How search works in Connections profiles

Searchable contents

All profiles content can be searched, regardless of whether the data is entered by the user or is obtained from external data sources such as LDAP. This includes the following content:

• User profile data; for example, name, phone numbers, title, departments, and city.

• Extension attributes, including simple, rich text and XML extension attribute types.

  For XML attributes, the searchable contents can be defined and configured in profiles-config.xml. The names of the links added in the Profiles Linkroll widget are searchable by default. But the URLs of the links are not searchable.

• Tags for users

  All profile search queries are case insensitive. The user queries are converted to lowercase before querying the Profiles content. A search containing only wildcard characters is not supported. Entering only '*' or '%' wildcard characters return empty search results. See...

  • Customizing Profiles
  • Manage the Profiles search operation

Two different search implementations internally

The following search types are supported:

• Database search:

  The most common search in Profiles is to search users by their names. To ensure fast and dynamic searches for names, a special database schema and internal logic is used to optimize search for names. The following searches from the user interface use the database search:

  • Search by Name from the search drop-down menu.

  • Name type-ahead search from the Directory page without Full search options.

  • Clicking a tag from a user's Profile page.

  • Tag type-ahead, such as the hints of tags when user is creating a new tag

  Some special notes for database searches:

  • Because the database search is performed on the Profiles database directly, there is no delay for any new/updated/deleted data. For example, if a user's name is updated by the TDI scripts, then searching against the new name finds the user immediately. In the meantime, searching against the old name would not find the user.

  • All user queries are appended with a wildcard at the end of each word. For example, if a user types a search term: "Amy Jones", this query would search for names like: "amy% jones%".

  • Inactive users are not included in database search results. To find inactive users, use the index searches and specifically select to include inactive users. See Index Search.

• Index search:

  Indexes are built for all profile contents for advanced searches. The profiles indexes are also used for social data analytic purposes.

  The following searches from the user interface use the index search:

  • Search by Keyword from the search drop-down menu.

  • Directory search with full options (Advanced search).

  • Global/Common search for Profiles when we select All Connections search drop-down menu.

  • Organization tag cloud on the Profiles Directory page.

  • Clicking a tag from the Organization tag cloud

  Special notes on index searches:

  • The indexes are rebuilt on a scheduled basis (every 15 minutes by default), therefore expect a delay to find new contents/changes when we perform searches with index search.

  • Other than those special fields related to names, all user queries are expected to be an exact match. For example wildcards are not automatically appended to the search queries as is done in the database searches.

  • Inactive users are not included in the search results for index searches. From the user interface with Full search options, check the Include inactive users checkbox to include inactive users in the search results. We cannot search for inactive users only.

• Search APIs:

  All profile contents can be searched by profile search APIs.

  When the name parameter is used in the search APIs, the database search is used; otherwise, the index search is used for the search APIs.

• Organization tag cloud

  The organization tag cloud on the Profiles Directory page consists of the 50 most popular tags in the entire organization, which is based on the frequencies of tags. The number of tags in the organization tag cloud is not configurable. The organization tag cloud is built from the indexes, so there are delays in displaying new, popular tags. The organization tag cloud data is cached internally in the application. Expect a delay of up to 30 minutes when we update the display of new, popular tags in the organization tag cloud.

Logic behind name search

Profiles data for names holds information only for a user's last name and first names. There is no specific data fields for middle name, therefore, there is no way to search users with their middle names. Due to the complexity of parsing the first name and last name from a user input, especially in consideration with international names, user queries are parsed in various forms:

• Search query without a comma.

  The search queries are tokenized into words by using a space. Depending on the words, the search tries to account for all variations of first and last names to find the matches, some examples are :

  • For user input of a single word, such as 'david', search for users whose:

    • First name starts with david

      or

    • Last name is david

  • For user input with two words, such as 'david jones', search for users whose:

    • First name is: david and last name is: jones

      or

    • First name is: david jones

      or

    • Last name is: david jones

  • User input with more words, such as david alex jones, would search for users whose:

    • First name is: david and last name is alex jones

      or

    • First name is: david alex and last name is jones

      or

    • First name is: david alex jones

      or

    • Last name is: david alex jones

    Search queries with more words follows similar logic to go through the variations of the first names and last names.

• Search query with a comma

  The query before the comma is treated as a user's last name. The query after the comma is treated as the user's first name. There is no further parsing for more variations of first and last names.

• Data on the names table

  Internally, database searches for names are performed against two tables: GIVEN_NAME and SURNAME. These tables hold names and their alias. The data in these tables is used for search purposes only; they are not exposed in the user interface.

  Database searches do not find matches resident in the EMPLOYEE table.

  For example, the Display Name from the EMPLOYEE table is not searched during a database search, even though Display Name is what we see in the user interface.

  Data in these two name tables is expressed in lowercase. During data population by using TDI or Administration APIs, the values are converted to lowercase for these tables. It is not recommended to directly insert or update content in these tables. For the tables for testing purposes, make sure that contents entered are in lowercase. User queries are converted to lowercase when matching up with the values in the names table.

  Name aliases are created through an internal program for most of the common English first names. These name aliases are provided in the product in a binary file; there is no support for viewing or editing that file.

Logic behind index searches

• Special logic is associated with some special fields in the search form with Full options:

  • Display name field

    Use the same logic as in the database search for names, the user input in the Display name field is broken down into all variations of first and last names. The difference in the index search is that matches are also found with the following more data fields on the EMPLOYEE table:

    displayName, surname, preferredFirstName, preferredLastName, 
    alternativeLastName, nativeFistName and nativeLastName. 

    Therefore, using the same user input in the Display Name field, the index search returns more results than the database search. A sample query string that is constructed for the index search with the user input as Amy Jones is :

    ((((FIELD_PREFERRED_FIRST_NAME:"amy jones*" OR FIELD_NATIVE_FIRST_NAME:"amy jones*" 
    OR FIELD_GIVEN_NAME:"amy jones*") OR (FIELD_PREFERRED_FIRST_NAME:amy* OR FIELD_NATIVE_FIRST_NAME:amy* 
    OR FIELD_GIVEN_NAME:amy*)) AND ((FIELD_PREFERRED_LAST_NAME:"amy jones*" OR FIELD_ALTERNATE_LAST_NAME:"amy jones*" 
    OR FIELD_NATIVE_LAST_NAME:"amy jones*" OR FIELD_SURNAME:"amy jones*") OR (FIELD_PREFERRED_LAST_NAME:jones* 
    OR FIELD_ALTERNATE_LAST_NAME:jones* OR FIELD_NATIVE_LAST_NAME:jones* OR FIELD_SURNAME:jones*))) 
    OR FIELD_DISPLAY_NAME:"amy jones*")

  • First name field

    The query string is used to match the preferredFirstName, nativeFirstName and givenName data fields. A sample query string that is constructed for the index search with the user input as Amy is :

    (FIELD_PREFERRED_FIRST_NAME:amy OR FIELD_NATIVE_FIRST_NAME:
    amy OR FIELD_GIVEN_NAME:amy)

  • Last name field

    The query string is used to match the preferredLastName, alternativeLastName, nativeLastName and surname data fields. A sample query string that is constructed for the index search with the user input as Jones is :

    (FIELD_PREFERRED_LAST_NAME:Jones OR FIELD_ALTERNATE_LAST_NAME:
    Jones OR FIELD_NATIVE_LAST_NAME: Jones OR FIELD_SURNAME:Jones) 

  • Phone number field

    Several format variations are available for what users can enter for phone number searches:

    • A phone number query can be entered with or without '-' or '.'. For example, user input such as 1234567890 or 123.456.7890 find users with the phone number record 123-456-7890.

    • A phone number query can be entered with a mixture of numbers and letters. For example, user input such as 1-800-IBM-HELP finds users with the phone number record 1-800-426-4357.

    • A phone number query can omit the leading 1. For example, user input such as 123-456-7890 finds users with the phone number record 1-123-456-7890.

      The leading international phone prefix 011 must be specified to match users with phone number records containing the leading 011 characters

    • A phone number that is entered in the user interface search form with the full search options searches all available phone number fields, such as mobileNumber, ipTelephoneNumber, and faxNumber.

• Search by keywords

  Users can enter keywords from the search drop-down menu in the Search by keyword, or Keyword fields in the Directory search page with the Full search options. The keyword search field is the only field for which search operators can be used for composing complex search queries. That means that special terms and characters are reserved for search operators. For example, terms like AND, OR, NOT, and characters like: +, -, ~, :, are reserved. Double quotes are required to include those special terms and characters if they are not intended to be search operators. Refer to external Lucene syntax sites and documentation for details about using search operators.

  The "Search by keyword" function is performed against all indexed contents.

• The logical operation among the fields that are entered in the Directory search with full options form is AND.

Searchable fields from the search user interface and API

The following fields are indexed and made searchable using either the user interface or API. The first values are the actual field values in the indexes.

groupwareEmail=FIELD_GROUPWARE_EMAIL, 
shift=FIELD_SHIFT, profileType=FIELD_PROFILE_TYPE, 
pagerServiceProvider=FIELD_PAGER_SERVICE_PROVIDER, nativeFirstName=FIELD_NATIVE_FIRST_NAME, 
countryDisplayValue=FIELD_COUNTRY, workLocation.state=FIELD_STATE, 
name=FIELD_DISPLAY_NAME, mobileNumber=FIELD_MOBILE, 
floor=FIELD_FLOOR, profileLinks=FIELD_EXTATTR_PROFILELINKS, 
state=FIELD_STATE, employeeTypeCode=FIELD_EMPLOYEE_TYPE, 
country=FIELD_COUNTRY, employeeNumber=FIELD_EMPLOYEE_NUMBER, 
courtesyTitle=FIELD_COURTESY_TITLE, jobTitle=FIELD_JOB_RESPONSIBILITIES, 
email=FIELD_MAIL, pagerType=FIELD_PAGER_TYPE, 
orgId=FIELD_ORGANIZATION_IDENTIFIER, countryCode=FIELD_ISO_COUNTRY_CODE, 
isManager=FIELD_IS_MANAGER, departmentTitle=FIELD_DEPARTMENT_TITLE, 
givenName=FIELD_GIVEN_NAME, jobResp=FIELD_JOB_RESPONSIBILITIES, 
organization=FIELD_ORGANIZATION_TITLE, alternateLastname=FIELD_ALTERNATE_LAST_NAME, 
pagerId=FIELD_PAGER_ID, workLocation.address1=FIELD_WORK_LOCATION, 
faxNumber=FIELD_FAX_TELEPHONE_NUMBER, ipTelephoneNumber=FIELD_IP_TELEPHONE_NUMBER, workLocation.address2=FIELD_WORK_LOCATION, 
bldgId=FIELD_BUILDING_IDENTIFIER, spoken_Lang=FIELD_EXTATTR_SPOKEN_LANG, 
department=FIELD_DEPARTMENT_TITLE, tenantKey=FIELD_TENANT_KEY, 
phoneNumber=FIELD_TELEPHONE_NUMBER, title=FIELD_TITLE, 
preferredFirstName=FIELD_PREFERRED_FIRST_NAME, surname=FIELD_SURNAME, profileTags=FIELD_TAG, preferredLastName=FIELD_PREFERRED_LAST_NAME, 
managerUid=FIELD_MANAGER_UID, organizationTitle=FIELD_ORGANIZATION_TITLE, officeName=FIELD_PHYSICAL_DELIVERY_OFFICE, 
experience=FIELD_EXPERIENCE, city=FIELD_CITY, pagerNumber=FIELD_PAGER, workLocation.address=FIELD_WORK_LOCATION, 
displayName=FIELD_DISPLAY_NAME, telephoneNumber=FIELD_TELEPHONE_NUMBER, 
activeUsersOnly=FIELD_USER_STATE, deptNumber=FIELD_DEPARTMENT_NUMBER, 
workLocation.city=FIELD_CITY, address=FIELD_WORK_LOCATION, 
secretaryUid=FIELD_SECRETARY_UID, nativeLastName=FIELD_NATIVE_LAST_NAME, 
timezone=FIELD_TIMEZONE, preferredLanguage=FIELD_PREFERRED_LANGUAGE, 
description=FIELD_ABOUT_ME

For extension attributes, use the expression defined in profiles-config.xml. To search using the field names as defined in using profiles-config.xml use:

spokenLanguages=FIELD_EXTATTR_SPOKENLANGUAGES, school=FIELD_EXTATTR_SCHOOL, hobby=FIELD_EXTATTR_HOBBY, lifestory=FIELD_EXTATTR_LIFESTORY,

Consideration for Accent Characters

Names in various international locales might have accent characters. You might want to allow the users to search for names with the accent characters without having to type in the accents. One common support to consider is to support searches with the exact accents and searches completely without accents. To support such searches, a version of the names without the accent characters must be available in the name tables. Special TDI scripts can be used to strip off the accent characters from the names during initial population or subsequent updates of the names with the data sources.

There is no solution to support inputs for a mixture of accents and without accents. So users must either enter a search query exactly how the names are expresses (with the correct accent characters) or enter a search query completely without accents.

Available search configurations

Search configurations are :

• Search results configuration

  Search results are displayed using a template. See Manage the Profiles search operation.

• Search user interface form configuration

  The form for Directory search with full options is configurable. See Customizing Profiles search.

• General search configuration:
  • Search on first name

  • Default for search results display order

Troubleshooting

Typical questions and problems. What to check:

• Why is search returning users whose names do not seem to match the name search query?

  When performing searches by name, searches are against the GIVEN_NAME and SURNAME table, we can either run some simple SQL to check whether the searched names are in these tables or we can run the following elaborate SQL to see whether there are any hits when searching a name such as Amy Jones

  :with key_list as ( ( (select PROF_KEY from (SELECT PROF_KEY FROM EMPINST.SURNAME 
  WHERE (EMPINST.SURNAME.PROF_SURNAME LIKE 'jones%' escape '*') AND PROF_USRSTATE = 0 ) 
  SN where PROF_KEY in (SELECT PROF_KEY FROM EMPINST.GIVEN_NAME WHERE ( EMPINST.GIVEN_NAME.PROF_GIVENNAME 
  LIKE 'amy%' escape '*' ) AND PROF_USRSTATE = 0 ) ) UNION ALL (select PROF_KEY from 
  (SELECT PROF_KEY FROM EMPINST.SURNAME WHERE ( EMPINST.SURNAME.PROF_SURNAME LIKE 'amy%' escape '*' ) 
  AND PROF_USRSTATE = 0 ) SN where PROF_KEY in (SELECT PROF_KEY FROM EMPINST.GIVEN_NAME WHERE 
  ( EMPINST.GIVEN_NAME.PROF_GIVENNAME LIKE 'jones%' escape '*' ) AND PROF_USRSTATE = 0 )) UNION ALL 
  (SELECT PROF_KEY FROM EMPINST.SURNAME WHERE EMPINST.SURNAME.PROF_SURNAME LIKE 'amy jones%' escape '*' 
  AND PROF_USRSTATE = 0 ) UNION ALL (SELECT PROF_KEY FROM EMPINST.GIVEN_NAME WHERE 
  EMPINST.GIVEN_NAME.PROF_GIVENNAME LIKE 'amy jones%' escape '*' AND PROF_USRSTATE = 0 ) )) 
  select distinct key_list.PROF_KEY from key_list fetch first 250 rows only optimize for 250 rows;

• Why does the page user interface indicate there are more results than are displayed?

  This situation could happen for both database search and index search:

  • In the case of a database search, such issues happen because there are orphans in the GIVEN_NAME or SURNAME tables. A record in those tables is considered an orphan if the PROF_KEY value in the record cannot be found in the EMPLOYEE table. The following SQLs can be used to find out whether there are such orphans:

    SELECT * FROM EMPINST.GIVEN_NAME where PROF_KEY not in 
    (select PROF_KEY from EMPINST.EMPLOYEE);
    SELECT * FROM EMPINST.SURNAME where PROF_KEY not in 
    (select PROF_KEY from EMPINST.EMPLOYEE);

  • In the case of index search, this situation happens when the search indexes are not synchronized with the Profiles database. Search indexes holds user records that are no longer available in Profiles database. In this case, rebuild the Profiles indexes.

• The Search indexing is not building.

  This might happen for a number of reasons. Take the following measures:

  • Esure that Profiles seedlist servlet is functioning. From a browser, open the seedlist URL using the following format as a guide:
    http://the_profiles_server/profiles/seedlist/myserver

    Ensure that we see the correct seedlist feed, with a default 100 records;

  • Check whether there are any errors in both the Profiles server logs and Search server logs

  • Enable detailed tracing for the Profiles seedlist on the Profiles server using the following setting:
    com.ibm.connections.profiles.seedlist.*=all

  • The organization tag cloud is not displaying tags

    The organization tag cloud display can experience delays after initial indexing. Typical items to check are :

    • Index search is working in Profiles, in particular we can search tags from the Directory search with full options.

    • Look for any errors whether the organization tag cloud cache is built.

  • Clicking a tag in the organization tag cloud returns different results then clicking a tag from a user's profile.

    Clicking a tag from the organization tag cloud uses index search, and there is a delay for the new tags are indexed. However, clicking a tag from a user's profile performs a database search, and there are no delays. You should not see newly added tags from the organization tag cloud, or users who are newly tagged with a tag in the search results.

• Typing into the Display name with the "Full search options" on the Directory page returns different results than using the same query with "Search profiles by name."

  This situation is expected because the search from the Directory page with "Full search options" searches more fields than the database search for names.

Trace settings

Trace setting to apply for more details:

com.ibm.lconn.profiles.internal.service.SearchServiceImpl=all

Look for outputs like:

[2/16/12 11:16:47:125 EST] 00000087 SearchService 2 
com.ibm.lconn.profiles.internal.service.SearchServiceImpl trace 
Entering getTagListForSearchResultsOnKeyword method, userQuery = 
(FIELD_PREFERRED_FIRST_NAME:amy OR FIELD_NATIVE_FIRST_NAME:amy 
OR FIELD_GIVEN_NAME:amy), pageNum = 1

Parent topic:
Troubleshoot Search FAQs

Related:
Customize Profiles search

Manage the Profiles search operation