IBM Content Navigator, Version 2.0.3 Supports: Content Manager, OnDemand, FileNet P8

Searching for content across multiple repositories (cross-repository searches)

Searching for content across repositories is useful when the items that you need are spread throughout multiple repositories. For example, you might use a cross-repository search to look for customer billing records in one repository and contracts that are stored in another repository.

Before you begin

Ensure that cross-repository searches are enabled, and that all repositories that you want to include in the search are configured and available in the desktop. You also must have privileges to access the repositories.

Start of change A cross-repository search can be used to search across IBM® Content Manager, FileNet® P8, IBM Content Manager OnDemand, and CMIS repositories. The cross-repository search can be saved in IBM Content Manager or FileNet P8 repositories. End of change

Tip: When you are working in teamspaces, you can add existing cross-repository searches to a teamspace. However, you cannot create a cross-repository search from a teamspace, and you cannot configure a cross-repository search in a teamspace.

About this task

By running a cross-repository search, you can search for items that are stored on different repositories and receive a single set of search results. The results that are returned vary and depend on how you map the properties together from each repository.

With a cross-repository search, you can map related properties that are available on all repositories. You can also specify a single property that is available in a single repository. For example:

You want to search for a customer's name across all of the repositories, so you map all of the properties together that specify the customer name.
You want to search for a customer's account number, which is only specified on one repository.

The properties that you map create the search criteria. After you map the properties, you can use those properties to run the search.

A cross-repository search can include up to five repositories. Each repository can return up to 500 results, with a total limit of 2,500 results. No repository can display more than 500 results, even if the other repositories do not reach their return limit. If the number of returned results exceeds 500, refine your search to find more specific results.

Tip: Text searching is not supported in cross-repository searches.

Procedure

To run a cross-repository search for items across different repositories:

In IBM Content Navigator, select Open Search View. From the New Search drop-down menu, select New Cross-Repository Search.
From the New Cross-Repository Search tab, click Add Repository. You can add up to five unique repositories to the search.
1. Click Search Options to select the search options or classes that you are searching for in the repository, then click OK. For example, you can define whether you are searching for a document by the object type (document, folder or both) or by the version type. In IBM Content Manager OnDemand, you can open existing searches only.
2. Click OK.
Click Add Mapping to specify which properties you want to map together in the search.
1. Use the arrow to move properties from Available Properties to Mapped Properties. The first property name that you select from the list is added as the label name for the property. You can change the name to a label that is a more representative of the property name for your users.
2. Click OK.
To create the search, specify which properties you want to search on by selecting the mapped properties. The search criteria is derived from the mapped properties. If you do not have any mapped properties, you cannot run a search.
Tip: To sort the search results, click Results Display. The Sort by default is None, which returns the search results in the same order that the repositories are listed in the Search scope. If you change Sort by to a mapped property, the results are sorted according to the mapping, such as the Modified on date, and not in order by repository.

Tip: You can also add class name as a column in the search results by clicking Results Display and adding Class to the Selected list. This property is available if your cross-repository search includes a FileNet P8, IBM Content Manager, or CMIS repository. If the cross-repository search includes only Content Manager OnDemand repositories, the Class property will not be in the list of available properties.
Click Search. To change how the results are displayed, select the Details, Magazine, or Filmstrip view, and adjust the columns according to your preference.