Patent ID: 8903846

Claim:
A method performed in a search server of initiating a connection via a network for a streaming data item between a client for the streaming data item and a streaming data item server that contains the streaming data item, the client and the streaming data item server and the client and the search server being accessible to each other via the network, the connection being independent of the search server, and the method comprising the steps: receiving a specification of the streaming data item from the client via the network; using the specification to make a query on a database system that is accessible to the search server, the query returning a first identifier that identifies the streaming data item; and providing the first identifier and a second identifier to the streaming data item server that contains the streaming data item, the second identifier identifying the client and the first identifier and the second identifier being used by the streaming data item server to establish the connection between the client and the streaming data item server; the database system is an object relational database system that includes a table containing an object that represents the streaming data item, an open method for the object is defined in the database system, the open method returning the first identifier; and the database system responds to the query by executing the open method and returning the first identifier.