Using Search Box

Selecting the search configuration to use

If multiple search configurations are available, you can first select the search configuration that they want to use. The search configuration determines the data source, how to determine a matching record, and whether to support type-ahead.

Search Box showing the search configuration drop-down list at the left

Completing a basic search

After selecting the search configuration, to do a basic search:

In the field, type the search term.
To only search within the currently displayed data, make sure the Search Within checkbox is checked.
Click the search icon.

Using type-ahead to find matching attribute values

If type-ahead is supported, then as you type the search term, a list of attribute values containing the search terms is displayed. To filter using an attribute value, click the value. Below the matching attributes is an option to just do a search. This option performs the same function as the search icon.

Search Box component with type-ahead suggestions for the term plus the general search option

If the data source for the selected search configuration does not have a search interface, then only type-ahead is supported. The search icon does not display.

For type-ahead only searches, as you type, the list of matching attribute values is displayed. There is no option to do a regular search.

Search Box component showing type-head suggestions only for the search term

The first value is selected automatically. To search by this value, you can press Enter.

Effect of a search

When you complete the search, the data is refined to only include records with the matching terms.

Effect of relevance ranking on the display order of results

If the search interface for a regular text search uses relevance ranking, then those settings can affect the display order of results on the following components:

Component	Effect of Relevance Ranking
Data Explorer	When the search is submitted, the results are automatically sorted based on search relevance. If you are allowed to change the sort order, then a Search Relevance option is added to the Sorted by drop-down list. You can then switch between the Search Relevance option and the other available sorting options.
Results List	When the search is submitted, the results are automatically sorted based on search relevance. If you are allowed to change the sort order, then a Search Relevance option is added to the Sorted by drop-down list. You can then switch between the Search Relevance option and the other available sorting options.
Results Table	If there is no default sort order for the Results Table, and you haven't applied a sort to the table, then when a search is submitted, the results are sorted based on search relevance. If a specific sort order has been applied to the table, then the relevance ranking settings are not applied.
Map	If there is no default sort order for the Map, then when a search is submitted, the list of map locations is sorted based on search relevance. If there is a default sort order, then the relevance ranking settings are not applied.

For details on relevance ranking and how it works, see the Oracle Endeca Server Developer's Guide. For information on using Integrator to use load the relevance ranking configuration files, see the Integrator User's Guide.

Displaying search snippets

For regular text searches, on the Data Explorer, Results List, and Results Table components, the search terms may be highlighted. For attributes that support snippeting, the search snippet is displayed. The snippet displays the portion of the attribute value that contains the search terms.

Excerpt from a Data Explorer component showing a search snippet for an attribute value

Excerpt from a Results List component showing a search snippet for an attribute value

For details on configuring snippeting for searches, see the Oracle Endeca Server Developer's Guide.

Breadcrumbs displayed for a search

The Breadcrumbs component also is updated to add the search filter. If the Search Within checkbox was checked, then the breadcrumb is added to the list of breadcrumbs. If the box was not checked, the breadcrumb replaces the current list.

If you performed a regular search, then the breadcrumb is a search breadcrumb. Search breadcrumbs may also include spelling correction and "did you mean" suggestions.
If you selected an attribute value, then the breadcrumb is an attribute value breadcrumb.

The selected value also is removed from the available values on the Guided Navigation component.

For more information on how breadcrumbs are displayed, see Using Breadcrumbs.