Enterprise Search
Intro
Search icon in the shell bar
After entering a search term, users can trigger the search by pressing ENTER, by clicking the magnifier icon, or by selecting one of the suggestions. A search for All can be achieved by pressing ENTER in an empty search field or by using the * query.
If the search field is left empty, clicking the search icon closes the search field.
Search field in the shell bar
Type Selection
The search can be restricted to objects of a particular type.
This can be done before the search is triggered, either by using the type selector or by typing the object type into the search field and selecting the respective suggestion.
To filter a result list by object type, users can select the type tabs or the respective section in the filter panel.
Type selection using dropdown
Search in a specific object type (here: "Sales Orders")
Suggestions
When the user starts typing in the search field, suggestions appear. There are 3 main suggestion types:
- Type suggestions switch the type selector (for example, Search In: Sales Orders).
- App suggestions launch the app (for example, App Create Leave Request).
- Term suggestions execute a search with the respective terms (for example, SAP Walldorf)
Search suggestions
Result List
The result list is a ranked list of all matching items. Different object types can have different representations.
Apps are shown as tiles and can be launched.
Business objects are summarized in a few lines. Pressing the title link of an object shows a full-screen representation of that object, such as an object page or a document viewer. If additional summary attributes area available, clicking the down arrow on the right will show them. This will also reveal navigation shortcuts to apps that can handle the business object.
The tabs at the top of the result list allow users to filter by object type. The tabs are sorted by the number of hits – categories with most hits appear first.
If the results have been limited to a certain object type, additional actions appear in the upper right-hand corner. Here, users can change the sort order, or switch to a table representation with the option to show or hide specific columns.
Search results including apps represented as tiles
App search results only
Search results represented as a table
Personalized Search
This feature allows the system to track the user’s search behavior in order to personalize and improve future rankings for search results. Algorithms analyze the user’s behaviors and interests, and adapt accordingly to support the user by focusing on context-relevant information.
Users can switch the personalized search on or off in the User Menu under Settings -> User Profiling. They can also delete collected data with the Clear My History button.
Some of these features might not be available to the user, depending on the system configuration.
Personalized search in the "User Profiling" area of the "Settings" dialog
Filters
A filter icon in the top left-hand corner offers additional options for filtering the search results. When the user clicks the icon, a filter panel appears on the left-hand side. In this panel the user can change the object type, which may also be depicted as a hierarchy (depending on the system configuration).
Once the results have been limited to a certain object type, thus ensuring a homogeneous result set, result-specific filters are offered. Only meaningful filters are included. For example, if all results are for the same country, the country filter is not shown.
Up to 5 one-click options are available for each filter. You can show the selection options in a list, or visualize them in a bar chart or pie chart. Multiple selection is supported for all visualizations.
Once the filter panel has been closed, the applied filters are visible in an info bar above the result list. On the right of the info bar, all filters can be cleared without reopening the filter panel.
Filter Panel
Advanced Filters
In addition to the the one-click filters, the user can set more filters by choosing Show More or Show All Filters. This opens a filter dialog with a list of all the available filters on the left. The details for the selected filter show on the right.
The available options depend on the data type of the filter (text-based, numeric, date) and the configuration. For most filters, a list of filter conditions is shown, similar to the filter panel. For texts, this list can be filtered and sorted. For numbers and dates, the user can add custom ranges. There is also an option to enter variable conditions: Instead of picking items from a list, the user can specify advanced conditions like begins with.
Dialog for setting all available filters
Info bar for displaying the filters defined by the user
Configuration
Users can access their individual settings via User Menu > S ettings > User Profiling > Personalized Search.
System-wide configuration for the personalized search is done in the Configure Personalized Search app.
In search models[internal_only] (Wiki)[/internal_only], you can configure:
- Which attributes are searched in (including associations to other objects)
- Which attributes are displayed and in which order
- Which attributes are displayed as filters in the filter pane
- The importance of each attribute (for a proper search ranking)
- The semantics of each attribute (to select the proper matching/fuzzy algorithms)
Using SAP Fiori launchpad intents you can configure:
- What happens when the user clicks the title
- What actions are listed in expanded result list items
In the Define Synonyms app, you can configure the synonyms to be applied to each search.
In the Fine-Tune Ranking app, you can configure ranking factors and their influence.
Examples:
“products that are in stock are more important than others”
“new documents are more important”
“sales orders created by my team are more important”
Creation of Search Models
The display and behavior of the enterprise search is based on search models. Apply the following rules when creating search models.
- Implement the title of a search result as a link to the object page or an equivalent full screen representation of that particular business object.
- Align the title, subtitle, and object type with the corresponding object page. Displaying objects consistently makes them easier to scan.
- To help users recognize objects quickly, use images whenever they are available. However, don’t display indistinctive images or placeholder images.
- Include relevant attributes in the object preview. They can help users to distinguish between objects and answer common questions up front (such as a contact phone number).
- Do not show unimportant attributes or attributes that aren’t shown on the corresponding object page.
Hint: When choosing attributes, focus on attributes that are important during productive use. These can differ from attributes that seem most important during development. For example, master data attributes like “Created On” and “Created By” would not normally be relevant for the preview. - Use consistent attribute labels that are either identical or aligned (for example, “Team Type” vs. “Type” in the “Team” section of the object page).
- Align the attribute content, especially the display order of “text (ID)” attributes.
- Do not show unimportant attributes or attributes that aren’t shown on the corresponding object page.
- Make visible fields searchable (note that this may not be possible for all fields due to technical constraints).
- Include facets only if they are meaningful as filter criteria. Otherwise, avoid them.
For example, a facet for an ID would not make sense – each ID would return a single result, rather than a set of results.
Schematic layout of a result list item
Resources
Want to dive deeper? Follow the links below to find out more about how the search works.
Elements and Controls
- Launchpad Shell Bar (guidelines)
Implementation
- Developer Documentation (SAP Help Portal)
- Creating Search Models (SAP Help Portal)
- Ranking Business Objects (SAP Help Portal)
Visual Design
- No links.