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LearnCenter Search

LearnCenter Search enables you to provide a robust search mechanism for your end Users. Using this dynamic object, your Users will be able to search for and filter through content available in LearnCenter, using the keywords, AND, OR, and NOT phrases, and wild cards. Once search results are returned, they can also see what their status is in relation to the items in the results. For example, Users can see if they have started or completed any Learning Plans that are returned in their search results.

Any changes to items that are searchable are immediately added to a queue for processing. You can monitor the status of your changes in the Control Panel under Tools > Task Manager. Processing times will vary based on the number and type of changes requested.

You can add as many instances of the dynamic object to the page as you want or require. The illustration below depicts a LearnCenter page with multiple instances of the new dynamic object, some using custom header text. Notice that the search field can be added either to the Left Nav Bar or the main LearnCenter page.

Inserting the LearnCenter Search Dynamic Object

To insert this dynamic object, follow these steps. On any LearnCenter page:

Click in the management control icons section. The page you are viewing opens in Edit Mode.
Click to modify an existing area of the page or the Left Nav Bar.

or

Click Insert New Area Here, select Free-Form (Text and Graphics) from the Area Type drop-down list, and click Create.
Place your cursor anywhere on the page, and click . The Dynamic Object window opens.
Click next to LearnCenter in the Object Types panel.
Click LearnCenter Search.

A wizard opens. Use it to customize what LearnCenter items are included in the search results, how those results are presented to Users, and what filters are available to them to narrow the results.

(Optional) On the Search tab, change the header text that displays to Users in the Choose the header text to display field. The default text is "Search LearnCenter", but you may want this to read as "Search for Learning Plans", or "Find Courses", or some other wording of your choosing depending on what items you select for the search criteria.
Select one of the following for Display Search Area:

Vertically - to indicate the search box will display vertically next to the Search button.
Horizontally - to indicate the search box will display horizontally next to the Search button.

Select the Display Header Text check box if you want to display the header text you typed in a location other than the standard location (the default is selected, and above the search box).
Select one of the following:

Above the Search Box - to indicate you want to the header text to display above the search box. (Default)
Inside the Search Box - to indicate you want the header text to display inside the search box.
Next to the Search Box - to indicate you want the header text to display next to the search box.

The following example page demonstrates some of the possible layouts for this field.

Indicate what items Users can search for. Select the items you want and click Add, or click to move all items to the right hand box. The LearnCenter items currently available for this feature include:

Users - to include available Users in the search results. If you have activated User Cards, those become available when you select Users who are returned in search results. Only active Users with non-expired memberships can be found in search.
Courses - to include available Courses in the search results.ILT Sessions - to include available ILT Sessions in the search results.
Classes - to include available Classes in the search results.
Learning Plans - to include available Learning Plans in the search results.
Enrollments - to include available Enrollments in the search results.

Click Next. Use the Results tab to indicate the output attributes for the search results.
Indicate whether search keywords are initially highlighted in the results by selecting the Highlight search words in results check box.
Select the Show attribute labels when empty with the following text check box if you want to customize what displays when an attribute in the description section is empty. Type the text you want to display. For example, perhaps the search results contain items that are not mapped to a category. You could choose to display "N/A" or "Not Applicable" where Category displays in the description for those items. The example below shows a User that is not mapped to a Category. Since the check box was selected and "Not Applicable" was indicated as the text, the Categories attribute displays for this User.

If you do not select the Show attribute labels when empty with the following text check box, results with attributes that have no values do not display the attribute label at all. The example below shows the same User as the first illustration who is not mapped to a Category. Since the Category attribute has no value, and the check box was not selected in the dynamic object wizard, "Categories" does not display in the description for this User.

Select the Show ILT Location filter check box to include an ILT location filter on the LearnCenter Search dynamic object. This benefits your Users in that they can now look for ILT Sessions that are available in their work location, or within an acceptable traveling distance.
or
Clear the check box to hide this filter from Users. (Default)
Select the Allow Users to Hide/Show Result Descriptions check box if you want to give Users the ability to display or hide the search result descriptions. If you clear this check box, the descriptions display and Users cannot hide them. This check box is selected by default.
Select the appropriate check boxes for Display following Enrollments and ILT Sessions to indicate what Enrollments and ILT sessions you want filtered in the search results. The Past check box is cleared by default, which means past Enrollments will not display to Users unless you select the Past check box.

Indicate whether you want Users to have the ability to narrow their results using the Item Type and Category facets. By default, both of these facets are set to display. If you do not want to use one or both of these facets in your output, select a facet and click Delete, or simply click to move both facets to the left box.
Click Next to review a summary of your selections.

Click Return Selected to insert the dynamic object on the page.
On the WYSIWYG tool bar, click .
Click to review how your selections will appear to Users.

What Users See

Initially, Users will simply see a Search field in the area of the page in which you inserted the dynamic object. In the illustration below, there are multiple search fields using the new LearnCenter Search dynamic object. The field label can be changed in the dynamic content tag wizard by updating the text in the Choose the header text to display field, located on the Search tab. (See illustration in the previous section.)

By default the search object will expand to the size of the container it is placed in. The width of the Search field can be modified using HTML DIV tags. See Sizing the Search Dynamic Object Using HTML below for re-sizing instructions.

Users can then type keywords into the field and click Search. The page refreshes and results display on the page. Below is an example where a User typed the word "agile" in the Search LearnCenter field.

Various filtering facets appear on the Left Nav Bar, and search results display on the right. In the illustration above, notice that the item types returned in the results include an ILT Session, a Learning Plan, Courses, Enrollments, and Users, all of which contain "agile" in either the title or category displayed.

In the Filters section, Users can determine how many results they would like to see on a page by using the Pagination drop-down list. If ILT Sessions are search-able, the ILT Start Date date range fields also display in the Filters section.

Users can change the way items display, and what types of items display by using the check boxes under the Display section. Selecting Highlight search terms causes keywords to be highlighted in yellow. Clearing the check box turns off the yellow highlighting. Selecting the Display Descriptions check box causes the descriptions beneath the items to display. Clearing the check box hides the descriptions. The default settings for both of these check boxes can be determined in the dynamic object wizard.

Users can use the Narrow Results section to further specify what displays in the result list. Facet results show the five highest count items and then Users have the ability to click more… to see additional 20 options (25 total).

By default, all Item Types and all Categories are returned when a Users clicks Search. Selecting the Item Type or Category check boxes removes the unwanted types from the results. For example, perhaps Users want to display only Learning Plans that are categorized as Compliance. They can do this by selecting the Learning Plan and Compliance check boxes. All other items are removed from the search results.

Users can see their current status with regard to items that allow open enrollment or mapping (with or without approvals).

Clicking a result item's title enables Users to enroll in or drop the item, start the item, see related prerequisites, etc. depending on the item's settings.

Clicking the result names in the list result in the following:

Classes – launches the Class. (If Multiple Attempts is active, a Course will display the latest status for that User kept in the database. This is existing behavior.)
Courses - launches the Course
ILT Sessions – Opens the Session Information window.
Users - Displays a User's User Card if the User Card feature is active for this LearnCenter. Users can click the next to a username to send a message to that User. The Com System opens and you can create and send the message. Only active Users with non-expired memberships can be found in search.
Enrollments – Opens the Enrollment Information window. Users can Enroll or Dropthe Enrollment. If the Reviews feature is enabled, Users can view them or add their own reviews. Users can move and re-size the window as needed.
Learning Plans - Opens the Learning Plan details window.

If the Learning Plan allows self-mapping and a User is not mapped, the “Register for this Learning Plan” action is displayed. The Status indicates the User's status with regard to the Learning Plan. If the User has completed the Learning Plan, and a certificate was mapped, then the View Certificate icon displays. Users can click it to display their achieved certificate.If the Learning Plan has attachments, they will appear as links for Users to click on. The Learning Plan window can be moved and re-sized by end Users as needed.

If you used the Show ILT Location filter, Users will initially see all locations selected. They can then filter for the locations they want to see by moving the locations to the left box.

You can use a location description of "Not Specified" for those sessions that do not have location information associated with them. Users must select at least one location when this box displays. (See Physical Locations for details on the Locations functionality.)

How to Search for Keywords

Users can search for keywords in several ways.

Type a single word into the search field.
Search for exact phrases by using quotation marks. For example: "New Employee".
Use the AND operator to combine search words or terms. For example: Compliance AND Safety, “compliance courses” AND “required 2013”. Using this method returns results that include all the specified words or phrases. AND is the default operator if more than one term is entered.
Use the OR operator to search for a one or other combination of words and phrases. For example: Compliance OR Safety, “compliance courses” OR “required 2013”. Using this method returns results that include at least one of the specified words or phrases.
Use the NOT operator to exclude words and phrases from the search result. For example: Compliance NOT Safety, “compliance courses” NOT “required 2012”. This method returns results that do not include the specified word(s) or phrases.
Search using a Wild card asterisk (*). For example: 201*, “compliance *”. Using this method returns results that include the initial part of the word(s) or phrases. Note that:
Wild cards must be preceded by 2 or more characters.
Wild cards cannot be used at the beginning of a search term/phrase.
Wild cards cannot be used in between characters (i.e. h*m, M*soft).
Search using a question mark (?). The question mark represents any single character where an asterisk represents any group of characters, including no character.

Advanced search terms can be used in combination with one another. For example: “mandatory for comp*“ NOT Supervisors OR “Level1 Welders”.

Users can use parenthesis to group terms. For example: Compliance AND (Ethics OR Harassment). LearnCenter will retrieve results having the terms "Compliance" and "Ethics", as well as items with "Compliance" and "Harassment".

Search is not case sensitive.

The Search operators AND, OR and NOT must be in English for this first phase of the Search feature. The Search field is limited to 100 characters. For all other keywords, you can search using any supported language. The search term must be found in the item for the item be returned.

When using the search operators AND and NOT, tests are performed against each part of a result (i.e. name, description, standard and custom fields) to see if they meet the search criteria entered. If each part of a result passes the test, the result will be included or excluded based on the operator used. If one part of the result fails the test to match the search criteria, then a User may see results they would not expect to see.

How LearnCenter Searches Finds Results

The Search index includes an item’s name,description, all custom fields, and certain standard fields (see the table below for specifics). Search results with matches in name and description will rank higher in the results than those without name or description matches. It is possible for an item to be returned in the search results, but not have any highlighted terms, because the match was on an attribute or element that isn't displayed in the search result description.

Relevancy ranking is determined based on where the search term is found:

Name – High
Description – Medium
Keywords (Standard and custom fields) - Normal

The results will include items made available in the Global Search functionality. (See Global Search for details about this existing feature.)

Standard Fields Included in the Search Index

The following standard fields can cause an item to display in search results if their values match the entered search terms.

Item Type	Searched Standard Field
Courses	Name
	Description
	Author
	Series Name
	Series Number
	Course Level
	Publisher
	Course Number

Classes	Name
	Description
	Author
	Series Name
	Series Number
	Course Level
	Publisher
	Course Number

Users	Username
	First Name
	Last Name
	Street1
	Street2
	City
	State
	Postal Code
	Country
	Day Phone
	Evening Phone
	Pager
	Interactive Phone
	Mobile Phone
	Fax
	Email
	Email2
	SSN
	Gender
	Nickname
	Spouse Name
	Company
	Job Title
	Department
	Manager Name
	Office
	Profession

Enrollments	Name
	Description

ILT Sessions	Name
	Description
	Author
	Series Name
	Series Number
	Course Level
	Publisher
	Course Number
	Start Date

Learning Plans	Name
	Description

Sizing the Search Dynamic Object Using HTML

The LearnCenter Search dynamic object automatically sizes based on the size of the area in which it was placed. For example, if you place it in the Left Nav Bar, it will look similar to the following illustration:

When placed on a page area, the dynamic object will size to the page, similar to the following illustration.

You can control the size of the LearnCenter Search dynamic object by placing it in a DIV tag. To do this, follow these steps:

Place the dynamic object on the LearnCenter page or the Left Nav Bar.
Click HTML at the bottom of the WYSIWYG Editor. The HTML code for the page displays.
Locate the <IMG> tag that represents the LearnCenter Search dynamic object. The alt attribute will say “Display Search.”
At the end of the <img> tag and add the following:

<div style="width: 600px">

(Replace 600px with what is appropriate for your page.)
Place your cursor at the beginning of the <IMG> tag and type the following:

</div>

When you are done, it should look something like the following:

Click , and then click to preview the dynamic object. The dynamic object is re-sized.

Make adjustments to the size if necessary by repeating the steps above.

Excluding Items from Search

You have the ability to exclude specific search-able items from the search results.

This enables you to control what items can be returned as results. By default, all search-able items are included in the search results. You can exclude specific items from the search results by clearing the Include in LearnCenter Search check box on the pages where you add or edit the properties of an item, such as:

Session Information page
Add Enrollment or Edit Enrollment pages
Add New Course or Edit Course pages
Course or Class Properties (Under More Information section)
User Properties page
Add Learning Plans or Edit Learning Plans (Options tab)

Whether or not an item is search-able is only visible to Admins on the above mentioned Control Panel pages. When you clear the check box for an item, it cannot be found in any LearnCenter Search dynamic object, regardless of any Global Search Settings.