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Getting Started > Working with Records > Finding Records > About Enhanced Keyword Search

About Enhanced Keyword Search

In addition to targeted search and keyword search, Oracle CRM On Demand supports enhanced keyword search. Enhanced keyword search can find records containing strings that are similar to the search string entered, in addition to finding records with an exact match. This search can match records with the exact search string that you enter regardless of the string’s sequence or how the string is divided using spaces or punctuation. It can match records that are based on the linguistic root of words, and it can also match words that are spelled similarly.

Generally, targeted search provides better performance than enhanced keyword search. If you know the exact string for that you want to search for, then use the targeted search that is available in the Search or Advanced Search sections in the UI, rather than the Enhanced Keyword Search section. If you are not sure of the exact string, and if you want to find records that are similar, then use enhanced keyword search.

Enhanced keyword search contains one search field that is used to search for a selected record type containing the supported fields, as shown in the following table.

The tooltip in the Enhanced Keyword Search section for each record type shows the fields supported for that record type. For example, if you enter Sunnyvale when searching Accounts, then enhanced keyword search looks for Sunnyvale in the Account Name, Location, and Billing City fields for all accounts that you can access. The search displays all records that have the search string that you entered in the supported search fields.

Characteristics of Enhanced Keyword Search

This topic describes the characteristics of enhanced keyword search.

• The search performs the following word matching:
  • Exact word matches

    Searches for records that contain the exact search string, that is, the same spelling as the string entered in the search.

  • Accumulation matches

    Searches for records that contain at least one occurrence of the search string, with the returned records ranked by a cumulative score that is determined by how many search string matches are found and how frequently they occur. For example, a search for First National Bank of Arizona returns the Arizona First National Bank record, with four matching string values, prior to the First National Bank record, with only three matching string values.

  • Stemming matches

    Searches for records that contain values that have the same linguistic root as the query string. For example, a search for Manufacturer returns records containing Manufacturing or Manufactured, in addition to Manufacturer. (Stemming matches are supported in English only.)

  • Fuzzy matches

    Searches for records that contain words that are spelled similarly to words in the specified search string. For example, searching for Oracle misspelled as Orcale results in finding the records that contain Oracle. (Fuzzy matches are supported in English only.)

• The search is case insensitive (for example, a search for Bella returns Bella or bella)
• The search ignores the following items:
  • Diacritical marks, for example, a search for Velka returns Velká
  • Punctuation, including the following:
    • Apostrophe ( ’ )
    • Brackets ([ ])
    • Angle brackets (< >)
    • Braces ({ })
    • Parentheses [( )]
    • Colon (:)
    • Comma (, ¸ )
    • Dashes ( – — ?)
    • Ellipsis points ( … ... . . .)
    • Exclamation mark (!)
    • Period (.)
    • Hyphen ( - )
    • Question mark (?)
    • Quotation marks ( ‘ ’ “ ” ' " ")
    • Semicolon (;)
    • Slash ( / /)
  • Noise words

    In a search query, enhanced keyword search ignores noise words in English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. A noise word is a word that is so common that it is not useful and is ignored to save time doing searches. In English, examples of noise words include words, such as or, and, or the.

• Enhanced keyword search requires specialized search indexes. Data from Oracle CRM On Demand is synchronized to the search indexes over time intervals, therefore, you might find that a record that was recently added or modified is not found until a later time.
• Because enhanced keyword search is a complex search, the search performance might vary depending on the search criteria and the data quality. It is recommended that you search with a more refined search criterion, or that you use the Advanced Search in cases where you know the exact string or field for which to search.

Type-Ahead Support

Enhanced keyword search supports type-ahead search. The type-ahead search searches for records in the Recent Items lists that contain the search string in the supported fields for the specific record type that you are searching. The type-ahead search is case insensitive and ignores diacritical marks, and the match can be at the beginning of the field value, or a substring of the field value, or at the end of the field value.

Recent Items lists that are supported include the following lists:

• My Recently Viewed record type
• My Recently Created record type
• My Recently Modified record type

When you enter the search string, the type-ahead search opens a small Recent Items window near the Enhanced Keyword Search section. This window lists all records containing strings that match the search string characters entered, up to a maximum of 10 records. The type-ahead search matches one character at a time in bold font, as you enter the search string. The items listed in the window display the name of the record and the supported field names in parentheses [( )] after the record name. The name of the record is derived from the fields as shown in the following table.

If the search string matches a value in a supported field, then the values that match are in bold. For example, if the value is contained in the Location field for an Account record, then the window displays Account Name (Location, Billing City). For example, you might create three accounts with the settings shown in the following table.

If you search for Sunnyvale for Accounts, the Recent Items window shows the following when you enter S:

Account3 (Sunnyside, Sunnyside)
Account2 (California, Sunnyvale)
Account1 (California, Sunnyvale)

When you enter Sunnyv, the Recent Items window shows the following:

Account2 (California, Sunnyvale)
Account1 (California, Sunnyvale)

The search returns the Account records in the Recently Viewed Accounts, Recently Created Accounts, and the Recently Modified Accounts lists that contain Sunnyvale in the Account Name, Location, or Billing City fields. Clicking any record that is returned in the Recent Items window opens the Detail page for that record.

Related Topics

See the following topics for related information:

• Finding Records Using Enhanced Keyword Search
• Finding Records
• About Targeted Search
• About Keyword Search
• Searching for Records in the Action Bar
• Using Advanced Search