Customizing ALI Search
ALI search can be extended in a number of ways, including
adding to the portal search index, implementing web services to access
content in other repositories, customizing the search UI, and adding
portal search to remote services.
The most common customizations are implemented using web
services.
- To import content and index it in the portal Knowledge
Directory, use Content Crawlers. For details, see About Content Crawlers.
- To access external repositories from the portal without
importing content into the Knowledge Directory, use Federated Search
Services. For details, see About ALI Federated Search Services.
- To display search results, provide a customized search
form, add constraints to search, and more, use Search Portlets.
- To display the results of a common query for a specific
audience, you might be able to use a Snapshot Query and Content Snapshot Portlet. This approach does not require any
coding. The search query is defined in the portal UI and automatically
generate a portlet that displays current results. The results are
automatically cached to improve performance and decrease the load
on ALI Search. There are some minor drawbacks: only a few styles are
available for the result list, and not all constraints are available.
(For example, you can search for portlets, but you cannot restrict
to community portlets or to portlets that fit in a narrow column.)
For more information and detailed instructions, see the portal online
help the Administrator Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
- To display basic search functionality in a portlet,
use Adaptive Tags. Search tags provide access to a basic search
form, as well as advanced search, federated search, and top best bet
functionality. For details see About Adaptive Tags.
- To implement custom search functionality in a portlet, use the PRC Search API. The PRC is a SOAP API used to run
search queries against the ALI system. You can run virtually any search
supported by the portal and use any technology to generate the HTML.
Simply create an HTML form with hidden inputs specifying constraints
on the search. Search queries can be simple text strings (like banner
search) or complex trees of filter clauses, and can be restricted
by Knowledge Directory or administrative folder, or by community.
For details, see About Remote Search Operations.
- About ALI Federated Search ServicesFederated Search provides access to external repositories without adding documents to the portal Knowledge Directory. Federated Search is especially useful for content that is updated frequently or is only accessed by a small number of portal users
