Search Types

To conduct a search using the Quick Launch bar, you can use different types of search providers. These can be built-in providers such as Windows Desktop Search or Transactions and Applications, search providers defined in the Role Maintenance ( PFCG) transaction as well as search providers defined in the front end of the client.

The availability of a search type is dependent on the type of connection; for example, not all the search types that are available in NWBC connections are available in SAP GUI connections. For more information, see the section Connection Types and Search Type Availability.

The following search types are available in SAP Business Client

• Enterprise Search

  From SAP NetWeaver 7.03 onwards, all Enterprise Search connectors configured and active on the SAP NetWeaver Application Server are automatically offered as search providers when conducting a search in SAP Business Client for Desktop.

• External Search

  SAP Business Client has a built-in search functionality using search providers that have been configured in advance in one of the following ways:

  • Centrally using the Role Maintenance ( PFCG) transaction

    For more information, see Menu.

  • Locally in the Search Provider settings (using SAP Business Client's Search Providers dialog box)

  A search provider is defined by a URL. There are two types of URLs:

  • A direct search URL that contains a placeholder for the query string that results in an HTML page with search results. The URL can be any URL that contains a string “{0}” as the placeholder. This placeholder is replaced with the query the user enters and the URL directly navigates to the specified HTML search result page.

    Example: http://www.sap.com/search/index.epx?q1={0}

  • An OpenSearch URL that points to an OpenSearch metadata description (see http://www.opensearch.org).

    The metadata is an XML file that can contain multiple search services in the following flavors:

    • As HTML search result page

    • As suggest providers whose result is a list of search suggestions that are displayed in the dropdown menu of the quick launch

    Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/opensearch_desc.php

• Desktop search

  The Windows Desktop Search is an embedded standard Microsoft search option that is always available.

The following table outlines the search types that are available for each type of connection: