9. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium containing executable program instructions for causing a data processing system to perform a method of managing data, the method comprising: receiving a composite document having a main subdocument and a subpart subdocument, wherein the main subdocument and the subpart subdocument have different file formats; capturing, by a first importer, first metadata from the main subdocument, wherein the first metadata describes the content of the main subdocument; identifying, by the first importer, the subpart subdocument in the composite document; identifying, by the first importer, a second importer based on the file format of the subpart subdocument; capturing, by the second importer, second metadata from the subpart subdocument, wherein the second metadata describes the content of the subpart subdocument; combining the first metadata and the second metadata into a combined metadata for the composite document, wherein the combined metadata is stored in a metadata database in a hierarchical structure having the second metadata associated with the first metadata, and wherein the metadata database includes the combined metadata and metadata for one or more other documents; indexing content of the main subdocument and the subpart subdocument and adding the indexed content to an index database; and searching the metadata in the metadata database using a search query, wherein the search is performed as the search query is being received, and wherein the search results locate the composite document and the subpart subdocument based on the hierarchical structure of the combined metadata.
9. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium containing executable program instructions for causing a data processing system to perform a method of managing data, the method comprising: receiving a composite document having a main subdocument and a subpart subdocument, wherein the main subdocument and the subpart subdocument have different file formats; capturing, by a first importer, first metadata from the main subdocument, wherein the first metadata describes the content of the main subdocument; identifying, by the first importer, the subpart subdocument in the composite document; identifying, by the first importer, a second importer based on the file format of the subpart subdocument; capturing, by the second importer, second metadata from the subpart subdocument, wherein the second metadata describes the content of the subpart subdocument; combining the first metadata and the second metadata into a combined metadata for the composite document, wherein the combined metadata is stored in a metadata database in a hierarchical structure having the second metadata associated with the first metadata, and wherein the metadata database includes the combined metadata and metadata for one or more other documents; indexing content of the main subdocument and the subpart subdocument and adding the indexed content to an index database; and searching the metadata in the metadata database using a search query, wherein the search is performed as the search query is being received, and wherein the search results locate the composite document and the subpart subdocument based on the hierarchical structure of the combined metadata. 11. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein each of the first importer and the second importer is tailored for at least one of the file formats of the main subdocument or the subpart subdocuments.