Configuring the portal search

Cases and knowledge content sources are included by default. For other data sources, use the data source rule configuration (select the Use in portal search? checkbox). Use the extension  FilterForApplication when rule to further filter data source rules based on the application context. This information is the source for displaying the data source list in the Interaction Portal search, as shown in the following figure:

Pega Customer Service uses the standard search utilities of Pega Platform (such as pzSearchResultsWork and pxRetrieveSearchData) for searching work objects and cases and provides a configurable solution to integrate and search Customer SOR data, which is typically an external system.

Cases

The default behavior is to search all case types that are listed on the application rule.

The data page D_SearchResultsFor is used to search work objects, and the same page is directly used to display the results in the UI, as shown in the following figure:

This out-of-the-box solution is usable as is for searching knowledge content.

For more information about enabling searches for work data for your application, see Configuring full-text search.

Data sources

There is a separate data page for each source with all searchable fields as parameters (with the appropriate interface and logical data class).

The following text is an out-of-the-box account search data page:

D_AccountDataList[SearchValue:D_ShareData.pySearchText, AccountNumber:AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage.AccountNumber, AccountType:AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage.AccountType,

AccountStatus:AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage.AccountStatus, FirstName:AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage.FirstName,LastName:AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage.LastName,

AccountopenDate:AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage.AccountopenDate, InteractionId:.CurrentInteractionID]

Example (Basic search through portal search field):

Example (Advanced search):

For more information, see Enabling the data source for portal search.

Configure the SearchHeader section for searchable data sources in your implementation application.

The search results sections are:

• Cases: SearchResultsWorkCases
• Knowledge content: SearchResultsKM
• Data sources: Follow the naming pattern Search_[Data source name] to allow them to render in a search harness without requiring customization.

Use the AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage clipboard page context for advanced or custom search properties.

Use the CPM-Search-Result search results class to create additional fields, even though it supports dynamic class referencing when inherited.

Cases

Modify the following extension rules to customize work search criteria and results:

Use the D_SearchResultsFor data page to fetch search results. Note that this page is not parameterized with advanced search fields, which are set through the pySearchWorkParams extension rule.

Data sources

Modify the following extension rules to customize search criteria and results for data sources:

The pySearchResults page is for search results. Use this page in the UI rules to display search results.

When configuring search, use the following best practices:

• Have a separate search data page for each data source with all searchable fields as parameters.
• Use the out-of-the boxsection names, search results class, and clipboard pages (pySearchResults, D_SearchResultsFor, and AdvancedSearchCriteriaPage) to minimize the number of overrides required while customizing searches to include custom properties.
• Do not customize the out-of-the-box portal search flow rules.

When configuring the search, note the following limitations:

• Data pages do not support dynamic parameter lists (such as a page or JSON parameter), which is a requirement for search-type use cases. Therefore, define all possible search fields as parameters up front, and plan to handle updates whenever parameters are updated.
• Limit the number of search results by using the application setting (Declare_CAApplicationSettings.WorkObjectSearchResults). Do this for performance reasons because each object would be opened internally to fetch the required data for the results display.
• Case search results are retrieved by update date time and sorted by create date time (most recent at the top), and there are no extensions available to change this logic.

For more information, see Configuring the portal search.