PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal 9.1 PeopleBook: Using Portal Features

Submitting Searches in the Portal

This chapter provides an overview of searching in the portal discusses how to:

Submit searches requests.
Integrate content ratings into search results.

Understanding Searching in the Portal

You perform searches of PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal content by specifying a search string and search scope in the portal header. Once you have viewed results on the Search page, you can refine your original search or specify entirely different search criteria and scope. You can also search for content by executing saved searches.

In addition, many features in PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal provide a Search link that allows you to search for content within the scope of that feature. You can search within each of the following:

Action item lists

See Searching Within Action Item Lists.
Blogs

See Performing Searches Within Blogs.
Calendars

See Searching for an Event.
Content management folders

See Searching for Content.
Discussion forums

See Performing Searches Within Discussion Forums.
Resource Finder

See Performing Resource Finder Searches.
Tags

See Searching for Tags.
Workspaces

See Searching Within Workspaces.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal content is not dynamically indexed. Except for content that has been deleted, the search results are only as current as the last time the search indexing process (or processes) ran. It is the responsibility of the portal administrator to ensure that search indexing is performed on a regular schedule.

Submitting Search Requests

This section discusses how to submit a search

Pages Used to Submit Search Requests

Page Name	Definition Name	Navigation	Usage
Search	EO_PE_SRCH_RESULT	In the portal header, select the search scope, enter the search string in the Search field, and press ENTER. In the portal header, enter the search string in the Search field, select the search scope, and click the GO button. On the Search page, enter the search criteria and click the Search button. On the Search page, select a saved search in the Saved Search drop-down list box. Click the link for a search in the Saved Searches pagelet. Click the link for a search on the Saved Searches page.	Perform a search on all content in the portal for the selected scope.
Search Tips	EO_PE_SRCH_TIPS	Click the Search Tips link on the Search page. Click the Search Tips link on the Saved Searches Detail page.	View search tips.

Submitting a Search

Access the Search page (in the portal header, enter the search string in the Search field, select the search scope, and click the GO button).

Use the Search page to perform a search on all content in the portal for the selected scope, and to review the search results.

Saved Search	Select and immediately execute a saved search.
Search For	Enter the search text. Note. Searches in PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal are case insensitive. In addition, you can use a wildcard character * and logical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. See Search Considerations and Syntax.
Scope Name	Select the search scope: Action Items — Search all action item lists. Blogs — Search all blogs, posts, and comments. Calendars — Search all calendars and events. Content — Search all content management folders and items. Discussions — Search all discussion forums, topics, and replies. Portal — Search the portal registry and crefs. Resource Finder — Search resource finder profiles. Workspaces — Search collaborative workspaces and workspace content.
Search Within Results	Select this option to restrict the search to the current result set.
Search All Sites	Select this option to search across all sites to which you have access.
Search	Click to execute the search.
Save Search	Click to access the Saved Searches Detail page to name and save the current search.
Edit Searches	Click to access the Saved Searches page to review your saved searches.
Search Tips	Click to display search syntax and examples on the Search Tips page. Note. Searches in PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal are case insensitive. In addition, you can use a wildcard character * and logical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. See Search Considerations and Syntax.

Search Results

The Search Results scroll area displays the results of your search.

<title>

Click a link to access that item.

Note. If the item is in a workspace or a different site, the item is opened in a separate browser window.

Tags

Click a tag to access the Search Tags page with a search on the selected tag.

See Searching for Tags.

Rating

Presents the Verity relevance rating for the item.

Search Considerations and Syntax

Remember these considerations as you construct searches and review search results:

Searches in PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal are case insensitive. Therefore, searching for portal is equivalent to searching for Portal and PORTAL.

Note. While search terms and operators are case insensitive, for ease of reading the examples in this section, we use all caps to distinguish search operators such as AND, OR, and NOT from search terms.
Many special characters are stripped out of the search string. Therefore, we recommend you avoid using the following special characters in your searches:
```
,  !  @  #  $  %  ^  &  (  )  *  +  =  {  
}  [  ]  :  ;  "  `  <  >  ?  /  .  |  \
```

Searches in PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal use the following syntax:

exact phrase	Enter an exact phrase without enclosing quotation marks. For example: PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal For example: stock options
*	Use * as the wildcard character. For example: * — Returns all items for the selected search scope. For example: people* — Returns all items with terms such as people, PeopleSoft, or PeopleTools, and so on.
AND	Use AND to find items with all of the specified search terms or phrases. For example: configuration AND Enterprise Portal — Returns all items with configuration and Enterprise Portal.
OR	Use OR to find items one or more of the specified search terms or phrases.
NOT	Use NOT to exclude a search term or phrase. For example: people NOT PeopleTools* — Returns all items with terms such as people or PeopleSoft and so on, but excludes those with PeopleTools.

Some search tips and examples are available on the Search Tips page. To access the Search Tips page, click Search Tips from either the Search page or the Saved Searches Detail page.

Integrating Content Ratings into Search Results

Select the Include Content Rating Results option on the Installation Options page to indicate that you want to include content ratings results in the search relevance rating. If you don’t select the option, content ratings results are not used in the relevance rating.

Integrating results from content ratings into the Verity search results score enables past input to affect the outcome of searches. If a particular registered content reference was rated highly, it increases the content’s relevance rating on the Search page. The content may be ranked higher or lower than the initial Verity relevance score.

Only results from content ratings feed into the search relevance rating. This feature allows content to be rated between 1 and 5. A rating of 3 is considered average and does not affect the Verity score. A rating of 1 or 2 decreases the Verity score; a rating of 4 or 5 increases it.

This formula is used to calculate the adjusted score:

(Adjusted Score) = (Verity Score) + (0.05 x (Content Ratings Score − 3)) x (1 − Verity Score)

Verity Score represents the unadjusted Verity relevance rating, Content Ratings Score is the content rating (1 through 5). The magnitude of the score adjustment is inversely proportional to the original Verity rating.

The Search page displays the combined relevance score for each result. Only content ratings for the current user are considered when adjusting the score.