Implementing the Verity Search Engine

This chapter provides an overview and discusses how to:

• Build the Verity search engine.

• Create and update the Verity search collection.

• Set up and run the Verity search update Daemon Group program.

• Configure Verity search index options.

• Maintain the Verity thesaurus.

Understanding the Verity Search Engine

The Verity search engine enables requesters to search using synonyms and match cases. Also, you have the option to define price range and model as search fields. The Verity search engine can be used to access items from the PeopleSoft Item Master table or other item sources, including express catalog items. Once the items are indexed into the Verity collection, they can be searched and browsed for PeopleSoft eProcurement.

The Verity search engine consists of these components:

A Verity collection is a group of fields that you set up that is used by the Verity search engine to index and assist users in their search for items. You define the fields for a requester to utilize in their search for items.

You can use either batch updates and rebuild, or incremental updates, to build Verity index collections. Searches are then performed against this collection. Items loaded from a CUP process can be indexed directly into the collection by selecting the Index Items check box, or by selecting PV_CUP_ITEMS as the data source on the Build eProcurement Verity Collection page.

The Verity collection is built using the PeopleSoft Application Engine eProcurement Search Indexing process (PV_IDX_DATA), which is accessible from the Build Verity Collection page. This process extracts data from the item catalog tables and writes a few intermediate text files: BIF files and DAT files. These files are indexed into the Verity collection, which comprises of multiple file folders.

To implement the Verity search engine, use the Verity Search Indexing and the Maintain Verity Information components.

Note. These PeopleSoft applications utilize the Verity search engine: PeopleSoft eProcurement, PeopleSoft Order Management, and PeopleSoft Contracts. While much of the discussion in this chapter relate to PeopleSoft eProcurement, you can apply the same concepts to the other applications.

See PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: Verity Collection Reference Guide for PeopleSoft

Prerequisites

Before you begin building Verity indexes, you must determine where the index files should be stored. In eProcurmenet, after building the index, you need to enable Verity (VSE) as the Catalog Search Type on the eProcurement Installation Options page before you begin searching using the Verity search index

See Setting Up PeopleSoft eProcurement Installation Options.

Building the Verity Search Index

The Verity search engine is made up of multiple indexes. General setup tasks are:

1. 1. Determine whether the search indexes are to be stored in a default location or a custom location

2. 2. If the search indexes are to be stored in a custom location, then specify the file path in the configuration files of the Application Server and Process Scheduler Server.

3. Build the search index.

4. Set up the Daemon process to run periodically, which automatically refreshs the indexes when online updates occur.

5. Activate Verity on the Installation Options page.

Fields indexed into the collection are:

Enabling the Verity Search Engine

To set up Verity searches, use the Verity Search Indexing component.

To set up the Verity search engine:

1. Open the application server configuration file in a text editor (psappsrv.cfg) and add the following search index path under the [Search Indexes] section: FDM_PV_ITEMCATALOL=[Collection File Path].

   Note. [Collection File Path] is the directory path that the system uses to store the Verity collection files. This directory must be shared if multiple application servers are accessing the same path. There are no spaces before or after the equal sign in the search index path.

2. Open the process scheduler server configuration file (psprcs.cfg) in a text editor.

   Copy the [Search Indexes] section from the application server configuration file and paste it near the end of the psprcs.cfg file.

3. Create and configure a process scheduler to run on the application server where the system runs the indexing process.

4. Navigate to the Build Verity Collection page and create the collection for the first time using the Create New/Rebuild Collection option and then run the process for the platform.

   Note. It is important that the Update/Reload Tree Table check box is selected if this is a first-time build. Also, use this option whenever there are changes to the tree data. However, if tree data has not changed since you last ran the process, you can clear the check box to improve performance of the indexing process.

   The system uses VSE to index the tree table automatically and activate the tree table PV_CAT_TREE_TBL for item browsing.

   Note. The PV_CAT_TREE_TBL tree table must be populated for Verity searching.

5. Use the Build Verity Collection page to schedule the process to periodically update or rebuild the item catalog collection.

6. Set the Catalog Search Type on the eProcurement Installation Options page to VSE.

Setting Up the Daemon Process

Incremental updates using the daemon process provide automatic updates to the Verity search index for items that are added, updated, or inactivated online since the last index build. The daemon process determines which items to update based on the last date and time stamp on the MASTER_ITEM_TBL and PURCH_ITEM_ATTR tables.

You can set up the specified time interval for the Daemon process (PV_SRCH_DAEM) should run to update the search index. This process in turn calls the main Verity program (SAC_IDX_DATA) to update items based on the last modified timestamp.

Creating and Updating the Verity Search Collection

This section discusses how to:

• Build search collections for SCM.

• Build search collections for eProcurement.

Pages Used to Create and Update the Verity Search Collection

Building Search Collections for Supply Chain Management

Access the Build Search Index page for Supply Chain Management.

Index Name	Enter a name for the index you are creating.
Build Options	Select the build method for the search index. The filtering criteria used depends on the method you select. The values are: Create New/Rebuild indicates that you are creating or rebuilding an index. You can limit the data retrieval by specifying values in the Filtering Criteria section of the page. Update indicates that you are updating an index by specifying values in the Filtering Criteria section of the page and providing a value for the Source Data Object, Record Name, or Field Name fields. Update Last Modified indicates that you are updating an index based on the last date and time modified. You can limit the data retrieval by specifying values in the Filtering Criteria section of the page.
Index File Path	Enter the Application Server Configuration file. Note. Make sure that the collection is accessible to all application servers and to the process scheduler server that is running this process.
Remove temp data files	Select to remove the intermediary and temporary .bif and .dat files after this process completes.
Source	If additional data filtering is needed, select to assign a source data object to the index.
Filtering Criteria - Optional	This group box enables you to be more specific about the build.
Collection Language	Select a language code. You can index Verity for multiple languages; for example, English, Spanish, and Dutch. This makes it possible to support multiple languages in one system.
Attachment Server Network Path	Enter a different network path, which overrides the attachment path that is specified on the Define Search Index Field page.
Test Index	Click this link to determine whether there are entries in the index.

To run the search index process, select Verity Search Indexing (SAC_IDX_DATA ) on the Process Scheduler Request page.

Build Search Collections for eProcurement

Access the Build Search Index page for eProcurement.

Use this page to define parameters for loading items into catalogs that the Verity search engine uses to search for items. If you are not configuring the index, you need only to build a search index by running the eProcurement Search Indexing process.

Note. eProcurement delivers a set of system data of the FDM_PV_ITEMCATALOG collection.

The fields and definitions are the same as those on the Build Search Index page for SCM except for the following:

To run the search index process, select Verity Search Indexing (PV_SRCH_INDX) on the Process Scheduler Request page.

Setting Up and Running the Verity Search Update Daemon Group Program

This section discusses how to create and use a daemon group.

Understanding Daemon Groups

Daemon groups are used to periodically update Verity indexes with the most recent changes. A Daemon group is the equivalent of running a single job in the process scheduler. By using the Daemon group, you can effectively run multiple processes without having to run multiple jobs. Use the Daemon group if you are running frequent update processes. The Daemon groups are used primarily for updating changes to the Verity index, and should not be used to run an entire rebuild of your Verity index.

Note. If you have a large amount of data, you should examine the frequency of running the Daemon group. The system needs time to process all of the information within the tables.

Page Used to Set Up and Run the Verity Search Update Daemon Group Program

Setting Up and Running the Daemon Group

Access the Daemon Group page.

To set up the Verity Search Update Daemon program:

1. Create a new Daemon group.

   1. Add a new Daemon Procedure Group PVDAEMON.

   2. Select the program name PV_SRCH_DAEM.

   3. Save the Daemon group.

2. Set up the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler Server using PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Servers.

   1. Select to edit PeopleSoft Process Scheduler server.

   2. On the Daemon tab, select the Daemon Group PVDAEMON.

   3. Select the Daemon Enabled check box.

   4. Specify the Daemon Sleep Time.

   5. Save the changes.

3. Clear the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler cache and restart PeopleSoft Process Scheduler. The Daemon process starts automatically. You can view a log of the process on the Process Monitor - Server List page.

Configuring Verity Search Indexing Options

This section provides an overview of Verity Search Indexing options and discusses how to:

• Set up and run the Daemon group.

• Dynamically alter Source to Index.

• Define source data objects.

• Define source data object fields.

• Define source data object join conditions.

• Define source data object data object sets.

• Enable the incremental update process.

• Define search indexes.

• Define search index fields.

• Create a search query.

• Define field labels for custom searches.

• Display search results.

• Define search options.

You can dynamically add or remove records and fields from the Verity search engine. The process consists of these steps:

1. Determine if an existing data object contains the field that you need to add or remove.

2. If you do not have an existing data object, you must create one.

3. Select the field from the data object and index it as a field or a zone.

4. Either map the Verity field or zone to the database field, or define the processing logic.

5. Build the Verity collection.

This diagram illustrates the change order process:

Configuring the Verity collection

Dynamically Altering Source to Index

To make changes to the information source that you will index:

1. Define the search index fields, and either add or subtract them from the data source object.

2. Define the new data object sets to signify the location of the data source.

Pages Used to Configure Verity Search Indexing Options

Defining Source Data Objects

To set up source data objects, use the Define Data Object Set component.

Access the Source Data Object page.

To define a source data object:

1. Define the source records that the system uses to retrieve data.

   For example, item data can be retrieved from MASER_ITEM_TBL, PURCH_ITEM_ATTR, and ITM_VENDOR.

2. Define fields for each record, which are used to index as Verity Fields and Verity Zones.

3. Define the join conditions that tell the system how multiple records and fields work together.

Defining Source Data Object Fields

Access the Fields page to identify the fields that are needed from the source record tables.

Select the fields from within the source record that you want to utilize within the source data object. These fields can be utilized with any search index that has this specific source data object as part of the search.

Defining Source Data Object Join Conditions

Access the Join Conditions page.

Use this page to join records and fields. If you have two source records identified within the object, you need to tell the system how the two work together. For example, if the you identify the VENDOR table and the ITM_VENDOR table, you need to identify that the two VENDOR_ID fields are the same.

Defining Source Data Object Sets

Access the Define Data Object Set page.

Use the Define Data Object Sets page to identify one source record on level 0 as the master source record that drives the indexing process. You can also define multiple levels of source records and their processing sequence.

Note. To enable incremental updates, a staging table and data object need to be created. The staging data object will be used in place of the master data object during the incremental update.

Enabling the Incremental Update Process

The staging table must satisfy these requirements:

• It must contain the same key fields as the master driving table and the DTTM_STAMP field.

• It must contain one more key field: DTTM_STAMP.

The staging data object must satisfy these requirements:

• It must contain a join between the common key fields of the staging table and all the tables available in the master data object.

• It must contain the same number of fields as the master data object. All field aliases should be the same as the field name.

Register this new staging data object in the data object set and mark it as Stage.

Defining Search Indexes

To define search indexes, use the Define Search Index component.

Access the Define Search Index page.

Use this page to create new search index and assign a specific source data object set for use with the search index.

For each source data object set, you create a group of source data objects. In the Optional Source Field Setup section of the Search Index page, you can limit the amount of data that is retrieved from each source data object by creating criterion. Set these limits by using the one of the following values:

• Defining the search criterion:

  <	Less than.
  <=	Less than or equal to.
  <>	Less or greater than.
  =	Equal to.
  >	Greater than.
  >=	Greater than or equal to.
  Between	Between two entries.
  LIKE	Similar to.

• Stating the values of the specific field search criterion.

Defining Search Index Fields

Access the Define Search Index Fields page.

From the Define Search Index Fields page, you define specific fields that are stored in the search index file.

Example: Adding a New Simple Field

These steps extend the search index.

1. Insert a new field to the source data object used by the search index.

2. Identify the new field to be used for Verity indexing on the Search Index Field page.

3. This new field will be picked up in the Verity indexing engine for direct mapping.

Example: Adding a New Field that Requires Customized Processing

These steps allow you to customize the search.

1. Insert a new field to the source data object used by the search index.

2. Identify the new field to be used for Verity indexing on the Search Index Field page.

3. Extend the appropriate source data object class to include special processing.

Example: Adding a New Field from a New Record

These steps include another record in the search index.

1. Add a new record to the appropriate source data object used by the search index.

2. Identify and insert the new fields from this record in the Data Object Definition page.

3. In the Define Data Object Set page, use the AnyDataObject application class to provide default direct mapping from the data object fields to Verity fields.

4. Identify the new field to be used for Verity indexing on the Search Index Field page.

5. Extend the appropriate source data object class to include special processing.

Creating a Search Query

To create Verity searches, use the Define Search Query component.

Access the Define Search Query page.

Use the Define Search Query page to define a group of fields for display as users search fields on the transaction search page.

Defining Field Labels for Custom Searches

Access the Define Search Query: Field Labels and App Class page.

If you are creating a new query, you have two options to display search fields on the query page. You can either hard-code each field using Application Designer, or you can dynamically populate the searchable fields. The Field Labels and App Class tab is where you use messages to define field labels when the work grid is dynamically populated.

When the transaction search page is displayed, the following information is populated on the page:

• Work record used for the search fields.

  For example, the user sees description.

• Work record used for the search fields by range, if any.

  For example, the user can enter a price range.

• Work record used for the search options grid.

  For example, the user can elect to use exact words or synonyms.

Note. Other fields, such as Currency in the case or price range, need to be manually created.

Displaying Search Results

To display search results, use the Define Search Results component.

Access the Define Search Result page.

Based on how you elect to display your search results, the values returned from the Verity search index are mapped to the appropriate component record fields.

Defining Search Options

Access the Define Search Options page.

Use the Define Search Options page to enable users to search using these options:

In order to use these search option codes in a Verity search, you must:

1. Select VSE as the Catalog Search Type on the eProcurement Installation Options page.

   When you select VSE as the Catalog Search Type, the Search Settings link appears to the right of the field.

2. Use the Search Settings link to access the Search Setting page and select the Verity search fields.

3. Activate the search option codes on the Define Search Options page.

4. Run the Build Search Index process.

See Also

Setting Up Installation Options

Maintaining the Verity Thesaurus

This section discusses how to maintain the Verity thesaurus.

Page Used to Maintain the Verity Thesaurus

Maintaining the Verity Thesaurus

Access the Maintain Verity Thesaurus page.

You need to create a thesaurus file before a thesaurus can be used. This thesaurus file is based on the default synonym list provided by Verity. When the thesaurus file (vdk30.syd) is built, it is stored in the <pshome>/data/search/topics/<indexname>/<language>/ directory. Each language needs its own vdk30.syd file.