2Overview of Siebel Search
Overview of Siebel Search
This chapter provides an overview of Oracle’s Siebel Search functionality and architecture, and includes the following topics:
About Siebel Search
Oracle’s Siebel Search provides incremental indexing of search fields, basic and advanced search functionality for both structured and unstructured data, and Find operations for real-time database queries. Siebel Search is integrated with Oracle Secure Enterprise Search and can also be extended to integrate with other third-party search engines with custom-built adapters.
About Siebel Search Operations
Full text searches can be performed across multiple business components, fields, and files, in one operation. A Search operation allows a broad search by not requiring the user to specify specific fields to search on. Search also gives you the option of searching through attachments.
Search operations are case insensitive. Indexed Search requires licensing Oracle Secure Enterprise Search or implementing a custom adapter that integrates with another third-party search engine.
About Siebel Find Operations
A Siebel Find operation consists of a direct query on a database, and allows users to query across all configured fields across multiple categories or on a field-by-field basis using the Advanced Find capabilities. Find objects are accessible through the Search Center, and allow users to perform queries on specific predefined fields linked to specific business components (such as querying for a name in the Last Name field). Find results are a real-time reflection of database records. This makes Find appropriate for searching on transactional database records that change frequently, such as Activity or Opportunity records. Find operations are case sensitive.
Supported Features for Siebel Find and Siebel Search
The following table summarizes the features available for Siebel Find, Siebel Search, and third-party search engine.
Feature |
Supported for Find |
Supported for Search |
Supported for Third-Party SE |
|---|---|---|---|
Siebel Open UI |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Business component indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
Yes |
File system indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
No |
Web source indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
No |
Database source indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
No |
IMAP email source indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
No |
Lotus notes source indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
No |
Secure indexing |
Not applicable |
FTP : Yes |
FTP indexing: No |
Refresh indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
No |
Incremental indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
Yes |
Asynchronous indexing |
Not applicable |
Yes |
Yes |
Index status monitoring |
Not applicable |
Yes. Supported for FTP indexing mode. |
Yes |
Real time database queries |
Yes |
No. Searches are run against search indices. |
No |
Full text search |
Not applicable |
Yes |
Yes |
Keyword search |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Automated suggested keywords |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Parametric search (field based search). |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Case insensitive search |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Wildcard search For more information, see AutomaticWildcardSearch System Preference. |
Yes. Applies to any character, including punctuation characters, such as a space, or a comma. The find operation can span more than one word. |
Yes. Does not apply to punctuation characters, such as a space, or a comma. Applies to characters only within a word. |
Yes |
Boolean operators |
No |
Yes. Supports AND and OR Boolean operators. |
Yes |
Searches on content in attachments |
No |
Yes |
No |
Searches on external data sources and file systems |
Not applicable |
Yes |
Yes |
Search by file format |
Not applicable |
Yes. The search can be filtered by the following file types:
Note: This features applies only for FileSystem Search. The file format filter cannot be applied on a Buscomp search.
|
No |
Search by language |
Not applicable |
Yes |
No |
Search History |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Password Encryption |
Not applicable |
Not supported for FTP indexing |
Not applicable |
Computer Telephony Integration |
Yes |
Not applicable |
Yes |
Siebel Smart Answer Integration |
Yes |
Not applicable |
Yes |
Siebel Search Supported Search Engines
Siebel Search supports the following search engine options:
Siebel Find. This is the default search engine setup which is available by default in Siebel Search.
Third-Party Search Engine Integration. Siebel Search supports the integration of third-party search engines. You must write your own search adapter to enable third-party search engines, and then configure Siebel to use the third-party search engine.
Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Engine Integration. Siebel Search supports the integration of Oracle Secure Enterprise Search. You must configure Oracle Secure Enterprise Search for Siebel Search (it is not available by default).
The following table summarizes the Siebel Search supported search engine options and lists the topics that you should review for further information.
| Search Engine | See... |
|---|---|
Siebel Find |
For more information about Siebel Find, see the following: |
Third-Party Search Engine |
For more information about integrating third-party search engines, see the following: |
Oracle Secure Enterprise Search |
For more information about integrating Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, see the following:
|
Siebel Search Architecture Overview
Siebel Search architecture contains the elements in the following figure, including the following elements:
Siebel Search UI. Interface for retrieval of Find and Search results. Support is provided for Siebel Open UI.
Siebel Server. Hosts the search business services and search engine adapters.
Search Engine Adapters and Indexing Adapters. Interface with the Siebel data sources and search engine. Index the Siebel business data.
Data Sources. Indexed data sources, for example, Siebel business components, Web sources, or file systems.
Using Siebel Search in Siebel Open UI
For information about how Siebel Find and Oracle Secure Enterprise Search end user functionality works for applications using Siebel OpenUI, including information on performing the following tasks, see Siebel Fundamentals Guide:
Performing a Basic Search Operation
Basic search searches every field in every business component configured across all search engines configured for Siebel Search (for example, Siebel Find, Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, and any other third-party search engine configured).
Note: For Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, user access to search results is determined by the sblvisibilityid index field mapping, and the account profile of the logged in user, such as Position ID or Account ID. For information about configuring the sblvisibilityid index field, see Defining Index Attributes. The sblvisibilityid index field mapping does not apply to third-party search engines.The auto suggest feature must be enabled for your search engine for auto suggestions to appear when typing in your search criteria. For more information about enabling the auto suggest feature for your search engine, see Configuring Siebel Find for the Search Results View.
Note: Sorting is applied to the search results that appear in the results view rather than the entire result set. For third-party search engines, the Search Web Service receives SortField and SortOrder hints from Siebel, which indicates that the search results must be sorted. The Web service issues the appropriate commands to the search engine. The search engine sends results based on the SortField and SortOrder values.Performing an Advanced Find Operation
When you select Advanced Find in the Search Toolbar and then click Find, a drop-down list of categories to search against appears provided that the auto suggest feature is enabled for Siebel Find. For more information, see Activating the Search Engine for Oracle Secure Enterprise Search.
Performing a Siebel Smart Answer Search
The Siebel Search Center supports integration with the Siebel Smart Answer knowledge base for manual or automated searches. For information on configuring and using Siebel Smart Answer, see Siebel Smart Answer Guide.
Performing a Siebel Smart Answer Search from Service Requests
The Siebel Search Center supports integration with the Siebel Smart Answer knowledge base for manual or automated searches. For information on configuring and using Siebel Smart Answer, see Siebel Smart Answer Guide.
Performing an Advanced Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Operation
Advanced Oracle Secure Enterprise Search is enabled when a search engine has been configured and set as the default, see Defining Index Attributes.
You can choose to retrieve your search results from multiple data sources. This feature is available if external data sources have been enabled, for example, a File System Connector or a Web Crawler Connector:
To enable the File System Connector, see Configuring the Siebel File System Connector.
To enable the Web Crawler Connector, see Process of Setting Up the Web Crawler Source and Connector.
Modifying Search Settings for Oracle Secure Enterprise Search
Siebel search allows you to perform full text searches using simple or compound (boolean) query operators. Boolean operators allow you to create a more precise query. For more information about using simple and compound query operators, see Siebel Fundamentals Guide.
AutomaticWildcardSearch System Preference
Siebel CRM prepends and appends a trailing wildcard to a search string if the AutomaticWildcardSearch system preference is set to TRUE or does not exist. If AutomaticWildcardSearch does not exist, then Siebel CRM behaves as if AutomaticWildcardSearch was set to TRUE.
When AutomaticWildcardSearch is set to TRUE (the default value), Siebel CRM behaves as follows:
Siebel prepends and appends any entry in the search text box with
*, see example 1 in the following table.Siebel executes any entry within double quotes as is. That is, it does not prepend or append any entry within double quotes with
*, see example 2 in the following table.Siebel executes any entry with
*as is, see example 3 in the following table.
| Example | User types in the following: | Siebel Find searches for the following: | The Search Results pane displays the following |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio |
*Antonio* |
Results for *Antonio* in All Categories |
| 2 | “Antonio” |
Antonio |
Results for Antonio in All Categories |
| 3 | Antonio* *Antonio *Antonio* |
Antonio* *Antonio *Antonio* |
Results for Antonio* in All Categories Results for *Antonio in All Categories Results for *Antonio* in All Categories |
When AutomaticWildcardSearch is set to FALSE, Siebel CRM behaves as follows:
Siebel executes any entry in the search text box as is. That is, it does not prepend or append the search string with
*, see example 1 in the following table.Siebel executes any entry within double quotes as is. That is, it does not prepend or append any entry within double quotes with
*, see example 2 in the following table.Siebel executes any entry with
*as is, see example 3 in the following table.
| Example | User types in the following: | Siebel Find searches for the following: | The Search Results pane displays the following: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio |
Antonio |
Results for Antonio in All Categories |
| 2 | “Antonio” |
Antonio |
Results for Antonio in All Categories |
| 3 | Antonio* *Antonio *Antonio* |
Antonio* *Antonio *Antonio* |
Results for Antonio* in All Categories Results for *Antonio in All Categories Results for *Antonio* in All Categories |