Comflow Quick Data Settings

Introduction

Quick Search is a tool to make the data within Comflow searchable. You can search in the content of files for the file locations that are defined and for the content of data base tables that are accessible from Comflow.

Included features:

• You can search in documents of .pdf, .ppt and .doc formats.
• You can search in any SQL database.
• You can search either with or without wildcard and with support of Boolean logic
• You can search in the same table, but have multiple functions to go to based on search domain
• You can search on data that does not exist in the table, but are available in a related table, like the customers’ name in the order header table, even if only the customer number exists in that table.

Technically Quick Search are based on the Apache Lucene framework.

Setting up

To set up the Quick Search function, you do the following:

Defining Search domains

You can define multiple search domains, in order to logically define what shall be searchable as well as based on the technical data source, and what shall happen when you click on the search result.

For example you can have one domain for crm base data and one for crm transactional data. You can also have the same table in two different domains, where the one is pinpointing one function for showing the data, and the other another one, in order to give the user different contexts for the searching.

By clicking on Add new... you can define the domain name, the status, the type and a description.

The Domain name is the identity of the search domain.

The status is if the domain is active for searches or not. When you define a domain, set it to inactive until you have fully set it up and created the index, because then users can start using it.

The Domain type can be either Database or Document. Database can be either database defined in the Platform (i.e. in the sitedef). Document can be some file path, that can be accessed from the Platform.

The Description is a description of the domain, and what will be shown to the user when searching.

Define search tables

To define what tabels that shall be included in the search, you define a domain with database as type. By clicking on Add new... you can define the data base Meta ID and prompt on the table. You can add as many tables as you like to one domain. Though the table can only be added once.

When you have selected the table, you can give it a display name (for the search result), and pinpoint a task and it’s entry point, for the function that will be used to show the search result record. You can also set the mode of that function to Update or View.

Then you can select the columns in the table that will be part of the search. You can also set which ones that will be seen in the search result record. The tick box “Has constraint” is just information about if the column has a relation to another table, and thereby can also search on information in that table.

The purpose of relations is to be able to add relevant information to the search index from the related table to the actual one. This can be for instance to add the customer name to the search index of the customer order, even if only the customer number resides in the customer order table. You then use the relation between the customer order table and the customer master table, where the customer name is stored, and the relation is linked via the customer number in both tables.

The settings for those related tables are in the next segment, where you by clicking on Add new... get a view of all relations. When you select one by clicking on it, you get a new list with those relations’ own relations and table columns. If you select a column by clicking on it, a record is added to the table setting. If you select another relation, you get a new list of relations and column to choose from.

All columns selected are listed, and can be removed if wanted by right click on the record and chose delete.

When you have defined all columns and related columns, you push the finish button and return back to the table list. In order to enable the search, you must create or update the search index for the domain. You do that through pushing the Create index for domain -button.

Define search documents

To define what document paths that shall be included in the search, you define a domain with document as type.

By clicking Add new… you can add a document path, which must be accessible for Comflow server in order to work. You can add as many paths as you like to one Domain. Though the same path can only be added once.

When you have defined all paths, you push the finish button and return back to the path list. In order to enable the search, you must create or update the search index for the domain. You do that through pushing the Create index for domain -button.

Use

The Quick Search function is very easy to use, but can also be advanced. The easy use is to just add your search word and hit the Search button (or press enter) and you will get your search result. To do a new search just hit the New search button. You can also control the number of possible search hits in the lists per domain, which is defaulted to 10.

Advanced searches – Help

If you want to do more advanced searches, you have a help area to get information from. It gives the following information about advanced searches:

Domain control

In order to control what domains to search in, you can de-select the ones you do not want in the search, since all are activated automatically when you enter the function. Only the selected ones will be part of the search.

Search result

The search result is shown as lists, which shows the maximum number of hits from the previous screen. By clicking on a record you will go to the defined screen for the data.

View of data for a data base search

When you click on a data base record, you come to defined screen, which then uses the data from the searched data base record to initialize the information on screen. From here you can continue to work via the functions defined in the screen.

View of data for a document search

When you click on a document you come to a screen showing the document title and an icon for the document.

Clicking on the Download file, will open the document in the appropriate editor on the actual computer.