Search Solution Basics

Choose the Right Search Solution

• Search, The Salesforce Way
  • Search is the number 1 most-used Salesforce feature
  • All records are stored as data fields in the org’s database - the search engine makes a copy of the data and breaks up the content into smaller pieces called tokens that are stored in the search index, along with a link back to the original record
  • Search index and tokens allow certain advanced features like spell correction, nicknames, lemmatization, and synonym groups
  • Out-of-the-box Salesforce search works for most use cases, but in general, orgs will need a custom search solution when the org uses a custom UI instead of the standard Salesforce UI
    • Custom UI examples: customer-facing knowledge base or internal product data site for employees
  • This module focuses on creating a custom search and assumes the org has invested in such a custom UI, therefore needing the custom search solution
• Connect to Search with APIs
  • Two main APIs:
    • Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL): use when you know where the data resides (which object and fields), and want to:
      • Retrieve data from a single object or from multiple objects that are related to one another.
      • Count the number of records that meet specified criteria.
      • Sort results as part of the query.
      • Retrieve data from number, date, or checkbox fields.
    • Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL): use when you don’t know where the data resides, and want to:
      • Retrieve data for a specific term that you know exists within a field. Because SOSL can tokenize multiple terms within a field and build a search index from this, SOSL searches are faster and can return more relevant results.
      • Retrieve multiple objects and fields efficiently, and the objects might or might not be related to one another.
      • Retrieve data for a particular division in an organization using the divisions feature, and you want to find it in the most efficient way possible.
  • Salesforce Federated Search is a way for users to access records stored outside of Salesforce that users access for their jobs
    • Makes the global search box an external search engine
    • Built using the OpenSearch specification, so any search engine that conforms to that industry standard can be used
• Send Queries with Protocols
  • Search queries need to be sent using an API protocol like REST, SOAP, or Apex
  • We use queries with SOQL, and searches with SOSL
  • Query (REST) and query() (SOAP): Executes a SOQL query against the specified object and returns data that matches the specified criteria
  • Search (REST) and search() (SOAP): Executes a SOSL text string search against your org’s data
    
    
• Good time for a customized search solution? Developing an external knowledge base for user support
• Differentiates SOSL from SOQL? Syntax, SOSL searches the search index instead of org database, SOSL searches more efficiently when you don’t know the object
• SOSL works with: REST, SOAP, and Apex

Build Search for Common Use Cases

• Example: Task of creating a customer-facing online knowledge base and an internal product website for employees of a company
  • All data comes from the company Salesforce org
• Search Within a Single Object - one record type only
  • To search within a single object using SOSL, specify the object in the request
  • Example below is an example where marketing has requested a way to search only campaigns on the internal site

FIND {term} RETURNING ObjectTypeName
FIND {march 2016 email} RETURNING Campaign

• Search Within Multiple Objects
  • Imagine the company wants to create a way for customers to search multiple types of information - use multiple object search - multiple record types
    • Could return videos, articles, questions, PDFs, etc

FIND {term} RETURNING ObjectTypeName1, ObjectTypeName2, ObjectTypeNameYouGetTheIdea
FIND {recycled materials} RETURNING Product2, ContentVersion, FeedItem

• Search Within Custom Objects
  • Just add the __c suffix

FIND {pink hi\-top} RETURNING Merchandise__c

• SOQL would not have been the ideal way to search for the preceding examples

Optimize Search Results

• Create Efficient Text Searches
  • Searches can be expensive - two basic strategies to make them more efficient:
    1. Limit which data you’re searching through
    2. Limit which data you’re returning
  • To limit which data is searched, use IN SearchGroup - you can search for name, email, phone, sidebar, or all fields

FIND {[email protected]} IN EMAIL FIELDS RETURNING Contact

• If there are many records returned, based to limit it using the RETURNING FieldSpec:
  • ObjectTypeName: Specifies the object to return.
  • FieldList: Specifies the fields to return.
  • ORDER By: Specifies which fields to order the results by. You can also specify ascending or descending order.
  • LIMIT n: Sets the maximum number of records returned for the given object.
  • OFFSET n: Sets the starting row offset into the result set returned by your query.
  • Examples:

FIND {Cloud Kicks} RETURNING Account
FIND {Cloud Kicks} RETURNING Account(Name, Industry)
FIND {Cloud Kicks} RETURNING Account (Name, Industry ORDER BY Name)
FIND {Cloud Kicks} RETURNING Account (Name, Industry ORDER BY Name LIMIT 10)
FIND {Cloud Kicks} RETURNING Account (Name, Industry ORDER BY Name LIMIT 10 OFFSET 25)

• WITH statements fielter records by certain predefined fields, which returns fewer results and improves performance. A few types:
  • WITH DIVISION, WITH DATA CATEGORY, WITH NETWORK, WITH PRICEBOOK, etc
  • Examples:

FIND {Cloud Kicks} RETURNING Account (Name, Industry)
    WITH DIVISION = 'Global'

FIND {race} RETURNING KnowledgeArticleVersion
    (Id, Title WHERE PublishStatus='online' and language='en_US')
    WITH DATA CATEGORY Location__c AT America__c

FIND {first place} RETURNING User (Id, Name),
FeedItem (id, ParentId WHERE CreatedDate = THIS_YEAR Order by CreatedDate DESC)
WITH NETWORK = '00000000000001'

Find {shoe} RETURNING Product2 WITH PricebookId = '01sxx0000002MffAAE'

• SOQL works similarly to SOSL:

• Display Suggested Results
  • You can use APIs so that suggestions appear as the user types into the search bar
  • Suggestions return records that have a title that matches what the user is typing
  • Here are the go-to REST resources - each has a similar syntax and parameters:
    • Search Suggested Records: returns a list of suggested records whose names match the user’s search string - provides a shortcut to relevant records before performing a full search
    • Search Suggested Article Title Matches: returns a list of Salesforce Knowledge articles whose titles match the user’s search
    • SObject Suggest Articles for Case: returns a list of suggested Salesforce Knowledge articles for a case

/vXX.X/search/suggestTitleMatches?q=search string&language=article language&publishStatus=article publication status

/vXX.X/search/suggestTitleMatches?q=race+tips&language=en_US&publishStatus=Online

JSON response:

{
  "autoSuggestResults" : [ {
    "attributes" : {
    "type" : "KnowledgeArticleVersion",
    "url" : "/services/data/v30.0/sobjects/KnowledgeArticleVersion/ka0D00000004CcQ"
    },
  "Id" : "ka0D00000004CcQ",
  "UrlName" : "tips-for-your-first-trail-race",
  "Title" : "race tips",
  "KnowledgeArticleId" : "kA0D00000004Cfz",
  "isMasterLanguage" : "1",
  } ],
  "hasMoreResults" : false
}

• Work with Admins
  • Working with admins is kdey for setting up and optimizing synonym groups, which are words or phrases that are treated equally in searches
    • Ex: USB, thumb drive, flash stick, memory stick
    • Access via: Setup > Quick Find > “Synonyms” > Custom Synonym Groups
  • Promoted Search Terms related list can be used to make some articles appear higher on the search results