1. Using Product Master Data Management
  2. Choose Parameters for Task-Based Item Search

Choose Parameters for Task-Based Item Search

A task-based search on the Manage Items page of the Product Information Management and Product Development work areas provides modes for general-item searches, including keyword search and parametric search.

Item Search Scope

Item Class

You select the item class in which to search for items. The default is Root Item Class.

Revision

You select the item revision to use for the items returned by your search.

  • Latest released: The returned items belong to the most recently released revision of the item. This revision might not be currently effective at the time of the search.

  • Current effective: The returned items belong to the revision that's currently effective at the time of the search. This effective revision might not be the most recently released revision of the item.

Quickly Search for Item Class Using Auto Suggestion

You can now easily search for an item class based on the automatic suggestions that appear when you type a few words in the item class Search and Select field. You can either select the item class from the displayed suggestions or perform a full search for an item class.

Item Search Parameters

In the search region of the Manage Items page, you can search for items using one or more required or optional search fields. Click Add Fields to search on additional attributes.

The Manage Items search region provides a predefined saved search, which defines the search fields that are displayed when the Manage Items page is initially opened. Click Save to save the currently displayed search fields as a personal saved search.. Select predefined or personal saved searches from the Saved Search list.

Conditions for the Search Criteria

As you select conditions for a search, drop-down lists will display only values that are appropriate to the scope of your search.

Required Fields

An asterisk (*) indicates a required search field. A doubled asterisk (**) indicates a set of search fields from which at least one is required.

Keyword Search

In the Keyword search field, enter at least three characters to search on an indexed keyword. The minimum number of characters required is 3 by default, but can be modified as described in a following section.

The keyword search field on task-based pages uses the same features as the quick search field in the task panel, except that the autosuggest feature isn't available. When you enter values for both the keyword search field and the other (parametric) search fields, the keyword search and the parametric search are performed separately. The results from both are displayed in the search result table.

Oracle Text technology provides keyword searching capabilities that uses data extracted from values in the items table and set up in an indexed file. The indexed data is set up by the administrator. Additional indexes can be added by the administrator as needed. By default, the search uses the following item attributes in the index:

  • Item Number

  • Description

  • Item Class

  • Long Description

  • Organization Code

  • Manufacturer

You can restrict the search to a specific section of the keyword. For example, if you enter "Stove within shortdesc" in the Keyword field, the search results will display the items that contain the word "Stove" in the item description. You can also use the same syntax in the Item SOAP and REST resources when querying for items.

The Oracle Text search engine can be configured by the administrator to support features including:

  • Word Stemming

  • Wildcards

Oracle Text is case insensitive.

Keyword Setup

Before users can perform keyword searches in the Product Information Management work area, the index must be built by a user with privileges to perform tasks in the Setup and Maintenance work area.

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, search for and select the task Manage Item Keyword Search Attributes.

  2. Select the attributes that will be used in the indexing process.

  3. In the Scheduled Processes work area, run the Item Keyword Search scheduled process, selecting the Create action.

    When a new attribute or language is added to the index by the administrator, the Item Keyword Search scheduled process must be run with the Sync action.

Character Minimum For Search

You can control the minimum number of characters that the user must enter when searching for items. You control the minimum number of characters by specifying the value of the profile option Item Search Character Limit (ORA_EGP_ITEM_SEARCH_CHAR_LIMIT) at site level. The default value is 3, but you can change it to meet a specific use case. Be aware that searching with fewer than 3 characters decreases the performance of search. The character limit applies to the Item, Description, and Keyword search fields. A warning message is displayed if the user doesn't enter the minimum number of characters. To modify the default, use the Manage Advanced Item Profile Options task in the Setup and Maintenance work area:

  • Offering: Product Management

  • Functional Area: Items

  • Task: Manage Advanced Item Profile Options

The Item Search Character Limit profile option is also used to validate query operations using the SOAP service Item Version 2 (itemServiceV2) or the REST resource Items Version 2 (itemsV2).

Add or Remove Catalog and Category Search Fields

The Application Default search configuration is simplified by removing the catalog and category search attributes. You can add these fields, if needed.

To add the catalog and category search attributes:
  1. Click Add Fields.
  2. In the Select and Add: Attributes window, select and add Catalog and Category attributes. The Catalog and Category fields are added in the Advanced Search region.

After adding the Catalog and Category fields, you can remove them from the Advanced Search region only if you have selected forced deployment in the Setup and Maintenance work area. The forced deployment is necessary only once and it will remove the Catalog and Category search criteria fields from the search UI. After you run it, the Catalog and Category search fields won’t be visible. You can add them as mentioned in the preceding steps. You can also remove these fields using the X in the search field similar to other added fields that’s not in the default saved search.

To perform forced deployment:
  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go the Deploy Item Extensible Flexfields task:
    • Offering: Product Management
    • Functional Area: Items
    • Task: Deploy Item Extensible Flexfields
  2. Search and select the EGO_ITEM_EFF flexfield code.
  3. From the Actions menu, select the Refresh and Deploy Offline option.
Note: Removing the catalog and category search fields from the Application Default saved search configuration doesn’t affect existing saved searches.

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