A Simple Text Query Application

A typical search application allows the user to enter a query. The application executes the query and returns a list of documents, usually ranked by relevance, that satisfy the query. The application enables the user to view one or more documents in the returned hitlist.

For example, a application portal might index URLs (HTML files) on the worldwide web and provide query capabilities across the set of indexed URLs. Query hitlists are composed of URLs that the user can visit.

Figure 1-3 Flowchart of a Typical Query Application

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Figure 1-3 illustrates the flowchart of how a user interacts with a simple query application. The figure shows the steps required to enter the query and to view the results. Rectangular boxes indicate application tasks and oval boxes indicate user-tasks.

As shown, the a query application can be modeled according to the following steps:

1. user enters query

2. application executes query

3. application presents hitlist

4. user selects document from hitlist

5. application presents document to user for viewing

The rest of this chapter explains how you can accomplish these steps with Oracle Text.

See Also: Appendix A, "CONTEXT Query Application" for a description and of a simple web query application.