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Combodo

iTop Extensions

Enhanced global search

name:
Enhanced global search
description:
Use a faster and more relevant global search with easy-to-filter results
version:
1.0.11
release:
2019-02-04
itop-version-min:
2.5.0
code:
combodo-fulltext-search
state:
stable
diffusion:
Client Store, iTop Hub

This extension replace the standard global search with a faster and more accurate search.

This extension requires Index FullText, so MySQL 5.6+ or Mariadb 10.0.5+

Features

  • Users can improve results accuracy by specifying required, optional and denied words.
  • Administrator can fine-tune the results relevance, by changing configuration parameters.
  • It uses MySQL fulltext feature to perform the global search.

Revision History

Release Date Version Comments
2019-02-04 1.0.11 - Fix broken related link
2019-01-09 1.0.10 - Fix the friendly name limit
- Fix Scheduled task
- Fix class name in tests
- Add Combodo license
2019-01-09 1.0.9 - Fix memory limit
- Fix Case log indexation
- Fix email search
- Limit the friendlyname size to fit in the DB
2018-07-31 1.0.8 - Better indexation
- Better search
- Support only InnoDB and BOOLEAN mode
- Display related objects on search
- Display matching fields
- Admin page : for re-indexation
- Class drill-down
- Debug mode
2018-01-19 0.0.3 - Better indexation when updating data
- 'populate_search.php' uses the configuration for the type of table to create (MyISAM or InnoDB)
- No constraint on MySQL (MyISAM must be used in version before 5.6)
2018-01-09 0.0.2 - Better error management.
- No indexation at setup (performance issues).
- 'populate_search.php' have to be used to create an InnoDB fulltext index.
- MySQL >= 5.6
2017-12-14 0.0.1 - First version experimental.

Limitations

  • This extension relies on MySQL full-text feature.
  • It uses the main database configured for iTop.

Requirements

  • MySQL 5.6 or above
  • Mariadb 10.0.5 or above
  • iTop 2.5.0 or above

Installation

Use the Standard installation process for this extension.

If the database is big, the index creation can run for a long time. It is possible to populate the full-text index by calling the following page:

<itop_url>/env-production/combodo-fulltext-search/populate-search-index.cli.php

Configuration

Parameter Type Description Default value
object_weight_factor array Weight factor to apply for a given object name (format: 'classname' ⇒ 'value') the values can vary from 0 to 10 generally (0 means no results for this class). The default is 1 for every class not specified. The modification of this parameter needs a complete re-indexation of the database.
array(
  'Organization' => 2.0,
  'Person' => 1.5,
  'Location' => 1.2,
  'SLT' => 0.8,
)
sentence_weight_factor float Weight factor for searches with multiple words matching exactly the list of words in that order. 10.0
mandatory_weight_factor float Weight factor for searches with all the words of the search matching at least once. 2.0
start_with_weight_factor float Weight factor for searches with one word matching the beginning. 0.5
max_interactive_index_update_time_in_sec integer Time in seconds allowed for direct indexation update on change. 5
background_index_refresh_period_in_min integer Period in minutes for background indexation. 5
background_max_indexation_time_in_min integer Execution time limit in minutes for background indexation. 5
background_index_full_rebuild_enabled boolean Allow daily rebuild of the index. true
background_index_full_rebuild_time hour Starting hour of the full rebuild of the index. '01:30'

Background behavior

Searching for one word When searching for a single word (example: demo) the following searches are done:

  1. The word: demo
  2. The words starting with the search: demo*

Searching for multiple words

When searching for multiple words, (example: user-level lock) the following searches are done:

  1. The exact sentence entered: “user_level lock”
  2. All the words are present: +user_level +lock
  3. At least one word is present: user_level lock

As - is a keyword to exclude a word, it is replaced by _ which is another keyword to represent any single character.

Computing weight

Each search is bringing points calculated by MySQL fulltext search, which are then weighted with the configuration parameters set.

Raw weight is provided by MySQL. Parameters are just a multiplier factor of the MySQL weight. You cannot influence the raw weight within iTop.

What values to set

To ensure that the search will be efficient within your iTop, there are additional actions for Administrator users:

  • Global search management action which allow to rebuild the indexes after a change of configuration parameter: object_weight_factor.
  • Debug action which display details on how the result ordering is generated, based on weight.
  • user_level lock has a MySQL provided weight
  • “user_level lock” has the above weight * sentence_weight_factor
  • Total Score is the sum of the various scores * object_weight_factor
Get from your users “sampling searches” on your real data, with the object expected to be in the top 5 results. Then change the various parameters, checking the result using the Debug action on those “sampling searches”.

Usage

Just type the words in the global search field, then enter or click on the magnifier icon to get the result :

Add + at the beginning of required word
UserRequest:+PHP error 

will search for User Requests which contain mandatorily 'PHP' and maybe 'error'

Add - at the beginning of excluded word
UserRequest:PHP -closed 

will search for User Requests which contain 'PHP' but not 'closed' (this exclude all UserRequest with status=closed)

Add * at the end of an incomplete word
Organization:Combo* Grenoble

will search for Organization which contain a word starting with 'Combo' and the exact word 'Grenoble'. This is useless in single word search, as it does it automatically.

Restricting the search to a class

By default the search searchs on all Classes with category searchable, including abstract classes, such as Ticket, Contact or FunctionalCI.

Restrict previous search to a single class Expend back to all classes
Add <class-name>: at the beginning of a search pattern to limit the search to objects of this classe or one of its descendants
FunctionalCI:combodo

will search for any FunctionalCI which contains “combodo”, so the returned objects can be Server, PC, Enclosure,…

The class name can be the internal name (like FunctionalCI) of the display name in the current language used (like CI fonctionnel).

Displaying matching words

A menu allow to display some of the fields which have matched the requested pattern

On each returned object, you can request related objects:

extensions/combodo-fulltext-search_1_0.txt · Last modified: 2023/03/15 11:31 (external edit)
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