Global Search (Training) - Enhanced Search Default Preference

Prior to this enhancement, the Global Search within the Training tab was set to Traditional Search which uses SQL to return results. The SQL has a longer processing time for large data sets, and it is not as scalable as data grows over time.

With this enhancement, the default preference for Global Search (Training) is set to Enhanced Search rather than Traditional Search across all portals. Apart from using the Enhanced Search by default, the administrators can change the search engine preference to Traditional Search.

This functionality was released in Stage environments June 29. It may take up to seven days from June 29 for this change to take effect.

No user interface (UI) changes has been made and no configuration is required on the part of the administrator. The administrators can still access the Search Engine preferences so that they can switch back to Traditional Search (SQL) whenever necessary. To access this preference, go to Preferences > Search Preferences > Training > Scroll to Search Engine.

How Does this Enhancement Benefit My Organization?

The Enhanced Search is a more effective, scalable, and result-driven way to power a search framework. Being the default framework for Global Search, it provides a consistent, unified experience for end users and allows for better and faster searches, especially in cases where large data sets are involved.

Considerations

  • With Enhanced Search enabled by default, the Title, Keywords, and Description filters are combined into one text field to enter search queries. To use the Title, Keywords, and Description filters independently, enable Traditional Search. The rest of the filters in Global Search (Training) remain unchanged and require no further action from the administrator to be able to use them.
  • A newly created or updated Learning Object (LO) is updated within 15 minutes or less in the Enhanced Search results, but with few exceptions, which are as follows:
    • In case the LO is a part of a large data ingestion, or if a bulk update is completed, then the time for the update to be reflected in Enhanced Search results may depend on the amount or the size of the update.
    • In case the LO is created or updated at the same time a data set is updated, then the LO may take more than 15 minutes to be available in the Enhanced Search results.
  • All filters operate using an 'AND' operation when Enhanced Search is enabled. This includes Custom Fields, which uses an 'OR' operation when Traditional Search is enabled.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Yes. Administrators can change the global search framework from Enhanced Search to Traditional Search if necessary. This can be done by using the search preference.

The best way to confirm if your portal has been updated is to check the Search Preferences for your portal.

A: Yes. Enhanced Search and Traditional Search use different frameworks to produce search results. Therefore, search results may vary when using one framework versus another.

Search results are weighted using a relevancy scoring system. For more information regarding Enhanced Search Scoring and Search Tokenization, please see Learning Search vs. Traditional Search.

Yes. If you are using the results from Global Search (Training) to populate results from other pages of the application, the results may be updated to use Enhanced Search. If you are not sure what solution your portal uses, we recommend testing the updated results in stage portals or other lower environments.

Implementation

This enhancement is automatically enabled for all organizations.

Upon release, it may take up to 7 days for the update to be present in stage portals and production portals.

This functionality was released in Stage environments June 29. It may take up to seven days from June 29 for this change to take effect.

Permissions

The following existing permissions apply to this functionality:

PERMISSION NAME PERMISSION DESCRIPTION CATEGORY
Global Search - Training Grants ability to search for training via Global Search. This permission also grants users the ability to view Subjects in Learner Home. If this permission is constrained to a specific OU, then that constraint is automatically applied within Global Search, including search filters and search results. This is an end user permission. The availability of this permission is controlled by a backend setting. Learning
Global Search Preferences - Manage Grants ability to configure Global Search Preferences. This is an administrator permission. The availability of this permission is controlled by a backend setting. This permission can be constrained by OU and User's OU. By default, this permission is constrained to the organization. Core Administration