Patent ID: 7958137

Claim:
A computer-implemented method to facilitate creation of linked inter-related models in a database, the method comprising: obtaining a search text and match criteria from a user; determining whether a prequery function exists; if the prequery function does not exist, obtaining a list of all destination items; if the prequery function does exist, determining whether the prequery function is enabled; if the prequery function is not enabled, obtaining a list of all destination items; if the prequery function is enabled, obtaining a list of all destination items limited by the prequery function; determining whether all the match criteria has been selected; if all the match criteria has been selected, returning all items in the destination list to the user; if all the match criteria has not been selected, generating a word list by parsing all words from the search text; adding all valid synonyms for each word in a search string to the word list; reducing the items in the destination list to items in a reduced list that match at least one word in the word list; determining whether one or more additional filters exist; if the one or more additional filters do not exist, returning the reduced list filtered by the match criteria to the user; if the one or more additional filters exist, presenting the one or more additional filters to the user; reducing the matched item list based on criteria of the one or more additional filters; and returning the reduced matched item list to the user.