Introduction to the OmniFind Text Search Server for DB2 for i

OMNIFIND is a text search product that allows IBM® i users to search unstructured text stored in a column of a DB2 for i table. The text stored in the column can be either simple character text, an XML document, or any of several different types of rich text documents, such as a PDF or DOC file. The product allows users to index unstructured data without having to parse it into a structured form such as an SQL table.

OmniFind Text Search Server is a context-based search engine. It supports fuzzy search capability. For example, a search for 'mice' discovers documents with 'mice' or 'mouse' in them. The search engine also supports language context. For example, it understands the fuzzy search equivalents of 'mice' and 'mouse' in both English and Spanish.

Many applications can take advantage of this capability. A good example is a Human Resources database. Candidate resumes can be stored in the database in whatever form they are submitted. Subsequent searches using OmniFind can be used to search for potential candidates with certain key skills.