EnterpriseSearch

With the help of EnterpriseSearch, all editorial content can be conveniently searched through, no matter whether it is an HTML page, an Office document or a PDF you are looking for.

By using the powerful filter options, you also very quickly limit large results sets to the relevant hits. This enables far more efficient locating of the relevant documents than is the case with standard full text searches.

EnterpriseSearch supports all search technology requirements relevant in the complex corporate environment.

• Convenient search interface including fast filter options
• Personaliszed search results for protected documents
• Linking with further, non-FirstSpirit™ sources
• Indexing of over 300 file formats
• Direct updating of the search index following content changes in FirstSpirit™

The EnterpriseSearch module is technically based on the search technology of our partner Exalead. Exalead provides high-end search solutions for use in companies.

The outstanding functions of the Exalead technology are:

• Automatic classification of search results for further filtering
• Independent detection of entities such as persons, locations or period of time
• Automatic language recognition and spelling correction for search queries
• Indexing of different sources such as web pages, file systems, directories (LDAP, Active Directory), mail servers, relational databases or Lotus Notes
• Reading out Office documents, OpenOffice documents, PDF, RTF, XML, pictures, audio and video files
• Multi-platform support (32 and 64 bit)
• Extreme scalability for high-traffic web pages

The topics of security and document protection play a central role in the implementation of search engine concepts, especially in intranet and extranet scenarios.

To this end, EnterpriseSearch provides a consistent security concepts, which closely links the personalization component to the search technology.

Coupling the FirstSpirit™ Personalization module with the security concept of the Exalead search engine provides a range of advantages:

• Single sign-on (SSO) between the website and the integrated search
• Personalized search results lists based on the editorially defined permissions
• Extension of personalization to include external information sources too, for example, network drives

With this approach, a consistent security concept is ensured in the search engine, for all documents and pages.

EnterpriseSearch had various updating strategies. An instant update function is available for all content generated directly from FirstSpirit™. Following generation of the content by the FirstSpirit™ system, in a second step the relevant data is transferred directly to the search server. The search index is therefore up to date immediately after the data transfer.

Highlights:

• Updating of the search index immediately after each website update
• "Crawling" the website is no longer necessary
• Support for complete and partial updates from FirstSpirit™
• Constantly up-to-date search index, even for very large websites
• Automatic handover of metadata such as language or personalization information

An outstanding feature of the EnterpriseSearch is the open architecture of this solution. The module not only enables searching within FirstSpirit™ content, but is explicitly designed for openness and expandability.

In addition to its standard use for searching in FirstSpirit™ content, a range of other systems can also be directly linked to EnterpriseSearch. Examples of these are:

• Any non-FirstSpirit™ websites (over HTTP/HTTPS)
• File system / network drives (Windows and Unix)
• LDAP server
• Microsoft Active Directory server
• Mail server: Exchange and Lotus Notes
• Relational databases (Oracle, DB2, MS SQL server, Informix, Sybase)

Furthermore, it is also possible to develop your own connectors, which extend the search to systems not yet supported.