Configurable search strategy

A search method comprising:

• receiving from a first user, through a configuration interface displayed on a computer display, a change to an identification strategy,
• the identification strategy including pairings of parsing grammars in data entry fields and search algorithms,
• each parsing grammar comprising:
• parsing grammar rules which split data into a plurality of token names, each token name identifying data in a section of a grammatical statement;
• a plurality of expression formats, at least one expression format preceding each of the plurality of token names, each expression format representing a number of alphanumeric characters of the identified data of the token name that the expression format precedes;
• and
• a punctuation, the punctuation separating each of the plurality of token names;
• each search algorithm comprising search rules, a search rule producing a query identifying a field in a database to be searched using the data identified by at least one token name in the parsing grammar;
• updating a component of the identification strategy to reflect the change;
• receiving search data in the data entry field from a second user;
• applying a first parsing grammar from a first identification strategy pairing to split the search data by:
• checking whether the search data contains the punctuation;
• checking whether the search data before the punctuation contains the number of alphanumeric characters required by the expression format for the token name preceding the punctuation;
• and
• checking whether the search data after the punctuation contains the number of alphanumeric characters required by the expression format for the token name following the punctuation;
• and
• when the search data satisfies the parsing grammar, applying a first search algorithm from the first identification strategy pairing to produce a first search query;
• executing the first search query using at least a portion of the search data corresponding to at least one token name;
• applying a second parsing grammar from a second identification strategy pairing to split the search data by:
• checking whether the search data contains the punctuation;
• checking whether the search data before the punctuation contains the number of alphanumeric characters required by the expression format for the token name preceding the punctuation;
• and
• checking whether the search data after the punctuation contains the number of alphanumeric characters required by the expression format for the token name following the punctuation;
• when the search data satisfies the parsing grammar, applying a second search algorithm from the second identification strategy pairing to produce a second search query;
• executing the second search query using at least a portion of the search data corresponding to at least one token name.

A search system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions to be executed by a processor, the instructions, when executed, implementing:

• an identification strategy associating a parsing grammar in a data entry field with a search algorithm,
• the parsing grammar comprising parsing grammar rules which split data into a plurality of token names, each token name identifying data in a section of a grammatical statement;
• a plurality of expression formats, at least one expression format preceding each of the plurality of token names, each expression format representing a number of alphanumeric characters of the identified data of the token name that the expression format precedes;
• and
• a punctuation, the punctuation separating each of the plurality of token names;
• the search algorithm comprising search rules, a search rule producing a query identifying a field in a database to be searched using the data identified by at least one token name in the parsing grammar;
• a configuration interface displayed on a computer display, the configuration interface receiving a change to the identification strategy;
• a configuration engine which updates the identification strategy to reflect the change;
• an application interface displayed on one of the computer display and a second computer display, the application interface receiving search data in the data entry field;
• a parsing engine to apply the parsing grammar to split the search data by:
• checking whether the entered data contains the punctuation;
• checking whether the entered data before the punctuation contains the number of alphanumeric characters required by the expression format for the token name preceding the punctuation;
• and
• checking whether the entered data after the punctuation contains the number of alphanumeric characters required by the expression format for the token name following the punctuation;
• a query generating engine to apply the search algorithm to produce a search query using at least a portion of the search data corresponding to at least one token name;
• and
• a search engine to execute the search query in a database to produce and return a results set.