Searching Content


Understanding InfoSearch Privileges

The first step in using InfoSearch is understanding its privileges, and ensuring that they are enabled correctly. After a new WebFOCUS installation or upgrade, the Enable InfoSearch check box is enabled by default. This check box is located on the Magnify page of the WebFOCUS Administration Console Configuration tab. As a result, the Display Ask WebFOCUS menu (opInfoSearch) privilege in the Edit Role dialog box, accessed from the WebFOCUS Security Center Roles tab, is enabled for the following three principal domain user roles:

Setting Up Your WebFOCUS Content to Work With InfoSearch

The next step is to ensure that your content will work with InfoSearch. When performing a search query, InfoSearch can only retrieve report procedures that have defined parameters. These parameters are then used by InfoSearch to correctly display all of the content that is related to your search query.

In the following examples, we create a sample report in InfoAssist and a chart in WebFOCUS Designer that shows the full name of a customer, and the revenue associated with their purchases.

Using the InfoSearch Index Builder

In order to access the Ask WebFOCUS user interface and perform InfoSearch searches, there must be at least one dimensional index present in the WebFOCUS software that corresponds to at least one domain. This is done by creating a dimensional data procedure in each domain that defines the dimensions that will be used to search your repository content.

Dimensional data procedures must contain the following components:

Understanding Search Options

You have access to advanced search options when searching folders, which allows you to identify your content quickly and easily.

On the WebFOCUS Home Page, when you select a folder in the tree, the name of this folder is automatically populated in the Search text box. If you select a different sidebar, the name of the sidebar displays in the Search text box. When you enter a value in this text box, the search is conducted in that folder, or for that sidebar only.

Assigning Tags to Content Items

To refine a search for content within a domain or folder in your repository or in the Ask WebFOCUS view, you can assign tags that appear with your search results. These tags provide additional search criteria that you can use to drill down and identify related content items quickly. You can also assign tags to collaborative portals to ease navigation in the Portals view. Tags are turned off by default. To select a tag, click it. Tags are available in the grid view, and can be displayed as a column in the list view.

Using Shared and Personal Tags

On the WebFOCUS Home Page, you can use tags to categorize your content. This is particularly useful when reviewing lists of content with multiple tags. It also lets you choose which tags to apply to your repository item.

The Shared tag helps you filter just the content that is specific to you. The Personal tag makes it easy for you to filter just your personal My Content.

Indexing Report Library Output

In addition to searching for parameterized reports, you can optionally enable Report Library output data for indexing and search InfoSearch. Unlike report procedures (FEX), a Report Library output does not need to contain a parameter to be found in InfoSearch.

When the Index Library Output check box is selected and saved in the ReportCaster Console, all subsequent Report Library distributions will be indexed and made searchable by InfoSearch.

Note:

Enabling Voice Capabilities for InfoSearch

To interact with InfoSearch using voice commands, you must also follow these steps:

  • Enable SSL for WebFOCUS. This ensures that you can use the voice API software with a microphone and is typically set up by an Administrator. For more information, see the WebFOCUS Security and Administration technical content.
  • Connect to your WebFOCUS environment through a Google Chrome browser with HTTPS.
  • Enable Google Chrome to have access to your microphone, if you have not done so already.

Scheduling Index Updates

If you want to continually search for the latest data made available by your organization, you can schedule your index to update hourly, daily, monthly, or for any other recurrence you desire. Use the ReportCaster Scheduling tools to schedule your index the same way you would schedule a report procedure, and your index will update each time it is run by the Scheduling tool.