

CREATING ONE OR MORE FILTER FIELD OBJECTS FOR “925 THE CREATED sEARCR TABLE OBJECT

I

CED

FIG. 10

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 9 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1100

[\J

NAME 105*

INDEX BUSINESS ill-Q COMPONENT

DATABASE TABLE FLAG 1'5

1200

{\J

TABLE NAME 135

ENGINE 1219

FIG. 12

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 10 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1300

1310 SELECTING A DESIRED INDEX FIELD W

1320 MAPPING THE SELECTED INDEX, FIELD TO A RESULT w

FIELD

, 1325

CHOOSING THE INDEX FIELD TYPE w

@D

FIG. 13

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 11 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1400

BUSINESS COMPONENT A FIELD m

RESULTFIELD M (OPTIONAL)

INDEX FIELD TYPE m (OPTIONAL)

SEQUENCE L25

1450

N NAME‘ 1555

COLUMN NAME 155D

DATA TYPE 116.5 (OPTIONAL)

INDEX MODE 141g (OPTIONAL)

SEQUENCE m5.

TEXT LENGTH 143g (OPTIONAL)

FIG. 14B

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 12 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1500

1510 DEFINING A SEARCH CATEGORY OBJECT w

1515 ASSOCIATING THE DEFINED SEARCH CATEGORY TO A ’\/

SEARCH INDEX

1520 DEFINING A DRILLDOWN VIEW, A DRILLDOWN w

BUSINESS COMPONENT, AND A DESTINATION FIELD

1525 DEFINING A PICK VIEW ’\/

@

FIG. 15

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 13 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1 600

NAME i695

SEARCH INDEX 1.6.111

DHILLDOWN BUSINESS l?i COMPONENT (OPTIONAL)

DRILLDOWN VIEW 1620 (OPTIONAL)

RESULT IDENTIFIER (OPTIONAL) I

FIG. 16

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 14 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1700

APPLET 1315

VIEW 1m

NAME 1m

DESTINATION FIELD 1120 (OPTIONAL)

FIG. 17

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 15 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1800

N

. 1810

SEPCIFYING A NAME FOR THE SEARCH DEFINITION w

‘I815 PROVIDING A SPECIFICATION FOR SORTING SEARCH "\/

RESULTS

7

1820 ASSOCIATING ONE OR MORE SEARCH CATEGORY "\/ GBJECTS TO THE SEARCH DEFINITION OBJECT

I CREATING ONE OR MORE CUSTOM RESULT FIELDS OBJECTS FOR THE SEARCH OEFINITION OBJECT

V

END

FIG. 18A 1850

N

NAME l§_5_5_

SORT SPECIFICATION (OPTIONAL) mm.

FIG. 18B

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 16 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

1900

NAME 1-305

DISPLAY NAME 191B

FILTER SEARCH SPECIFICATION (OPTIONAL) 1m

USE FILTERED SEARCH 1 20 (OPTIONAL) """

SEQUENCE - 192s

(OPTIONAL) '

FIG. 19

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 17 0f 44

DISPLAY NAME Mi (OPTIONAL)

DISPLAY FORMAT 2m (OPTIONAL)

NAME 3m

SCALING FACTOR mg (OPTIONAL)

SEQUENCE m5

TEXT ALIGNMENT 293g (OPTIONAL)

usE IN SEARCH ;()35 (OPTIONAL)

VISIBLE 2040 (OPTIONAL) _

WIDTH 2945 (OPTIONAL)

FIG. 20

US 6,728,702 B1

2000

U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2004 Sheet 19 0f 44 US 6,728,702 B1

RECEIVING THE SEARCH CATEGORY AND sEARCH @210 TEXT OR KEYWORD ENTEREO BY THE usER

PASSING THE SEARCH CATEGORY AND sEARCH TEXT 2215 OR KEYWORD TO A VIRTUAL BUSINESS COMPONENT ’\/

(VBC)

INVOKING THE sEARCH EXECUTION SERVICE TO ,\2/22° PERFORM A SEARCH AND GENERATE SEARCH

RESULTS

CACHING THE sEARCH RESULTS GENERATED FROM THE $25 SEARCH

(E)

FIG. 22