Configuring PeopleSoft Applications Portal for Application Search

This chapter provides an overview of Application Search, lists prerequisites, and discusses how to:

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Application Search in PeopleSoft Applications Portal

In PeopleTools 8.52, the PeopleSoft Search Framework was introduced. This framework consists of PeopleSoft components (pages and records provided by PeopleTools), which provide a centralized interface for configuring PeopleSoft integration with a back-end search engine, creating search artifacts like search definitions, search categories, and building and maintaining search indexes. Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) is the back-end search engine on which the PeopleSoft Search Framework relies.

Along with the search framework, PeopleTools 8.52 also introduced Application Search, which provides a way for a user to search across all or a specific group of search indexes. Application Search is available in the portal header throughout the user's session irrespective of the content the user is accessing in the target frame. It allows the user to search and drill down to a specific row and transaction from the search results without navigating to the classic component search page. In a PeopleSoft Applications Portal environment, Application Search can be configured to search across indexes from multiple content provider systems.

PeopleSoft Applications Portal 9.1 Feature Pack 1 (FP1) continues to use Verity as the underlying search engine and the indexes delivered with PeopleSoft Applications Portal are Verity based. If you opt to use Application Search in the portal header instead of PeopleSoft Application Portal's scoped search, then you will have to deploy delivered placeholder search definitions to the Oracle SES search instance. These search definitions are referred to as placeholders, because the indexes themselves are not deployed to Oracle SES, but remain Verity-based indexes on the PeopleSoft Applications Portal system. The placeholder search definitions allow the PeopleSoft Application Portal's scoped search domains to appear in the Application Search widget in the portal header alongside search definitions from other content provider systems.

The remainder of this chapter provides the procedures to integrate your PeopleSoft Application Portal system with an Oracle SES search instance, deploy PeopleSoft Applications Portal placeholder search definitions to Oracle SES, and configure your system to display the Application Search bar in the portal header.

Important! This integration of Application Search with Oracle SES is very different from the web services integration delivered through the EPPSR_SES_SRCH web service in PeopleSoft Applications Portal 9.1. With PeopleSoft Applications Portal 9.1 FP1, Application Search through the PeopleSoft Search Framework becomes the standard for integration with Oracle SES. The web services integration described in elsewhere in this book has been deprecated as of PeopleSoft Applications Portal 9.1 FP1.

See Also

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Understanding PeopleSoft Search Framework ”

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Working with PeopleSoft Search,” Working with Application Search

Administering Search Indexes

Implementing a Web Service for Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES)

Click to jump to parent topicPrerequisites

Prior to configuring your PeopleSoft Applications Portal system for Application Search, complete the following prerequisite steps:

  1. Configure Oracle SES for the PeopleSoft Search Framework. In addition, configure Integration Broker and the integration gateway on your PeopleSoft Applications Portal system.

    See the PeopleTools 8.52 installation guide for your database platform, “Configuring Integration Between PeopleTools and Oracle SES.”

  2. Configure single signon (SSO) between your PeopleSoft Applications Portal system and any content provider systems that host search indexes that you want to include in the Application Search.

    See PeopleTools 8.52: Security Administration PeopleBook, “Implementing Single Signon,” Implementing PeopleSoft-Only Single Signon.

Click to jump to parent topicCreating a Search Instance

When you create a search instance, you define the connectivity from your PeopleSoft Applications Portal system to the back-end Oracle SES search engine. This search instance is the basis for the PeopleSoft Search Framework on your PeopleSoft Applications Portal system.

To create a search instance:

  1. Access the Search Instance Properties page (PeopleTools, Search Framework, Administration, Search Instance).

  2. Add a new value if no search instance has been defined.

  3. Enter the values to define a search connection to your search engine instance:

  4. Click Save to save your settings.

  5. Click the Ping button to test connectivity to the search engine instance.

    The results should show success.

  6. Click the Test Login button to test the login credentials at the search engine instance.

    These results should also show success.

See Also

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Administering PeopleSoft Search Framework,” Working With Search Instances, Creating Search Instances

Click to jump to parent topicImporting Remote Search Groups from Content Providers

When you import remote search groups, you add remote search group definitions from content provider systems to your PeopleSoft Applications Portal system.

To import remote search groups from content provider systems:

  1. Access the Remote Search Groups page (PeopleTools, Search Framework, Administration, Remote Search Groups):

  2. Select the content provider node from the Content Provider list box.

  3. Click the Import button to import the search groups from the remote node.

    Note. Importing remote search groups retrieves all the search groups defined in that content provider system along with all related search categories, associated search definitions, and the list of faceted attributes.

  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each content provider system that you want to include in Application Search.

See Also

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Administering PeopleSoft Search Framework,” Importing Remote Search Groups

Click to jump to parent topicDeploying PeopleSoft Applications Portal Search Definitions

When you deploy PeopleSoft Applications Portal search definitions, you add placeholder search definitions corresponding to the Verity-based search indexes from your PeopleSoft Applications Portal system to the search engine instance. These placeholder search definitions are delivered with the PeopleSoft Applications Portal product.

To deploy the PeopleSoft Applications Portal search definitions to the search engine instance:

  1. Access the Deploy Search Definition page (PeopleTools, Search Framework, Administration, Deploy/Delete Object):

  2. Select the eight delivered PeopleSoft Applications Portal search definitions (EPPAI_SEARCH through PAPP_PORTAL_SEARCH).

  3. Optionally, select the portal registry menu definition (PTPORTALREGISTRY).

  4. Click the Deploy button to deploy the selected definitions.

    A message will indicate the success of the deployment when the operation completes.

See Also

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Administering PeopleSoft Search Framework,” Administering Search Definitions and Search Categories, Working with Search Definitions

Click to jump to parent topicAdding Search Categories to the Homepage Search Context

When you add search categories to a search context, you define which search groups you want to appear in which context in your system. You can configure search contexts for the portal homepage, for each portal node defined in the system, and for WorkCenter templates. In this task, you will define the search categories that appear on the portal homepage.

To add search categories to the homepage search context:

  1. Access the Define Search Context page (PeopleTools, Search Framework, Administration, Define Search Context).

  2. Click Edit Context link.

  3. Click Search button.

  4. Select the Home context type.

    The Define Search Context page for the homepage context is displayed:

  5. Add each of the eight delivered PeopleSoft Applications Portal search categories to the homepage context.

    Note. Optionally, add the portal registry menu search definition (PTPORTALREGISTRY).

  6. Add each remote search category to the homepage context.

  7. Select the default search category for this context.

    The following example shows nine search categories for the homepage context with portal search from PeopleSoft Applications Portal selected as the default:

  8. Save your changes.

  9. Optionally, define additional search contexts for portal nodes or WorkCenter templates.

See Also

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Administering PeopleSoft Search Framework,” Managing Search Context, Defining Search Contexts

Click to jump to parent topicEnabling the Application Search Bar in the Portal Header

When you enable the Application Search bar in the portal header, you replace the default PeopleSoft Applications Portal scoped search interface elements with those for Application Search.

The following illustrates the default portal header for PeopleSoft Applications Portal displaying the scoped search elements at the right:

Default portal header with PeopleSoft Applications Portal scoped search

The following illustrates the portal header with the Application Search bar enabled. The Application Search bar appears in the middle of the header:

Portal header with the Application Search bar

To enable the Application Search bar in the portal header:

  1. Access the View System Elements page (Portal Administration, Branding, Define Elements, View System Elements).

  2. Click the Find link and search for system element 62—that is, Global Search Option %2.

    Note. The system element named Global Search Option corresponds to what is known as Application Search.

  3. Select a setting for the Can be Overridden by Sites option.

    In the following example, the configuration indicates that the system definition for Global Search Option can be overridden by sites:

  4. Save your changes.

  5. Access the Define Header page (Portal Administration, Branding, Define Headers).

  6. Select the currently used header definition—for example, the default for PeopleSoft Applications Portal is PAPPBR_HEADER7_PT_SWAN.

  7. Click the Details link.

  8. For an existing layout object such as PAPPBR_HEADER7_PT_SWAN, select element 62, and ensure that elements 2 and 61 remain selected.

    For new layout objects, it is sufficient to select element 62 only.

  9. Save your changes.

  10. Re-access the Define Header page (Portal Administration, Branding, Define Headers).

  11. Select the currently used header definition—for example, the default for PeopleSoft Applications Portal is PAPPBR_HEADER7_PT_SWAN.

  12. Go to the Special Elements page.

  13. Click the Correct History to update the current record.

  14. Deselect the Scope Search Options %2 element.

    Note. Ensure that the Search Options %2 element is also unselected.

  15. Select the Global Search Option %2 element.

  16. Save your changes.

    Note. Ignore any warning messages associated with tab images.

See Also

Configuring Headers and Footers

Click to jump to parent topicAdding the Search Groups to Selected Permissions Lists

When you add search groups to a permission list, you determine which users have access to the search groups that have been defined and added to the portal header.

Important! There are no default assignments of search groups to permission lists. Therefore, for your users to access any of the Application Search search groups defined in the portal header, you must add these search groups to one or more permission lists.

To add Application Search search groups to a permission list:

  1. Access the Permission Lists page (PeopleTools, Security, Permissions & Roles, Permission Lists).

  2. Select the permission list to which you want to add search group access.

  3. Go to the Search Groups page.

  4. Add the Application Search search groups that you want to add to this permission list.

    In the following example, all of the PeopleSoft Applications Portal-delivered search groups have been added to the PTPT1000 (PeopleSoft User) permission list:

  5. Save your changes.

  6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for additional selected permission lists and search groups as needed.

See Also

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Working with PeopleSoft Search Framework Security Features,” Setting Up Role-Based Search Group Access

PeopleTools 8.52: PeopleSoft Search Technology PeopleBook, “Working with PeopleSoft Search,” Working with Application Search, Working with Search Groups and Search Contexts