Exploiting semantic aspects to evolve a text-based search on a legacy document management system

Semantic technologies provide the means to create a more efficient human-computer interaction. In this paper we showcase how to use semantic technologies in the design of a Document Management System (DMS) to re-engineer a legacy DMS using a text-based search. Due to the historical growth of the database, a text-based search without using domain knowledge delivers bloated result-sets that prevent an efficient use of the DMS. The requirement of an intelligent search can be suitably addressed by using semantic technologies, thus we propose such a new design of a DMS. We employ concepts used in ontologies to provide search results based on hierarchies that are based on concepts of natural language. We construct a metamodel for the application domain to deliver fitting suggestions along with the search results. Finally, we realise a prototype as a proofof-concept based on the introduced design to highlight the evident advantages of a semantic approach.