More on OracleTextSearch deficiencies

I was so focussed on exploring multiple sort criteria with OracleTextSearch that it was pointed out to me afterwards that even a single sort criteria fails. Shonky stuff!

The MultiSort component was "fixed" in late 2009 to identify optimised fields and ignore the rest. That means it provides sorting on 5 fields only - date, title, ID, security and type. Considering there are typically just a few security groups and content types it's hardly worth using. Installing URM gives one more field. Whoopdie doo.

I'm sticking with Database.Fulltext search. Sure it's slower to rebuild and doesn't have fancy drilldown features - but it works the way it is supposed to.

OracleTextSearch: sorting by multiple fields = multiple problems

OracleTextSearch mangles the multi-sorting functionality of UCM search results. The MultiSort or SearchSortOptions components won't work, I don't know if there are newer versions that will. But the ability to sort on multiple fields is still possible, read on to figure out how to do it.

Tinkering with the search query

Sometimes the search query isn't enough. Sometimes the administrator needs to add a few restrictive clauses or maybe inject some SQL to tweak the results. Content Server is very careful about tidying up search strings which means that modifying search behaviour is not something that can be done with Idoc. But access points do exist that provide a safe way to unobtrusively alter the query.

Multilingual Websites

A few years ago I wrote a system that produced multilingual websites in UCM. I was asked about it recently so I thought I'd talk about the solution here.

Static Publish of Query String URLs & Dynamic Pages

The Site Studio Publisher (SSP) and the pre-11g versions (SSPU) are tools that take your virtual dynamic SiteStudio website and convert it into a bunch of fair-dinkum files. This does mean that all "dynamic" functionality is lost, including any query string variables in the URL. But there actually is a way for SSP to produce multiple pages from a URL query string.

The Secret to Unlimited Search Results

The Content Server search results can't go past the first 200 items. This frustrates users and developers. By comparison, Google reports millions of results. Why does UCM, with potentially millions of content items, stop at 200? The answer is that just because the interface stops, you don't have to as well.

Is SiteStudio dead?

Oracle have restructured their products and acquired Fatwire. Somewhere along the line they've decided to rename (or absorb?) the ECM suite into something called "WebCenter Content." Not sure where all this is heading but my guess is that it is probably the end of SiteStudio websites.

How to avoid "not so Ready to Replicate" conundrums

Chatting with Brett on the yahoo forums has turned up a solution to the not so Ready-to-Replicate problem I posted about previously. It turns out an undocumented setting can disable the R2R feature and allow you to selectively sync back to development servers.

Avoiding the workflow "contribution step" trap

Ever had a rejected content item you couldn't do anything with? Or maybe it was something you put in a contribution folder and then realised it was stuck there? UCM workflow has a "contribution step" trap you need to avoid.

Empty a metadata field at revision checkin

An issue that dogged me for ages was that metadata fields can't be reset to empty for a revision checkin if they already have something in them. For example, if a content item at revision one has some comments then the checkin form for revision two will display the same comments. There's no way to clear the field for the user. Even if they delete the comments and then submit, the comments reappear! The only way to get rid of them is to type something else. But there is a better way.

Thumbnail search in Content Server #2

Just a quick update to an older post Thumbnail search in Content Server where I talked about forcing the search template to show thumbnails. My tip was to add a parameter to the URL but this is a bit clumsy, the contributor will probably never do it. Let's do it for them!

Go to Configuration Manager and create a rule that is only activated on a "search" condition. Click on the Side Effects tab and enter the key=value pair. Now add the rule to your Profiles for images and presto! everyone's image search uses the thumbnail view.