Patent ID: 8161055

Claim:
A method for filtering with a user specified filter in a service registry, the method comprising: receiving a user selection for a filter for narrowing a current set of search results in a registry; providing, by the registry, a framework for the user selected filter and a set of search criteria for the current set of search results; determining, from a list of enabled filter providers provided by the framework, which enabled filter provider created the selected filter; wherein the determining is performed by the framework invoking an extract filters flow process; calling the determined enabled filter provider by the framework; passing the selected filter and the set of search criteria from the framework to the determined enabled filter provider; altering the set of search criteria by adding the selected filter by the enabled filter provider; passing the altered set of search criteria back to the framework by the enabled filter provider; passing the altered set of search criteria back to the registry by the framework; performing a new search with the altered set of search criteria to obtain a new set of search results by the registry; providing the new set of search results to the extract filters flow process; and displaying to the user a filtered item and a list of filters that have been added.