Object oriented information retrieval framework mechanism

An object oriented framework for use in a computer system having an operating system that supports an object oriented programming environment, wherein the framework provides an extensible information retrieval system that operates on documents stored in the computer system and includes:

• index class objects having word index objects that map words contained in the stored documents to the documents that contain the words;
• a build index object that responds to a user build index request by processing a stored document and creating the word index objects such that they contain the document word mapping and document-related information produced by a preprocessing operation;
• a posting list class of objects that are pointed to by the word index objects and contain a frequency count that indicates the number of times a word appears in a word index object of a document;
• a document table class of objects that map a word index object to the indexed document from which it was preprocessed;
• and
• a query index object that processes a user query so as to produce a query result from comparison of the user query and the word index objects in response to a user query;
• wherein the query result identifies stored documents relevant to the user query.

A program product for use in a computer system having an operating system that supports an object-oriented programming environment, the program product comprising:

• a signal bearing media;
• and
• a framework recorded on the signal bearing media, the framework providing an extensible information retrieval system that operates on documents stored in the computer system and includes:
• index class objects having word index objects that map words contained in the stored documents to the documents that contain the words;
• a build index object that responds to a user build index request by processing a stored document and creating the word index objects such that they contain the document word mapping and document-related information produced by a preprocessing operation;
• a posting list class of objects that are pointed to by the word index objects and contain a frequency count that indicates the number of times a word appears in a word index object of a document;
• a document table class of objects that map a word index object to the indexed document from which it was preprocessed;
• and
• a query index object that processes a user query so as to produce a query result from comparison of the user query and the word index objects in response to a user query;
• wherein the query result identifies stored documents relevant to the user query.

A method of executing an application program in a computer system having a central processing unit that controls processing in the computer system, a user interface, and a main memory having an operating system that supports an object oriented programming environment, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing an object oriented framework that provides an extensible information retrieval system;
• and
• evaluating a user query by using the framework to compare information contained in the user query with information contained in object oriented programming, extensible index class objects of the framework having word index objects that map words contained in the stored documents to the documents that contain the words, wherein the framework further includes:
• a build index object that responds to a user build index request by processing a stored document and creating the word index objects such that they contain the document word mapping and document-related information produced by a preprocessing operation;
• a posting list class of objects that are pointed to by the word index objects and contain a frequency count that indicates the number of times a word appears in a word index object of a document;
• a document table class of objects that map a word index object to the indexed document from which it was preprocessed;
• and
• a query index object that processes a user query so as to produce a query result from comparison of the user query and the word index objects in response to a user query;
• a build index object that responds to a user build index request by processing a stored document and creating the word index objects such that they contain the document word mapping and document-related information produced by a preprocessing operation;
• a posting list class of objects that are pointed to by the word index objects and contain a frequency count that indicates the number of times a word appears in a word index object of a document;
• a document table class of objects that map a word index object to the indexed document from which it was preprocessed;
• and
• a query index object that processes a user query so as to produce a query result from comparison of the user query and the word index objects in response to a user query;
• wherein the query result identifies stored documents relevant to the user query.