A method for responding to search requests for stored documents. Each of the stored documents includes metadata, content, and a document type identifier for identifying a type of the document. A search request including document type criteria, metadata criteria, and content criteria, is received. A first set of documents based on the metadata criteria is identified. Documents in the first set that have a document type identifier that matches the document type criteria are identified. A search method is identified from a plurality of search methods for searching the content of the identified documents in the first set based on the document type identifier of the documents. The content of the identified documents in the first set is searched using the identified search method and the content criteria.