Patent ID: 8600970

Claim:
A method of indexing the content of one or more attachments to an email into a searchable email account index of an email account of a user, the method comprising: receiving the email having one or more attachments, by an email server application running on a data processing system that is coupled to a network, a data store, and a search system, the email addressed to the email account of the user; generating, by the email server application, an identifier of the email that is unique with respect to the email account of the user; storing the identifier of the email, the content of the email, and header information of the email in the data store; extracting, by the search system coupled to the email server application, the content of the one or more attachments from the email into one or more temporary storage elements which include volatile memory and wherein the content is retrieved from the volatile memory to the search system; generating, by the search system, an index of the extracted content of each of the one or more attachments from the one or more temporary storage elements; storing the index of the extracted content of each of the one or more attachments and the identifier of the email in the searchable email account index of the user thereby enabling the search system to retrieve, from the data store, the email to which an attachment was attached when the email was received by the email server application, using the identifier of the email; and disposing of the one or more temporary storage elements after storing the index of the extracted content of each of the one or more attachments in the searchable email account index, thereby disposing of the extracted content of the one or more attachments.