Relational database extender that supports user-defined index types and user-defined search

摘要

A new approach to indexing semi-structured, non-traditional data uses an external search engine accessible to a database engine through a standardized interface. An external index managed by an external search engine maps object identifiers associated with the non-traditional data to row identifiers for a table stored in the relational database. In response to a query, one or more of the object identifiers are retrieved from the external index by the external search engine. The object identifiers returned by the external search engine are then used by the database engine to retrieve one or more row identifiers from an index in the relational database. The row identifiers are then used to retrieve one or more rows from the table in the relational database.