Patent ID: 7502810

Claim:
A method for returning a tagged facet tree to an end user who is only authorized to access an authorized portion of the facet tree, comprising: receiving, at a server computer, a facet tree from a facet tree database; acquiring, from a rules database connected to the server, a first rule for the facet tree, and a second rule for a plurality of tagging scenarios based on a characteristic of the end user; applying the first rule to the facet tree before presentation to the end user on a user interface such that only the authorized portion of the facet tree is displayed to the end user, and applying the second rule to the plurality of tagging scenarios such that only a tagging scenario that is applicable to the characteristic of the end user is displayed to the end user; making the tagging scenario available to the end user at a user interface connected to the server; responsive to the end user indicating that the tagging scenario is to be applied to the authorized portion of the facet tree, applying the tagging scenario to populate the tagging of elements in the facet tree for the end user in accordance with the tagging scenario; when the tagging has been populated, returning the tagged facet tree to the end user at the user interface; wherein the end user validates or invalidates the tagged facet tree; wherein a facet tree is a categorization scheme for a plurality of hierarchically structured data and content records where a plurality of facets and a plurality of facet elements of the facet tree guide a search; and wherein tagging means assigning a value to a word or a data record to select the word as a facet or a facet element, linking the facet or facet element to another to facet or facet element, or linking a data record to a facet element.