Enterprise graph search based on object and actor relationships

An apparatus comprising:

• a processing system;
• and
• one or more computer readable storage media including program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable media that, when executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least:
• generate an enterprise graph representative of a plurality of objects associated with an enterprise and a plurality of actors associated with the enterprise and further representative of which of the plurality of actors performed which of a plurality of actions with respect to each of the plurality of objects;
• search at least a portion of the enterprise graph to identify a subset of the plurality of objects that relate to the plurality of actors as defined by a graph query expression in a graph query in terms of at least the plurality of actors and the plurality of actions;
• generate graph results indicative of the subset of the plurality of objects that relate to the plurality of actors as defined by the graph query expression;
• search at least a portion of a full-text database to identify an additional subset of the plurality of objects based at least in part on the full-text query;
• and
• generate full-text results indicative of the additional subset of the plurality of objects;
• and
• merge the graph results and the full-text results to produce search results.

A method, implemented by a computing system, of operating an enterprise search service comprising:

• receiving a search request comprising a natural language query;
• translating at least part of the natural language query into at least a full-text query with which to search a full-text database comprising at least a portion of a plurality of objects associated with an enterprise;
• translating at least part of the natural language query into a graph query comprising a graph query expression that defines a subset of the plurality of objects as any of the plurality of objects acted upon by at least one specific actor of a plurality of actors in accordance with at least one specific action of a plurality of actions;
• searching at least a portion of an enterprise graph based at least in part on the graph query expression to identify the subset of the plurality of objects;
• receiving graph results indicative of the subset of the plurality of objects that relate to the plurality of actors as defined by the graph query expression;
• searching at least a portion of the full-text database to identify an additional subset of the plurality of objects based at least in part on the full-text query;
• receiving full-text results indicative of the additional subset of the plurality of objects;
• and
• merging the graph results and the full-text results to produce search results, wherein the search results include at least a portion of the graph results and at least a portion of the full-text results.