Patent ID: 7979474

Claim:
A method comprising: providing access to a plurality of searchable objects, wherein each searchable object comprises a plurality of fields of data; generating a search index comprising searchable fields, wherein the generating comprises mapping a first searchable field among the searchable fields to a first field of a first searchable object, and to a first field of a second searchable object, and mapping a second searchable field among the searchable fields to a second field of the first searchable object, and to a second field of the second searchable object, and the second searchable object is different from the first searchable object, the mapping the first searchable field is defined by a field mappings file, the mapping the second searchable field is defined by the field mappings file, the field mappings file comprises information identifying at least one searchable object and at least one index field, and the generating is performed at a time of a search; modifying the field mappings file, wherein the modifying the field mappings file is performed by at least one computer processor; and generating a modified search index, wherein the generating the modified search index comprises modifying one or more search index settings based at least in part on modified fields of the field mappings file.