Efficient indexing and searching of access control listed documents

A computer-readable storage medium coupled to one or more processors having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

• storing a plurality of documents in computer-readable memory, each document of the plurality of documents having a corresponding access control list (ACL), each ACL defining a plurality of users that are authorized to access a respective document;
• generating an index based on the plurality of users, the index comprising a plurality of partitions, each partition corresponding to a user of the plurality of users;
• and
• for each document of the plurality of documents:
• ranking the users of the plurality of users;
• selecting a user as an indexing user based on the ranking;
• and
• storing the document in a partition of the index, the partition corresponding to the indexing user.

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• storing a plurality of documents in computer-readable storage, each document of the plurality of documents having a corresponding access control list (ACL), each ACL defining a plurality of users that are authorized to access a respective document;
• generating an index based on the plurality of users, the index comprising a plurality of partitions, each partition corresponding to a user of the plurality of users;
• and
• for each document of the plurality of documents:
• ranking the users of the plurality of users;
• selecting a user as an indexing user based on the ranking;
• and
• storing the document in a partition of the index, the partition corresponding to the indexing user.