Note:
This chapter describes tasks performed by an application specialist or portal manager. Working with search at the application level is a system administrator task, as described in Managing Oracle Secure Enterprise Search in WebCenter Portal in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Permissions:
To perform the tasks in this chapter, you must be a portal manager or a portal member with the permission Basic Services: Edit Page Access and Structure
(simple permissions) or Pages: Edit Pages
(advanced permissions).
For more information about permissions, see About Roles and Permissions for a Portal.
WebCenter Portal provides the Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) adapter for searching a portal. See Understanding Search with Oracle SES.
In addition to the Oracle SES functionality, the Documents tool provides its own search engine for file searches. This saves time and increases the relevancy of results by narrowing the scope of a search to files. The Documents tool searches within a specific portal's document library. For more information, see Searching Libraries, Folders, and Documents in Oracle Fusion Middleware Using Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Another type of search is used for finding users in the identity store (for example, by clicking the Find User icon in a Mail compose window (Figure 56-1). For more information, see Searching for a User or Group in the Identity Store.
Figure 56-1 Find User Icon in a Mail Compose Window
Oracle SES is set as the default and preferred search platform. Oracle SES is beneficial for the following reasons:
Oracle SES provides unified ranking results, with the most relevant items appearing first.
Oracle SES provides more thorough search. For example, when searching lists, Oracle SES searches list column names and column contents.
Oracle SES allows search of repositories outside of WebCenter Portal. Oracle SES results appear in the same result set as WebCenter Portal's search results.
Oracle SES supports the search REST APIs and data control for customizing your search interface.
The Oracle SES adapter provides unified ranking results for the following resources:
Documents, including wikis and blogs
Announcements and discussions
Portals, page metadata, lists and people resources
When users run a search for a user name, most likely, they are looking for that person's contact information (that is, the exact user name in the profile), not necessarily documents that the user uploaded or edited. The unified ranking in Oracle SES enables you to see the most relevant results, across all different types of searches.
Additionally, with Oracle SES as the search engine, users can use the wildcard character [*] in the middle or end of a term for wildcard matching. For example, when you search for keywords like wiki
or page
, Oracle SES does not return the wiki page MyWikiPage in search results. However, My*
or My*Page
does return MyWikiPage.
Beginning with the 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.8.0), WebCenter Portal supports Oracle SES 11.2.2.2, which provides faceted search. Facets count the full corpus and have better response time than the refiners used in earlier releases. WebCenter Portal uses faceted search by default (for information on overriding this, see Customizing Search With Facet Support with Oracle SES). In addition to faceted search, Oracle SES 11.2.2.2 also supports document thumbnails.
Tip:
For best performance and scalability, Oracle recommends that new instances of WebCenter Portal be configured with Faceted Search provided with Oracle SES 11.2.2.2.
You can see what search option your system administrator configured by accessing the Tools and Services - Search page in portal administration (see Accessing Search Settings in Portal Administration). Figure 56-2 shows an instance with WebCenter Portal configured with Oracle SES release 11.2.2.2 Faceted Search .
This section contains the following topics:
Table 56-1 lists the faceted search task flows supported with Oracle SES 11.2.2.2.
Table 56-1 Search Task Flows
Task Flow | Definition |
---|---|
Search - Faceted Search |
This task flow provides a rich search experience supporting faceted search, filtered search in the search box, and document thumbnails. Note: This Search - Faceted Search task flow is provided in environments where Oracle SES 11.2.2.2 is configured. |
Search - Administration |
This task flow allows access to the Tools and Services - Search administration page for customizing search settings. |
Search - Toolbar |
This task flow enables users to enter simple search criteria and run the search from the application. Search results are rendered by the Search - Faceted Search task flow. |
Note:
Add tools and services to a page through the resource catalog. For complete information on how to do this, see Working with Resource Catalog Components on a Page.
Search settings for WebCenter Portal are configured by the system administrator in WebCenter Portal Administration. However, portal managers have the option of configuring search for their portal from the Search Settings page in Portal Administration.
WebCenter Portal is configured to use search with facet support. However, you can revert to using the non-faceted search task flows from the Search settings page in the portal administration.
Tip:
Although you can revert to using search without facet support, Oracle does not recommend reverting to non-faceted search. For the best performance and scalability, use Oracle SES release 11.2.2.2. with facet support.Open the Search settings page (see Accessing Search Settings in Portal Administration).
The Use new search task flow with facet support check box is selected by default.
Deselect the Use new search task flow with facet support check box (Figure 56-4).
Figure 56-4 Use Search Task Flow With Facet Support Option
Clear this check box to have this portal use the Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow (which uses refiners instead of facets).
Click Apply.
The next time this page is accessed, the remaining settings on this page are grayed-out, and you must configure search settings with Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow parameters.
Tip:
For best performance and scalability, as well as facet support and easier configuration using the Search - Faceted Search task flow is recommended.
The Result Types and Filtering section lets you choose which types of results to display in search results and what, if anything, to include in the filtering dropdown. Filtering allows users to narrow their search results using a filter list in the search results or in the global search box. Figure 56-5 shows the global search box with a full list of result types in the filtering dropdown.
Figure 56-5 Filtering Dropdown in Search Box
Open the Search settings page (see Accessing Search Settings in Portal Administration).
Make sure that the Use new search task flow with facet support check box is selected.
Clear the Enable filtering dropdown check box to remove the filtering dropdown from the global search box.
Figure 56-6 shows the global search box with no arrow for the filtering dropdown.
Figure 56-6 Global Search Box with No Filtering Dropdown
Select which result types to include in the dropdown, as well as in the filter list to the left of search results and the order in which they display, by moving them back and forth between the Available Result Types and Included lists.
For example, suppose you select to include people, documents, and announcements as shown in Figure 56-7
The filtering dropdown and the filter list to the left of search results show only People, Documents, and Announcements listed in that order, as shown in Figure 56-8. Additionally, you do not see search results from other result types not selected, such as discussions. The "Everything" filter listed shows every result from people, documents, and announcements.
Figure 56-8 Search Results Filtered for People, Documents, and Announcements
Note:
Only metadata of portals and pages is searched (not portal content or page content), and by default, these result types are excluded for a portal. To include the metadata of portals and pages in search results, add Portals and Pages to the Included list.
Click Save.
Faceted search allows you to find information by applying multiple filters, for example, search by author, portal, or last modified date. In Oracle WebCenter Portal, you can configure the search scope to use facet support.
Open the Search settings page (see Accessing Search Settings in Portal Administration).
Figure 56-9 Search Scope With Facet Support
Select the search scope to show results from either the current portal or from all portals, including the Home portal (Figure 56-10).
Figure 56-10 Search Scope
Click Save.
Figure 56-11 shows search results for a specific portal.
Figure 56-11 Search Results From a Portal
Faceted search allows you to find information by applying multiple filters, for example, search by author, portal, or last modified date. In Oracle WebCenter Portal, you can configure the search scope to use facet support.Facete search
The Facets section lets you choose which facets to display with search results for this portal. Facets let users navigate indexed data without running a new search. Faceted navigation within search lets users clarify exactly what they are looking for, or even discover something new.
Open the Search settings page (see Accessing Search Settings in Portal Administration).
Make sure that the Use new search task flow with facet support check box is selected.
View the Available Facets column.
Note:
The system administrator must first configure facets (including the required Scope
GUID
and ServiceID
facets) in Oracle SES. The system administrator creates, modifies, and removes facets in Oracle SES. (WebCenter Portal does not detect changes to facets until this Search administration page is opened.). If the Available Facets column is empty, the system administrator has not configured facets. For more information about administering facets in Oracle SES, see Managing Oracle Secure Enterprise Search in WebCenter Portal in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal .
Change the order in which the facets display by moving them back and forth between the Available Facets and Included lists. For example, if you move Portal to the Available Facets list, then the Portal facet does not appear on the search results page.
Click Save.
The Custom Attributes section lets you select which custom search attributes should appear in search results and the order in which they appear. When this Tools and Services - Search administration page is opened, WebCenter Portal makes a call to Oracle SES to fetch available custom (as opposed to standard) attributes.
Open the Search settings page (see Accessing Search Settings in Portal Administration).
Make sure that the Use new search task flow with facet support check box is selected.
Select from the list of Available Attributes and move them to the Included column so that they appear in search results and use the up/down arrow keys to specify the order in which they appear.
forumid
and threadid
custom attributes were moved into the Included column, so they appear in search results.
Figure 56-12 Configuring Custom Attributes
Figure 56-13 shows search results that include the custom attributes threadid
and forumid
. (Created by
and Last modified on
are standard attributes.) An attribute displays only if there is a value for it.
Figure 56-13 Search Results Showing Custom Attributes
Note:
If you had search attributes configured in a previous WebCenter Portal release (configured with Search task flow parameters), then after upgrading you must set these custom attributes again in Oracle SES and on the Search administration page. The new Search - Faceted Search task flow supports custom attributes set on the Search administration page (not task flow parameters).
The search results page shows the translated names for custom attributes as specified on the Global Settings - Translate Search Attribute Names in the Oracle SES administration tool. The custom attribute name is the translated name in the user locale. However, the Search administration page shows the base names (that is, the non-translated names) for custom attributes.
Attributes must be added to the Metadata List parameter in the Content Server. For more information, see Managing Oracle Secure Enterprise Search in WebCenter Portal in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Click Save.
WebCenter Portal is configured with Oracle SES 11.2.2.2. Oracle recommends using the faceted search task flows with Oracle SES 11.2.2.2. However, search without facet support works with both Oracle SES 11.2.2.2 and the earlier supported Oracle SES 11.1.2.
Note:
By default, WebCenter Portal is configured to use search task flows with facet support. However, portal managers can override this setting for their managed portals. To revert to using search without facet support, see Reverting to Searching Without Facet Support.
This section contains the following topics:
Table 56-2 lists the non-faceted search task flows:
Note:
The Non-Faceted search task flows can be used when the option Use new search task flow with facet support is deselected (see Configuring Search Scope with Facet Support).Table 56-2 Search Task Flows
Task Flow | Definition |
---|---|
Search - Non-Faceted Search |
This task flow provides a rich search experience with features for refining and saving search results. Note: This task flow is provided in environments where Oracle SES 11.1.2.x is configured. It is also supported with Oracle SES 11.2.2.2 when search with facet support is deslected. |
Search - All Saved Searches |
This task flow enables you to create a simple launch pad for running saved searches within the application. |
Search - Preferences |
This task flow enables users to select which WebCenter Portal tools and services to search. |
Search - Toolbar |
This task flow enables users to enter simple search criteria and run the search from the application. Search results are rendered by the Search - Faceted Search task flow. |
Note:
Add tools and services to a page through the resource catalog. For complete information on how to do this, see Working with Resource Catalog Components on a Page.
With the search task flow parameters, you can restrict search results to include only specific tools and services, document types, and portals. This section describes how to set these parameters. It includes the following topics:
See Also:
You can restrict search results to one or more WebCenter Portal services with the Services to be Included
parameter.
For example, to display only profiles and documents in the Content Server, set this parameter to oracle.webcenter.people, oracle.webcenter.doclib
. If nothing is specified, then all tools and services are searched.
You can restrict search results to one or more types of documents in the Oracle WebCenter Content Server (such as PDF, PPT, or DOC) with the Mimetype
parameter.
Examples of common MIME type values are as follows:
application/excel
application/msword
application/pdf
application/powerpoint
text/html
text/plain
The MIME types can be any standard MIME type value, such as those available from Microsoft Office.
For example, to search only web pages and Microsoft Word documents, set the Mimetype
parameter to text/html,application/msword
. If nothing is specified, then all document types are searched.
To see a MIME type value for a document, in the Content Server, select the Info icon in the Actions column (Figure 56-14).
Figure 56-14 Document Formats in the Content Server
The format is listed in the Formats field, as shown in Figure 56-15.
Note:
When searching for content stored in the connected Content Server repository, full-text search must be enabled in Content Server through either of the following methods:
OracleTextSearch (preferred), as described in Configuring OracleTextSearch for Content Server in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Content
DATABASE.FULLTEXT
, as described in Configuring Full-Text Search with SQL Server in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Content
Note:
If the Content Server is configured for web rendition, then items in the Content Server are rendered in PDF format. The content item's native MIME type rendition is overwritten. For example, the MIME type of a Microsoft Office Word document is 'application/msword', but when the Content Server uses web rendition the MIME type becomes 'application/pdf'. A search query with the Mimetype
parameter set to 'application/msword' does not return Word documents.
If your Content Server is configured to use web rendition, the WebCenter Portal administrator must configure the Content Server metatdata list to include the dFormat
value so that required MIME types are exported to Oracle SES. For steps, see Managing Oracle Secure Enterprise Search in WebCenter Portal in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal.
WebCenter Portal search performs global (that is, application-wide) searches. However, you can restrict search results to one or more portals with the Search Scope
parameter.
Set this parameter to the comma-separated list of GUIDs of the portals to search. If nothing is specified in this parameter, then all portals are searched.
For example:
#{spaceContext.currentSpaceGUID} #{serviceCtx.scope.GUID} #{spaceContext.space['Travel'].metadata.guid}
where Travel is the name of the portal.
To search the current portal as well as all subportals, enter the following:
#{spaceContext.currentSpace.subspaceGuids}
A set of standard attributes (such as author and size) is shown in each search result item. You can add additional attributes by specifying one or more attributes in the Custom Attributes
parameter.
For example, Figure 56-16 shows search results with attributes added for DocumentName
, DocumentType
, FileName
, DocumentID
, and CreatedDate
.
Figure 56-16 Search Results Showing Custom Attributes
An attribute is shown only if there is a value for it.
Note:
All attributes must be added to the Metadata List parameter in the Content Server. For these attributes, the following list would need to be included in the Metadata List parameter:
DocumentName:dDocName,DocumentType:dDocType,FileName:dOriginalName,DocumentID:dID,CreatedOn:dDocCreatedDate
For more information, see Managing Oracle Secure Enterprise Search in WebCenter Portal in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Additionally, if you do not want users to see certain standard refiners in their search results, then set the Refiners to hide
parameter to a list of one or more refiners you want hidden. For example, you might want to hide the portal refiner to give the appearance that no other portals exist.
The following predefined refiners can be hidden:
Date
Author
Portal
Service
Tag
If nothing is specified, then all refiners are shown.
See Also:
The Search task flows have associated properties, which users with sufficient privileges can access through the task flows’ View Actions menu. For example, select Parameters to display the Parameters dialog (Figure 56-17).
Figure 56-17 Search Task Flow Component Properties
See Also:
The following topics provide information about properties of the search task flows and describe the task flow parameters.
Parameters control the default task flow content. For descriptions of each parameter, see Search Task Flow Parameters. Parameters can be wired to events, and can be used facilitate the wiring of the task flow to page parameters and page definition variables. For more information, see Wiring Pages and Components.
The Display Options, Style, and Content Style properties affect the appearance and behavior of the task flow for all users. These properties are common to all task flows. For more information, see Modifying Component Properties.
The Parameters and Display Options dialogs provide access to an Expression Language (EL) editor, which you can use to select or specify a variable value instead of a constant value. Click the icon next to a property, then select Expression Builder to open the editor.
Note:
When you enter EL in the Display Options dialog, the parser reports an error only if it detects invalid syntax, such as a missing closing bracket. Validation is performed only on syntax, not on the expression value. Generic Display Options are those cataloged in Table 10-1.
EL validation is not performed on non-generic display options.
If you need EL assistance, an application developer can provide an EL expression; see Expression Language Expressions in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing WebCenter Portal Assets and Custom Components with Oracle JDeveloper.
The parameters to scope your search results to specific portals, services, and document types are available in the Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow.
The application specialist either can modify the portal's page template to edit the Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow parameters, or the system administrator can add the Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow to the portal and edit its parameters.
To edit the page template:
Note:
When Oracle SES 11.2.2.2 is configured, the Parameters dialog does not appear, because the Search administration page is used for customizations.
The Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow is not available in the default resource catalog, so editing its task flow in a portal generally involves adding the Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow to the resource catalog, and then assigning this catalog to the portal. For example:
After the task flow has been added, you can edit the task flow parameters. For more information, see Search Task Flow Parameters.
Table 56-3 describes the parameters that are unique to search task flows.
Table 56-3 Search Task Flow Parameters
Parameter | Description | Task Flow |
---|---|---|
|
List of custom attributes to show when displaying search results. To include one or more custom attributes in the search results, set this to a list of custom attribute names, separated by commas. An optional label prefix may be provided with the custom attribute name to display instead of its associated custom attribute name. Use the format: label:name. |
Search Non-Faceted Search, Search - Toolbar |
|
List of content types to limit the search. To limit the search to certain document types, set this to the list of MIME types of the documents (such as PDF, PPT, DOC), separated by commas. Note: To limit search to Microsoft Word documents and WebCenter Portal pages, set this parameter to application/msword, and set the For more information, see Searching Specific Document Types. |
Search Non-Faceted Search, Search - Toolbar |
|
List of refiners to hide when displaying search results. To hide one or more refiners, set this to a list of refiner names, separated by commas (choose from |
Search Non-Faceted Search, Search - Toolbar |
|
List of unique IDs to limit the search scope. To limit the search to a particular portal, set this to the GUID of the portal; for example, For more information, see Searching Specific Portals. |
Search Non-Faceted Search, Search - Toolbar |
|
Value to limit the size of the search box. The default value is 42. Enter a lower number (for example, 30) to shorten the length of the search box. This also changes the size of the search box in the Search - Non-Faceted Search task flow. |
Search - Toolbar |
|
Task flow ID of global search; for example, |
Search - Toolbar |
|
List of IDs of tools and services or executors to include when displaying search results. For example, to display only announcements, enter |
Search Non-Faceted Search, Search - Toolbar |
|
Show or hide the input box. Set to true (default) to show the input box, or set to false to hide it. |
Search Non-Faceted Search |
|
Select from the dropdown list to limit the search to all or certain portals. Note: This parameter has been deprecated. Use the |
Search - Toolbar |
|
List of unique IDs to limit the search scope. Note: This parameter has been deprecated. Use the |
Search Non-Faceted Search |
|
Either search keywords or the saved search GUID. Note: This parameter is for internal use only. Do not change this value unless you want coded search main views. If you do change this value, then you must also specify |
Search Non-Faceted Search |
|
Marker specifying whether the Note: This value is set automatically and is for internal use only. Do not change it unless you want coded search main views. |
Search Non-Faceted Search |
|
List of IDs of tools and services or executors to omit when displaying search results. Note: This parameter is for internal use only. Do not change this value. |
Search Non-Faceted Search |
Note:
The Search - Saved Searches and the Search - Preferences task flows do not have any unique properties.
Note the following limitations with searching in WebCenter Portal:
The user profile fields searched depend on the security settings configured on the Preferences - People - Profile page. A user who has not logged in can search by values in the fields set to Everyone
. An authenticated user can search by values in the fields set to Authenticated
Users
and Everyone. A user who has a connection to the user of the profile can search by values in the fields set to User's
Connections
, Authenticated
Users
, and Everyone. The user of the profile can search by values in the fields of all sections.
Users can click the Previous and Next links to view any additional results (Figure 56-28). Oracle SES results show an estimated number of search results.
Figure 56-28 Estimated Number of Search Results