4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said search element further comprises a search manager that formulates said task request and a search filter that filters the retrieved data based on said task request.
1. A method for searching and retrieving data from a plurality of heterogeneous data sources, through a network interface, comprising: configuring and selecting, at a configure element, at least one data source from which to retrieve data, from said plurality of heterogeneous data sources; wherein the configure element is in communication with each data source; each of said data sources is associated with at least one corresponding data source type or data source owner; a data source owner of said at least one data source uses meta-data information to pre-configure data of said data source based on said data source type or data source owner; said selection is based on said pre-configured data of said data source type or data source owner; retrieving said data in accordance with a task request, using a search element in communication with the configure element and each selected data source; wherein communication between the data sources and the configure element and the search element is via search translators; wherein each of said search translators is associated with one of said data source type or data source owner; wherein each of said search translators verifies that a search request syntax provided by said search element is appropriate to its corresponding data source type or data source owner; and wherein said search translators are selected from a group consisting of SQL translators, X-QUERY translators, XPATH translators, and Directory SDK for Java translators.