Using Enterprise Application Search

[Using IFS Enterprise Explorer Clients] [Searching & Organizing Information in IFS Enterprise Explorer] [To Searching and Organizing in Enterprise Explorer]

Explanation

Use Enterprise Application Search (EAS) to quickly find the information you need. With EAS you are able to perform Google-like searches within IFS Applications by simply typing a text in the Search bar at the bottom of the Navigator panel. For example type a customer name, and EAS will present a list of objects containing the customer name sorted by relevance. Just click on the link you are interested in and a page related to the object will open with the information you need. IFS Security is built in which means that you can only see what you are allowed to see. 

You specify which index locations (e.g. search domains) you want to use, for example Customers, Customer Orders, Suppliers, Purchase Orders etc. and this is stored in your user profile. Note that the index locations are usually configured, e.g. prepared to be used, by the System Administrator.

Prerequisites

N/A

System Effects

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Window

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Related Window Descriptions

Application Search Results,  Search Tips , Select Multiple Indexed Locations

Procedure

Contents

Using Enterprise Application Search

Follow these steps to perform a search

  1. First, define the indexed locations (search domains) you want to use. Click the drop-down list button in the Enterprise Application Search bar. A list of the 20 most recently used indexed locations is displayed. If you only want one location you can select it from the list.



Figure 1: The drop-down menu showing selected indexed locations 
 

  1. If you want to select more than one indexed location, click Multiple Locations. The Select Multiple Indexed Locations dialog box displays with the twenty most recently used predefined indexed locations. E.g. if you select Customer as a location, you can search on all customer-related information, customer IDs, address etc. Select the locations you want to use and click OK.  Note: Right-mouse click to open the context menu which includes additional options, selecting all, unselecting all or invert selection.



    Figure 2: Dialog Box for choosing multiple indexed locations
     
  2. You can also add other index locations to the visible list of most recently used twenty by selecting Other Locations. The Select Other Indexed Locations dialog box will be displayed, where you can select as you prefer. When you select an indexed location, this will be added to the most recently used visible twenty and the least used indexed location will be taken out from the visible list of most recently used twenty.



    Figure 3: Dialog Box for selecting Indexed Locations
     
  3. Type a text in the Enterprise Application Search Bar and click the Search button. For example, type a customer name, customer address or a customer order number.
     
  4. The search result will be presented in a list sorted by relevance. Your search text will be highlighted. Click on the link you are interested in to open the connected page populated with the detailed information, customer basic data page, order detail page etc.



    Figure 4: Search Results List
     
    Each result entry (hit) consists of the:
    • Title: The Title is an active link if the Indexed Location has a registered home page in the application. Clicking the link will navigate to the page and display the object.
    • Indexed Location
    • Summary: The Summary highlights the attributes found from the search criteria so it can be viewed in its context. (only when the "Include summary" option is selected from the Options...)
    • Application URL: The Application URL is the one being used by the Title for navigation.

    Note: The Summary text is very often needed to make a search result intuitive. However, having it enabled will also cause a performance hit during the search. If possible, try to avoid enabling the Summary text for better performance.

Configure Search Results Layout

You can decide how you want the search result presented, either in a list as above or categorized as below. Categorized view means that the search result is sorted per index location.

When viewing an Enterprise Application Search result in the categorized list, the user can highlight several records within the same category and do the following:


Figure 5: Categorized Search result

Create a Selection

When the results are in Categorized view you can add the search result to a selection. Right Click on the list of results and click Selection > Add to Selection to add the result items to the selection and name the selection.


Figure 8: Adding search results to a selection

Note: The selection can only be created with the items of the same category. So when searching in more than one search domain, and the result shows hits for multiple domains (categories) Add to Selection is only enabled for the items of the same type.

Configure Number of Hits

In the Enterprise Application Search drop-down list you can choose Options. This will open a dialog where you configure maximum number of hits, whether to include summary text or not.

 
 Figure 6: Options dialog box
 

Search Syntax

A common web search syntax as follows can be used to query the application search.

Syntax Meaning of Query
saab* words starting with saab
saab volvo either saab or volvo
+saab volvo records including saab, and records including volvo are ranked higher
saab -volvo records including saab, but not including volvo
+saab +volvo records including both saab and volvo
identity:alain records that has alain in the identity field
"This is a phrase" match the exact phrase field

Table 1: Search syntax and meanings

Search Tips

A search tip related to the selected Indexed Location(s) are displayed if you select Search Tips menu item in Enterprise Application Search drop-down list.

 

Figure 7: Search Tips

View Details of Multiple Objects in the Search Result

Highlight more than one object/row within the same category in the search result or click on the category header to highlight all rows. Right click and click "Show Details...". All the objects connected to the object are presented in detail pages.