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Tips for using Portal Search


Content Model has only one search collection

Currently, the Content Model Search Service has only one search collection. This search collection is provided with the installation by default. We cannot modify this default Content Model search collection or create more search collections under the Content Model Search Service. The content model search service is listed because we can include it in scopes.


Use the Search Center with external search services with different languages

To use external search services such as Google and Yahoo! with an English search keyword, a URL such as the sample URL mentioned in the Search Center portlet help for configuring the portlet works fine as is:

    http://www.google.com/search?q=

However, if you search in other languages, consult the documentation of the remote search service that we use to ensure the web interface is set up and used appropriately for the language that we use for the search. This can avoid problems with the displayed results, depending on the combination of languages set for HCL WebSphere Portal, the browser, and the search.


Dynamic portal pages are not added to the search seedlist

Dynamic HCL WebSphere Portal pages are not added to the Portal Search seedlist. Dynamic pages can have portlets, and portlets are added to the seedlist; therefore, if such pages are added to the seedlist, users get duplicate result list items. To make HTML on a page searchable, create a static portal page and add the HTML. The static page is then added to the seedlist and listed among search results.


Search collections unavailable in cluster if failover occurs

If a cluster member in a cluster fails, users who were using the affected cluster member when the failover occurred can no longer access search collections. This problem can occur with horizontal scaling when a node fails or with vertical scaling when a particular cluster member fails.

Users who are logged in to the cluster member that failed must log out of HCL WebSphere Portal and then log back in before they are able to access search collections again.


Search can return documents based on metadata

Search can return documents based on metadata of these documents, not just on words found in the fields or actual text of the document. It might appear to Portal Search users their searches return documents that do not appear to match the search criteria. Metadata for documents is also indexed for search. If the metadata of documents matched the search criteria, these documents are also returned as results for the search. Metadata works as designed and is usually considered to be of benefit.


Documents from deleted content source can remain available under scope

If we delete a content source, the documents collected from this content source will remain available for search by users under all scopes which included the content source before it was deleted. These documents will be available until their expiration time ends. When creating the content source, we can specify the expiration time by modifying the Links expire after (days) field in the General Parameters tab.


Documents from deleted web content library can remain available in the search collection

When we delete a web content library, delete the corresponding entries from the search collection. When a web content library is deleted and crawled, deleting the corresponding crawler deletes the entries from the search index. For one WCM content source, which automatically crawls all web content libraries, then delete and re-create the content source, or we can select Regather documents from Content Source. This step deletes all existing documents in the content source from previous crawls and then starts a full crawl on the content source. Documents that were indexed before, but no longer exist in the content source are removed from the collection.

If we plan on deleting web content libraries frequently, then it is suggested to define one content source per web content library. When that library is deleted, only the respective content source needs to be deleted as well.


Portal Search portlets are not compatible with WSRP

The Portal Search portlets cannot be provided as WSRP services, as some additional and more advanced HCL WebSphere Portal concepts and features are not reflected by the current WSRP standard yet. These Portal Search portlets include Manage Search and the Search Center.


Default Portal Search Service and its collections show in the portal default language

The search administration portlet Manage Search lists the Default Portal Search Service and its collection Portal Content or other collections in the default portal language and not in the language the user selected as preferred language for the portal or set in the browser. For example, if the portal default language is set to English and the user selected German as the preferred portal language or set the browser language to German, the Default Portal Search Service and its collections show in English.


Virtual portals have separate search services and collections

Search services and search collections are separate for individual virtual portals and are not shared between individual virtual portals.. Set up separate search services and separate search collections for each individual virtual portal. These collections can be used to crawl and search the same set of documents.


See also


Parent Portal Search