Keyword-based Search and Exploration on Databases

Empowering users to access databases using simple keywords can relieve users from the steep learning curve of mastering a structured query language and understanding complex and possibly fast-evolving data schemas. In this tutorial, we give an overview of the state-of-the-art techniques for supporting keyword-based search and exploration on databases. Several topics will be discussed, including query result definition, ranking functions, result generation and top-k query processing, snippet generation, result clustering, result comparison, query cleaning and suggestion, performance optimization, and search quality evaluation. Various data models will be discussed, including relational data, XML data, graph-structured data, data streams, and workflows. Finally we identify the challenges and opportunities for future research to advance the field.