Specifying where to search

Before you can search through the data you have captured, you need to specify which business objects and which attributes on those objects you want to include in your knowledge database. For the best results, include only objects that are likely to include helpful information, to avoid cluttering your search results.

Any business object that is a process (such as Request, Problem, Change and Call) has a parent module of Process Management. To change the Is Knowledgeable? property on any of these processes, you must change the property on the Process business object. This setting is then applied to all processes.

To specify the searchable business objects:
  1. In Object Designer, open the business object that you want to be able to search for.
  2. In the Properties grid, set Is Knowledgeable? to True.
  3. Click save icon.
  4. Repeat for the other business objects that you want to be able to search for.

Next, you need to set up which business object attributes you want to include in the search.

Searching specific attributes in a business object

After you have marked a business object for inclusion in the knowledge search, you need to specify which attributes you want to search. You do this by setting the Search Type property for the relevant attributes.

For the best results, include only attributes that will help to provide targeted results, such as Titles and Keywords. Including attributes that contain a lot of descriptive text, such as Resolutions and Symptoms can give less useful results, as the text in them is typically less specific to the topic being searched for.

To specify the search type for attributes:
  1. In Object Designer, double-click the required business object.
  2. In the Attributes list, select the required attribute, for example Title, then in the Properties grid, set the Search Type property to Is Natural Language.
    You can set the Search Type to Is Classification, so that when you use the Knowledge Management Search component, you can browse all of the classifications within the knowledge database. For more information about classifications, see Searching using classifications.
    If the attribute is greyed out, then you need to return to the Process business object, and set the relevant value for the attribute. The greyed out attributes are common across all processes, and are created only once for the Process business object, rather than creating the same attribute for many business objects.
  3. Repeat as required.

If you do not want to include specific attributes within the search, then you do not need to set this property.