US 2012/0072468 A1 · SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY GENERATING A SELECTABLE SEARCH EXTENSION

Abstract

A system and related techniques accept user-inputted search terms, for example to perform a search for files or other data or objects. According to embodiments, an extension of a search to different levels or points in the file system hierarchy may be automatically generated and presented to the user as a selectable search box. That box may be highlighted to the user for easy selection. When the user selects the selectable search box, the user's search for files of type or extension “.doc ” or “.memo”, may be seamlessly extended to other files, folders, trees or other points or levels in the file system hierarchy. Search results may be continuously or dynamically updated as the user enters more characters or other data.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for automatically presenting a search interface facility on a display comprising:

receiving a search criteria;
determining that a first amount of files within the file location have file content that matches the search criteria, wherein the file content is the subject matter of a file;
determining that a plurality of attributes associated with one or more files have a file attribute value that matches the search criteria, wherein a file attribute is a characteristic of the file;
for each of the plurality of attributes, determining how many files contain an attribute value that matches the search criteria;
and
outputting for display a search box having a first panel and a second panel, wherein the first panel displays each of the plurality of attributes with an indication adjacent to each of the plurality of attributes, wherein the indication communicates how many times an attribute displayed adjacent to the indication has an attribute value for a file that matches the search criteria, and wherein the second panel displays the first amount of files that have file content that matches the search criteria.

3 more elements

A method of generating and displaying search results comprising:

receiving a first input symbol;
searching a set of files in a file system to generate a first plurality of files that have one or more file attribute values that match the first input symbol and a second plurality of files that have file content that matches the first input symbol;
outputting for display a first interface that displays one or more file attributes that are associated with the one or more file attributes values from the first plurality of files and at least how many files in the second plurality of files are associated with each attribute that has an attribute value that matches the first input symbol and a second interface that displays how many files are in the second plurality of files;
receiving a second input symbol;
searching the set of files to update the first plurality of files to include files that have one or more file attribute values that match the first input symbol and the second input symbol and the second plurality of files to include the files that have file content that matches the first input symbol and the second input symbol;
and
updating the first interface based on the updated first plurality of files and the second interface based on the updated second plurality of files.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for dynamically generating a selectable search extension

Life of this patent

System and method for dynamically generating a selectable search extension

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20