Hybrid search connector

A client computing system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the client computing system to provide:
• a crawler component configured to intermittently access a client-side data store, on the client computing system, to identify a client-side document;
• a parsing component configured to:
• parse the identified client-side document;
• and generate parsed content, indicative of information for indexing the identified client-side document;
• and a cloud connection system configured to:
• intermittently connect to a cloud-based search service in a cloud-based computing system, that is remote from the client computing system over a communication network, and call a source-independent application programming interface (API) to send, to the cloud-based search service:
• the parsed content, and client storage location information that identifies a storage location of the client-side document in the client-side data store;
• a search system configured to:
• receive a search user input;
• send a search request, based on the search user input, through a search application programming interface (API) exposed by the cloud-based search service;
• and receive from the cloud-based search service through the search API, a search result based on an index on the cloud-based search service that indexes the client-side document and at least one cloud-based document.

A computer implemented method, comprising:

• storing, in a search index in a cloud computing system, index entries that index content;
• receiving, by the cloud computing system from a client device, first parsed content indicative of parsing performed by the client device on a client-side document to be indexed;
• obtaining client storage location information that identifies a storage location of the client-side document on the client device;
• indexing the client-side document in the search index based on the first parsed content and the client storage location information;
• parsing a cloud-based document, in the cloud computing system, to generate second parsed content for the cloud-based document;
• indexing the cloud-based document in the search index based on the second parsed content;
• receiving, by the cloud computing system, a search input;
• conducting, by the cloud computing system, a search against the search index to identify search results that include the client-side document and the cloud-based document as correlated to the search input;
• and
• generating a search result output that includes:
• a first user actuatable link that represents the client-side document and is actuatable to access the storage location of the client-side document on the client device;
• and
• a second user actuatable link that represents the cloud-based document and is actuatable to access a storage location of the cloud-based document.