Keyword search - inconsistent behaviour

[siowfong_chen]

Hi! I have read up on the function of keyword search. However, I need clarification of a case involving searching by number. E.g. for a part number field with this value A-9H8D(001)(600)(0-C), we can successfully do a keyword search with partial value entered such as 600. However, for a part number field with value 1ABC69999ABC, a keyword search on 699999 will not return anything. I would expect the system to return the partial value I enter here. Does anyone has an explanation for this?

Any pointer will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

SF

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Are you using the free form search, just use contains option.

Keyword search

Fields enabled for keyword search might impact system performance and add memory overhead to the system. Use keyword search for a field if the set of unique words for all records in the field is fewer, or relatively fewer to the total number of records.

Examples: A description field is an example of a field you want to keyword, even though the total number of words for all records will be large, the number of distinct words will be small because they are most likely all words from the dictionary. A part number field is an example of a field you should not keyword because it is likely to contain a different value for every record.

Regards,

Abhishek

[siowfong_chen · Accepted solution]

Hi! I am use the Keyword field for searching. My problem is not performance. What I want to find out is whether the system is able to search of partial word in between the full word. I understand it is smart to find other related words but I am just using the partial word / number and cannot find the item. However, it does work in the other example I provided. So, I am not sure whether it is a bug at all or whether the value I enter does not meet some of the criteria in MDM.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Keyword search needs an exact word, it is not working for partial words.

Try has space between words, partial words might work.

Regards,

Abhishek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Siow,

When you do keyword search u get one column to select operator whcih can have option Progressive,Keyword Contains.......etc.

If you select progressive u need to put *6999 to get the result .

But if you dont want to select star u should opt for Keyword contains then type 6999 or 69 or 6 whaterver you will get the result.

Regards,

Neethu Joy

Edited by: Neethu joy on Jan 12, 2012 7:07 AM

Edited by: Neethu joy on Jan 12, 2012 7:07 AM

Edited by: Neethu joy on Jan 12, 2012 7:56 AM

[siowfong_chen]

Hello all, after going through all your answers, I found that I have not stated one important fact. I am running the search from SRM. So, the users only have Keyword field for searching. It seems rather strange to me that some partial words returns some results whereas others don't and hence my question. Am I missing anything here?

Regards

SF

[Former Member]

Hi Siow,

As you are performaing Keyword search from a SRM portal.It must be executing the query through MDM API.

And in that some operator must be fixed either starts with or contains or progressive.

In MDS.ini file there is a parameter Valid Keyword Chars which by default is set to

Valid Keyword Chars=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789

That is anything other than this will be considered as separator.

To get better result u can use wild card for your search '*'.

To understand Keyword Serach go through Part 2 page 58 of the document below:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nwmdm71/helpdata/en/4b/72b8aaa42301bae10000000a42189b/MDMDataManager71.p...

And also check the operator which is set in the function calling API

Regards,

Neethu Joy

[Former Member]

Hi,

The logic that you were able to search numeric string when you had entered the Brackets in between should be that system recognize numeric/text in Brackets as different strings. So when you searched for it, you were able to search but the same did not happen after you removed braces as system could not identify the partial string from the word.

For searching the partial characters you need to play with Operator Column in MDM Free Form Search.

As explained by Neethu Joy, You can make use of Column Operator in the MDM Free Form Search Grid.

If you choose "Progressive" then you need to use Wild card character * as the prefix e.g. *6999. This means that it will search for all the entries which contains 6999 in them.

Or else you can use operator "Contains" and then enter desired value 6999. It will also fetch you the desired results. However it will be a little slow in performance.

But as advised by Abhishek, it is not recommended to Keyword a field of type Part Number as it will be having numerous unique values and hence will affect performance.

Thanks and Regards,

Ankush Bhardwaj