Building IR keys

Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

Applies to User Roles:

System Administrator

Define IR keys using the standard Database Dictionary utility in Service Manager. IR keys are composed of one or more array or scalar text fields. IR keys that combine array and scalar fields should define an array field as the first element of the key.

Use only text fields in an IR key. A text field is an array or scalar field that contains arbitrary information that not used for traditional queries. For example, the device file contains a scalar field called description. This field contains descriptive text about a device, such as:

Does not support the new drawing package.

This modem needs ventilation on the top and sides.

The assignment file contains an array field called operators. The operators array contains the exact login name of Service Manager operators, and is not a good candidate for an IR key since IR searches are relevance searches.

Follow these rules when defining IR keys:

If a query contains a field that is part of an IR key, Service Manager always performs an IR search. IR Expert selects and presents records based upon relevance.

If a query contains a field that is part of an IR key, your sort criteria are honored. IR queries always sort by relevance.

You can combine IR queries with traditional queries to specifically limit the answer set.

Related topics