Language and security aware search for user navigable entry points

A computer implemented method, comprising:

• generating a representation of a search user input mechanism;
• based on an indication of actuation of the search user input mechanism by a user, generating a search term;
• searching a metadata hierarchy that defines a set of hierarchically-related entry point nodes comprising language independent structures, each entry point node having a plurality of different textual descriptions in a plurality of different languages and representing a graphical user interface in a runtime instance of an application, the graphical user interface comprising one or more user input mechanisms configured to access data functionality associated with the application, wherein searching the metadata hierarchy comprises:
• identifying a given textual description in a given language, for each entry point node;
• returning the given textual description;
• and
• identifying matching graphical user interfaces based on the search input and the given textual description;
• identifying a subset of the entry point nodes based on the identified matching graphical user interfaces;
• and
• generating a representation of a set of user-actuatable display elements, wherein each display element
• corresponds to a particular graphical user interface represented by the subset of entry point nodes, and
• identifies a portion of the metadata hierarchy corresponding to the particular graphical user interface;
• and
• based on an indication of actuation of a particular one of the user-actuatable display elements, navigate to the graphical user interface represented by the particular user-actuatable display element.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• generating a representation of a search user input mechanism;
• based on an indication of actuation of the search user input mechanism by a user, generating a search term;
• searching a metadata hierarchy that defines a set of hierarchical graphical user interfaces comprising a hierarchical menu structure, each hierarchical graphical user interface comprising an entry point in a runtime instance of an application having one or more user input mechanisms configured to access data functionality associated with the application, and having a description of the hierarchical graphical user interface;
• identifying a subset of the hierarchical graphical user interfaces based on a comparison of the descriptions and the search term;
• ranking the subset of hierarchical graphical user interfaces based on where the search term occurs in a navigation path defined in the metadata hierarchy;
• generating a representation of a set of user-actuatable display elements based on the ranking, wherein each display element corresponds to a graphical user interface in the identified subset and displays at least a portion of the navigation path defined in the metadata hierarchy for accessing the corresponding graphical user interface;
• and
• based on an indication of actuation of a particular one of the user-actuatable display elements, navigating to the graphical user interface represented by the particular user-actuatable display element.