PeopleTools 8.53 – Secure Enterprise Search, SES and Search Framework

Prior to PeopleTools 8.53, search functionality worked by building search engine indexes using custom PeopleCode and Application Engine programs. Each PeopleSoft application used a unique method for creating and maintaining search artifacts like collections and indexes–all of which required search engine-specific calls, commands, syntax, and so on.

The PeopleSoft Search Framework consists of PeopleSoft components (pages and records provided by PeopleTools), which provide a centralized interface for configuring PeopleSoft integration with the search engine, creating search artifacts like search definitions, search categories, and building and maintaining search indexes. Currently the PeopleSoft Search Framework supports only Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) as the back-end search engine.

Some of the key features are:

• Search Administration interface provides a familiar PeopleSoft browser interface enabling you to: configure search engine connectivity, deploy search definitions, schedule index creation and maintenance, and run incremental index updates.
• Search Designer interface, provides a familiar PeopleSoft browser interface enabling you to: create search definitions, create search categories, define title and summary result display (similar to Google search results).
• Flexible security: indexes can be created with source-level security, document-level security, or no security. Oracle SES allows for fully authenticated and authorized search queries.
• Search Query API enabling rich display options, such as filtering.

PeopleSoft Search Framework Vs Verity Search Engine

If you are running a PeopleSoft application with a version 9.1x or earlier, you an continue to use Verity as a search engine. If you are running at least PeopleTools 8.52, you have the option of also implementing the PeopleSoft Search Framework. Verity and the SES-based PeopleSoft Search Framework can co-exist within a PeopleSoft implementation, however, the two search engines do not interact.

PeopleSoft Application Version 9.2 onwards, configuring the PeopleSoft Search Framework and installing and configuring Oracle SES is required. Using Verity is no longer supported beginning with PeopleSoft application versions 9.2.

PeopleSoft Search Framework Architecture

The following illustration depicts the PeopleSoft server architecture connected to Oracle SES using Integration Broker.

The PeopleSoft database stores the PeopleSoft queries that define the  search data as well as the search definition meta data. Oracle Secure Enterprise Search stores the deployed search definitions and performs the typical search engine tasks, such as building indexes, crawling for updates, maintaining indexes, and servicing end-user search requests.