You can perform searches using keywords that may be part of an item number, item catalog category, manufacturer, manufacturer part number, short description or long description. Keyword searches enable you to search using any or all keywords. You can enter additional keywords to be excluded from a search. For example, the keyword search for "SRAM" may return results that include all items that have "SRAM" in the item name, description, or an attribute value. A Wildcard search enables you to enter the percent (%) sign before and/or after a keyword. For example, a search using "mo%" may return "Monitor" and "Mouse," but a search using "mon%" would return "Monitor." A Fuzzy Search enables you to look for records that closely resemble or sound like your word(s), but are spelled differently. For example, a search for "telefone."

Keyword search options include:

• Exact match

  Enter search criteria for a specific word.

• Word positioning

  Search using a particular phrase such as "optical sensors relay," or search for words near each other, such as "optical NEAR relay."

• Inexact match

  Search for words that sound like your word to account for common spelling and typing errors.

• Intelligent match

  Search for an item by entering a word that is about something like a theme--for example searching by the word 'Car' can result in items such as Convertibles, Coupes, and Sedans without having the word car in the item name. You may also ignore the noise words such as 'the', 'of'. A default list of noise words (a stop list) is supplied for each European Language.

• Non-alphanumeric characters

  You may choose to search with '-' (or other non-alphanumeric characters) as part of the item name such as AS-18947.

• Boolean combinations

  Combine terms described above using the operators: AND, OR, and NOT.

• Stemming search

  Search for relevant items. For example, entering the word "pen" returns results that include items like pens and pencils.

The system also enables you to search for items based on item revision attribute values. For example, if the horsepower of an engine has changed from 200 hp to 220 hp between revisions A and B, searching for an item revision with the horsepower attribute value of 220, will return only revision B.

   To perform a simple item search:

1. On the Simple Search page, enter as many keywords as possible in the Keyword Search field. For example, entering "CRT Color Monitor" would return more relevant results than simply entering "Monitor." To specify that the search uses all the keywords entered, select Match all word(s) (AND). To specify that the search use any of the keywords entered, select Match any word(s) (OR).

2. To exclude a keyword from the search, enter it in the Without Keyword(s) field. For example, entering the keywords "Flat LCD Monitor" without the keyword "black " returns all "Flat LCD Monitors" that are not black.

3. Click Search.

   • Enter % (wildcard) before and/or after a keyword to perform a wildcard search. For example, a search for "mo%" returns Mouse and Monitor; a search for mon% returns Monitor.

   • Include "$" before the item name to perform a stemming search. This indicates that you want to search for items whose spelling is derived, or stems from the keyword. For example, a search on the keyword "$contract" could return: "contract," "contracts," "contracted," and "contracting."

   • Include "?" before the item name to perform a fuzzy search. This indicates that you want to search for items whose spelling is close to the actual item for which you are performing the search. The search engine looks for records that closely resemble the words you have entered, but that are spelled differently. The search returns results that have items with that term in either its name or description. Hence, entering the keyword "?telefone" also would return "telephone."

   • Simple Search is case-insensitive.

   As mentioned above, Item simple search supports wildcard, fuzzy and stemming search. However these different types of search are supported only in certain languages. The following table summarizes the search features and the supported languages.

   Language	Wildcard (%)	Fuzzy (?)	Stemming ($)
   English	Yes	Yes	Yes
   German	Yes	Yes	Yes
   Japanese	No	Yes	No
   French	Yes	Yes	Yes
   Spanish	Yes	Yes	Yes
   Italian	Yes	Yes	Yes
   Dutch	Yes	Yes	Yes
   Portuguese	Yes	Yes	No
   Korean	Yes	No	No
   Simplified Chinese	No	No	No
   Traditional Chinese	No	No	No
   Danish	Yes	No	No
   Swedish	Yes	No	No
   Finnish	Yes	No	No

   To perform an advanced search:

Note the following tips and restrictions before conducting an advanced search:

• Providing values for the indexed attributes improves performance during the search.

• If no search criteria template is used, you must add your own criteria to be used for the search.

• If no display format template is used, the following columns will be the default for your search results: Item, Item Catalog Category, Description, and Item Revision.

• All Advanced Search operators are case-sensitive, except for the operator "contains".

1. On the Advanced Search page, select an Item Catalog Category and click Go. This determines the search criteria templates that are available to use for this particular search.

   Note: You are not required to search by or select a catalog category. If you do not, the default system search criteria template appears.

   You can also optionally search by:

   • Alternate Catalog

   • Alternate Category

   • Alternate Category Description

   • Organization

   • Revision

   To search by item revision specific attributes, select the type of Revision on which to base the search. Following are the types of revisions available:

   • All

     Searches for all (past, current and future) revisions.

   • Latest

     Searches for the most current effective revisions that are not yet implemented.

   • Production

     Searches for the revisions that are currently implemented.

   Note: Click Add to add another row where you can enter an additional Alternate Catalog/Category/Description combination. If you search using an Alternate Catalog/Category/Description combination and use the default display format, then the display format includes Alternate Catalog/Category/Description columns.

2. Select a search criteria, add or delete attributes and enter values to define your parametric search. You must include at least one indexed attribute in your search. You can select and preview a display format for the search results.

   Note: For details about how to use search criteria and display formats to assist in your advanced search, see Managing Search Criteria and Managing Display Formats.

3. Click Search.

   The Search Results page appears.

4. In the Search Results page, you can choose to view specific item information within a show/hide region for each item. To activate the show/hide region, select the Details field drop-down list, then select the AML, Manufacturer Part Numbers, or an attribute group to view in the show/hide region.

   Tip: If you select a multi-row attribute group in the Details field, then a Show Matched Rows check box appears. If you searched on a multi-row attribute field value, then check this box to view only the multi-row attribute values that match your search.

   To perform an advanced search using an API:

Oracle provides a search API for use in code customizations. You can customize the API to meet your needs. Your database administrator can invoke the API from the back end.

1. From the Integrated SOA Gateway responsibility, select the Integration Repository link.

2. In the View By field, select Product Family.

3. Expand the Product Lifecycle Management folder.

4. Expand the Advanced Product Catalog folder.

5. Select the Catalog Item link.

6. In the Name column, search for, then select, the Item Search Public API link.

   Use one or more of the following APIs included in the Item Search Public API interface:

   • Add Criterion (Internal Name = addCriterionToCriteriaTemplate): Enables you to add a new criterion to an existing search criteria template.

   • Get Criteria Template List (Internal Name = getCriteriaTemplates): Retrieves a list of search criteria templates associated with the specified Item Catalog Category and its parent hierarchy, for the current user. The criteria template objects returned by this API are passed to the "Item Advanced Search" API. The user can then specify values and operators for the criteria in the criteria template or add new criteria to the template using the "Add Criterion" API.

   • Get Default Result Format (Internal Name = getDefaultCriteriaTemplate): This API returns the display format designated as the default for the specified Item Catalog Category and its parents. The system administrator or a user can designate a specific Display Format as the default format for an Item Catalog Category. If no format is designated for the specific Item Catalog Category, the first designated format from the parent hierarchy is returned. The result format object returned by this API can be passed to the "Item Advanced Search" API.

   • Get Result Format List (Internal Name = getResultFormats): This API retrieves a list of Result Formats associated with the specified Item Catalog Category and its parent hierarchy for the current user. The Result Format objects returned by this API can be passed to the "Item Advanced Search" API.

   • Item Advanced Search (Internal Name = searchItems): This API retrieves the items that match the criteria specified in the Criteria Template object. The items are returned as an executed OAViewObject. The list of attributes in the result set depends on the Result Format object passed to the API. The functionality provided by this API matches the Item Advanced Search functionality in the application. For each attribute in the result format, a corresponding EgoResultColumnInformation is returned. This object contains the view object attribute name that holds the value for the result format attribute.

   • Item Simple Search (Internal Name = searchItems): This API retrieves items that match the specified keywords. If the Item Text index is not built on the instance, then items whose number or description start with the specified keyword are returned. If the index is built, then items containing the specified keywords within the item number, description, long description, item catalog category or manufacturer part numbers are matched. The items are returned as an executed OAViewObject. The list of attributes in the result set depends on the Result Format object passed to the API. The functionality provided by this API matches the Item Simple Search functionality in the application. For each attribute in the result format, a corresponding EgoResultColumnInformation object is returned. This object contains the view object attribute name that holds the value for the result format attribute.

   To perform actions on items in the Search Results page:

You can select items and perform the following actions:

• create a new item request

• add items to a new catalog category

• add items to an existing catalog category

• generate a report

• create a change order, change request, or issue

• change the lifecycle

• change the item catalog category

• compare items

• add to the Favorites list

• export all items in the category to a spreadsheet

1. Complete the steps in To perform a simple item search or To perform an advanced search above, then select one or more items.

To export all items to a spreadsheet

2. Click Export All Items to export all items in the category to a spreadsheet.

To perform all other actions

3. In the Select Items field, select one of the following actions, then click Go.

   • Create New Item Request. See: Creating New Item Requests

     Note: You can only create new item requests for items with an Approval Status of "Not Submitted For Approval" or "Rejected".

   • Add to Existing Catalog Category. See: Assigning an Item to a Category

   • Add to New Catalog Category. See: Assigning an Item to a Category

   • Generate Report. See: Generating Reports

   • Create Change Order. See: Creating Change Orders

   • Create Change Request. See: Creating Change Requests

   • Create Issue. See: Creating Issues

   • Change Lifecycle. See: Defining Change Policies

   • Change Item Catalog Category. See: Changing an Existing Item's Item Catalog Category

   • Compare

     You can compare attributes of two or more items by selecting them and then selecting Compare from the Action menu. Each item's attributes will be listed side-by-side in a table. Select each attribute group individually.

   • Add to Favorites. See: Managing Favorite Items