Understanding full-text search

Use the Search gadget to control full-text searching on your system. Select > System > Settings > Search to access this gadget. Indexing is enabled for rules and data, but not for work objects or their attachments, when Process Commander is initially installed.

Using the Search gadget or the System Management application, you can rebuild indexes completely, or consolidate and compact indexes for improved search performance.

In a multinode system, the indexes are usually maintained on only one node to save disk space and processing. Searches entered by users connected to another node are forwarded to the hosting node using Connect SOAP rules (with Data-RuleSearch as the Applies To class). C-2462 Set the node to maintain the indexes in the Index Host Node Settings part of the Search landing page gadget.

You can exclude indexing for objects of individual concrete classes derived from Work-, Rule-, or Data- by checking the Exclude this class from search? on the Advanced tab of the Class form. 5.5 GRP-909

Allowing application users to find work objects or work object attachments using full-text search (in addition to structured searches based on owner, party, or status) has advantages and costs. Consider these factors: XXXXXXxx update for full-text search of Microsoft Office and PDF documents xxxxx

• Full-text searches may reduce the chances that an application user enters a duplicate work object.
• Full-text searches do not depend on exposed columns; all the text is searched.
• Full-text searches can increase operator productivity by providing faster access than structured searches.
• Full-text searches may produce many "hits" that require further review and qualification.
• Full-text searches may disclose sensitive work object or work object attachment details to users who otherwise are not permitted to open or review such work.
• Indexing (performed in the background by an agent) and searching (performed on request) can impact system performance.

If you choose to provide this facility, consider which work types are to be indexed. To exclude indexing for work objects of one type, open and check the Exclude this class from search? on the Advanced tab of the Class form. 5.5 GRP-909 (For an example, see Pega Developer Network article PRKB-25620 How to limit text search to specific class instances.)

The standard sections @baseclass.FindWork and @baseclass.SearchField support full-text search. If your application uses a composite portal, include one of theses sections (or similar custom section) in your portal.

The traditional ('fixed') portal WorkUser does not directly support full-text search. To provide this capability, include the standard section @baseclass.SearchField in the New harness for each work type. For an example of this approach, select the PegaSample work pool (select Switch Work Pool > Sample WorkBYRNB 2/25/10 from the application menu and start a Simple Task flow (> Run Process > Simple Task) BYRNB 2/22/10 to open the work object form defined by the sample harness rule PegaSample-SimpleTask.New.

You can copy and customize the standard list view rules Data-Work-Summary.SearchWorkInstanceList.ALL and Data-Rule-Summary.SearchRuleInstanceList.ALL, which present search results. These depend on a standard activity Embed-ListParams.getLuceneContent.

Ordinarily, the Pega-RULES agent rebuilds indexes for Data-, Work-, and Rule- objects continuously. Using the Search gadget, you can stop (disable) or start (enable) activities in the PegaRULES agent that performs this processing.

To access the Search gadget, select > System > Settings > Search.

When enabled, the index engine component of Process Commander maintains indexes automatically for every saved rule, data instance, and work object.

To minimize any impact on user response, indexing operations occur in the background (by the Pega-RULES agent) upon the next system pulse after an object is saved. So, depending on the system pulse setting, search results may reflect slightly stale information and may be incomplete. In multinode systems, rule change information is automatically propagated to all nodes through the system pulse mechanism.

Some internal rules — instances of the Rule-System-Generated-Access class — are generated automatically as Process Commander operates. When rule indexing is enabled, these are indexed at each system pulse and rules of these types may appear in search results.