Setup a new higher education search
| This guide applies to the Squiz Experience Cloud version of Funnelback for higher education. See the v15.x Funnelback for higher education documentation for earlier releases. |
A new higher education search can be setup using a web-based setup tool. This tool enables a Funnelback administration user to create a new higher education search from the Funnelback for higher education templates. The tool:
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Creates all the data sources for higher education search.
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Creates a search package that combines the data sources.
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Creates the results pages for the higher education search.
Before you start:
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Ensure you have a valid Funnelback administration console account in the Squiz Experience Cloud or API token.
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Ensure that you know the client name and ID for the owner of the search that will be created.
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Have a list of all of the data sources that will be required for the higher education search (along with the appropriate data source types).
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Have a valid Squiz GitLab access token with access rights to the higher education package repositories.
| The higher education deployment tool is currently only available to internal Squiz implementers that are creating higher education search for the Squiz Experience Cloud. To use this tool requires a suitable Funnelback administration interface user account or API token within the Squiz Experience Cloud. |
Step 1 - Define the customer that owns the search
The first screen in the setup process requires a client ID to be set. This will normally be an existing client from the target SXC server. The tool provides options to use:
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the client of the current user account - use this if you are creating the higher education search for yourself
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a client that exists within the SXC environment - use this to select an existing client that the search will be assigned to.
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create a new client - use this to setup a new client within the SXC, then assign the search to this client.
Click the Save button when you are finished.
Step 2 - Select the vertical product
The next step is to choose the higher education option from the vertical product menu. This means that the higher education templates will be applied when creating the search.
Click the Save button when you are finished.
Step 3 - Define the data sources
This step defines each of the data sources that will make up the higher education search.
Repeat this step for each data source that should be included in the higher education search.
The available data sources are listed below. The default data source type is listed in the central column and should be set to an appropriate data source for the content that is being indexed. The social media and website data sources types are unlikely to change but you may need to change the data source type for the courses, events and people content as these are occasionally sourced from database or API driven sources.
| Events, people and course data are commonly sourced from XML or JSON data that is available from a web accessible URL. For these you should use a web data source type (this indicates the web crawler will be used to fetch the XML or JSON data files). |
| Template source | Default data source type | Description |
|---|---|---|
Higher education courses |
web |
Courses data source |
Higher education events |
web |
Events data source |
Higher education people |
web |
People data source |
Higher education web |
web |
Website data source |
Higher education Facebook |
Facebook data source |
|
Higher education Instagram |
Custom |
Instagram data source |
Higher education Twitter |
Twitter data source |
|
Higher education YouTube |
YouTube |
YouTube data source |
To define a data source the following properties need to be set:
- Data source name
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This is a human-readable name that will be assigned to the data source. (e.g. FBU websites)
- Data source identifier
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This is the internal ID used to identify the data source. The identifier supplied must be unique and is auto-prefixed with
<CLIENT-ID>~ds-. - Template source
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Choose the appropriate template from the drop down menu. This will apply a set of default metadata mappings as well as template files for formatting the specified content type.
- Advanced settings
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This will be set to the default data source type. Change this to a different data source type if the default is not suitable. (see the notes above)
Click the Save button when you are finished.
Step 4 - Define the search package and UI
The user interface box is used to define the search package for the higher education search.
To define the search package enter the following information:
- User interface full name
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This is a human-readable name that will be assigned to the data source. It will also be used to setup a results page within the search package.
- User interface name
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This is the internal ID used to identify the search package. The identifier supplied must be unique and is auto-prefixed with
<CLIENT-ID>~sp-. - Data sources
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A list of check boxes with data source names will be listed beneath the user interface name field. These are used to define which data sources should be included in the search delivered via the user interface.
| For a standard higher education search you should create only a single user interface and include all the data sources that are you have set up by checking all of the checkboxes. |
Click the Save button when you are finished.
Step 5 - Create the search from the templates
Once the steps above are complete the search can be created by clicking the [submit] button at the top of your screen.
This will use the information you have supplied in steps 1-4 to create all of the data sources, the search package and setup the basic configuration for the search.
Example: setup a new search
You are tasked with setting up Funnelback for higher education for Funnelback University (FBU).
Funnelback University has the following content sources available:
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An XML feed for their courses, at available at http://fbu.edu/_feeds/courses.xml
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An XML feed for their events, available at http://fbu.edu/_feeds/events.xml
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Website content to be crawled: http://fbu.edu/
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YouTube and Facebook social media channels to be crawled
The search also requires * Auto-completion to be configured to display course suggestions.
To setup Funnelback for higher education for FBU:
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Select the higher education option from the choose a vertical product drop-down menu.
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Define the following data sources:
Data source name Data source identifier Template source Data source type FBU websites
fbu-web
higher education web
web
FBU courses
fbu-courses
higher education courses
web
FBU events
fbu-events
higher education events
web
FBU YouTube
fbu-youtube
higher education YouTube
youtube
FBU Facebook
fbu-facebook
higher education Facebook
facebook
A web data source is used for the course and events content sources because the XML feeds are downloadable from a web accessible URL. -
Define the following user interface:
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Name: FBU search
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Tick all of the checkboxes (fbu-web, fbu-youtube, fbu-courses, fbu-events, fbu-facebook)
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User interface name: fbu-search
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Log in to the Funnelback administration console.
There will be a search package that matches the user interface name defined above.
This search package includes the five data sources that were specified.
The search package also includes a single results page which also is named using the user interface name defined above.
At this point the initial setup of the search is complete. The next step is to configure the data sources.
Add a new data source to an existing higher education search
The setup tool can be used to create a new data source from the higher education templates. After the data source is created it needs to be manually added to the search package for the existing search.
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Use the higher education setup tool as outlined above to log in to the Funnelback server containing the higher education search.
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Choose the higher education vertical product then only define the additional data sources to add to the search then submit the form.
The additional data source should be created on the Funnelback server.
To add the data source to the existing higher education search log it to the Funnelback administration console and edit the meta components for the search package that corresponds to the higher education search. Add the new data source to the list of components.
Perform the relevant setup steps to configure the new data source (as outlined above). The data source will need to be accounted for in the results page (see: configuring the results page) - this may involve creating a new data source specific template and other other associated configuration.
Remove a data source from an existing higher education search
To remove a data source:
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Remove the data source from the list of meta components on the higher education search package.
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Remove or disable the data source specific templates and results page configuration that relates to the data source that is being removed.