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Getting Started with Autonomy Search

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Autonomy Search

BEA WebLogic Portal ships with a license of Autonomy search capabilities. Common use cases include integration with content management systems, relational databases, and external web sites. These sources of information can be exposed for search using prepackaged portlets, and developers can author new portlets and business logic for integrating search as well.

This guide covers the capabilities of the licensed Autonomy products and information on additional Autonomy capabilities which can be resold.

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This chapter includes the following sections:

 


Introducing the Autonomy Components

The Dynamic Reasoning Engine (DRE) server has been renamed Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL). IDOL is Autonomy's core engine that processes incoming content to enable search functionality.

Autonomy provides Fetch modules to connect sources of information to search. The BEA license includes the following modules:

You can integrate the Autonomy HTTPFetch module to create applications that retrieve content from the Internet or an intranet using the HTTP protocol.

The following Autonomy features can be used with WebLogic Portal:

Locating the Autonomy Product

Autonomy is bundled with the WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Platform installers. The files are located in the WeblogicHome\portal\thirdparty\search directory.

See http://www.autonomy.com/content/Products/Connectors/ for a complete list of Autonomy components.

Licensing Autonomy Modules

In BEA WebLogic Portal 8.1, customers can install one instance each on production, development, and a failover instance on their portal. This license is not a CPU-by-CPU basis; the license model is one portal to one Autonomy server. For more information, see Licensing Autonomy Modules. The license is paper-based, and all development instances ship with a full production version of Autonomy. A production instance of Autonomy is included with the WebLogic Portal installation.

Determining the Number of CPUs for Your Search Needs

The number of CPUs that you need for a production instance varies with the number and type of documents you are exposing, as well as the way they are exposed (for example, automated searching, user driven, and so on).

A single instance of one CPU can potentially support tens of thousands of users and millions of documents. Contact your BEA or Autonomy sales representative for additional licenses, if needed.

 


Using Supported Repositories and Databases

Autonomy can supply standard connectors (also called Fetches) for proprietary data repositories and different file formats.

Table 3 lists the required supported file system repositories and connectors.

Table 1 File System Repositories and Connectors

Supported Repository

Required Connector

NT File Systems

AutoIndexer

Netware File Systems

AutoIndexer

UNIX File Systems

AutoIndexer

Table 2 lists the required supported relational database repositories and connectors.

Table 2 Relational Database Repositories and Connectors 

Supported Repository

Required Connector

DB2

ODBCFetch

Microsoft SQL

ODBCFetch

ODBC Databases

ODBCFetch

Oracle Database

OracleFetch

Table 3 lists the required supported document repositories and connectors for external web sites.

Table 3 Document Repositories and Connectors for External Web Sites 

Supported Repository

Required Connector

ATG Dynamo

ODBCFetch

Intershop

ODBCFetch

Sybase

ODBCFetch

Documentum

DocumentumFetch

Exchange Server

ExchangeFetch

FileNet

FileNetFetch

Lotus Quickplace

NotesFetch

Oracle 9i

OracleFetch

OpenText LiveLink

OpenTextFetch

PCDocs-DocsOpen

PCDocsFetch

Microsoft SharePoint

SharePointFetch

Siebel 2000

SiebelFetch

Vignette

OracleFetch

Lotus Notes

NotesFetch

Table 4 lists the required supported Internet services repositories and connectors.

Table 4 Internet Services Repositories and Connectors

Supported Repository

Required Connector

Edgar Online

EdgarOnlineFetch

FTP Servers

FTPFetch

HTTP Servers

HTTPFetch

MoreOver Web Newsfeed

MoreOverFetch

NNTP News Servers

NNTPFetch

NewsEdge Newsfeed

FTPFetch

SiteMinder Netegrity

HTTPFetch

Table 5 lists the required supported e-mail server repositories and connectors.

Table 5 E-Mail Server Repositories and Connectors

Supported Repository

Required Connector

Microsoft Exchange

ExchangeFetch

POP3 Servers

POP3Fetch

Lotus Notes

NotesFetch

Table 6 lists the required supported repositories and connectors for other repositories and databases.

Table 6 Other Supported Repositories and Connectors

Supported Repository

Required Connector

Other Repositories and Databases

OmniFetch

 


Using Supported Operating Systems and Platforms

[JOSH: Is it Ok to refer to this IDOL doc? I don't see it in the list of 3rd party docs]

To determine the operating systems that Autonomy supports, see the IDOL Server Version 5 documentation (the IDOL server version 4.x is the version that ships, but version 5 is available to all customers).

Supported platforms for Autonomy include the following:

Note: If you are installing the IDOL server on Solaris, you need the libiconv library file which you can download from http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/. The IDOL server also supports other POSIX UNIX versions on request.

Searching the Oracle Database on UNIX

The BEA WebLogic Portal software comes with a license for ODBCFetch, which you can use to connect to a database over the ODBC protocol. ODBC is traditionally utilized on Windows environments, and Autonomy recommends OracleFetch with Oracle DBMS because it is pre-configured to work with Oracle.

OracleFetch is available at an additional cost. ODBCFetch also works with the Oracle database after you configure it. See the Autonomy ODBCFetch Administrator's Guide at http://e-docs.bea.com/wlp/docs81/pdf/ODBC2.2.pdf for more information.

 


Using the Autonomy Search Engine

After you configure the Autonomy search engine, you can search data in the BEA Virtual Content Repository, and perform other searches.

Configuring the Autonomy Search Engine

For instructions on configuring the Autonomy search engine, consult the documentation located at http://e-docs.bea.com/wlp/docs81/index.html, in the Included Third-Party Technologies section. In addition to the Service Dashboard portlet, you can modify the actual configuration files to control the behavior of the search engine itself.

Exposing Data from the Virtual Content Repository to Search

[JOSH: Should I remove this section and references to TRIP?]

You can write a series of dynamic pages to publish content information from the Virtual Content Repository to a set of stand-alone web pages that can then be indexed by Autonomy's HTTPFetch. Contact BEA Technical Support for assistance.

Using Other Search Portlets

The following enhanced Autonomy Portlets can provide added functionality:

Localizing Autonomy Portlets

Over 60 languages are supported for reading text provided by a Fetch. See a complete list at http://www.autonomy.com/content/Products/Connectors/Multilingual.html. The actual portlets can be localized to different environments, but support for English is provided when you purchase the software.

Choosing a Search API

It is recommended that you use the Autonomy's Search API.

For more information on the Autonomy Search API, see http://e-docs.bea.com/wlp/docs81/javadoc/autonomy/index.html.

For more information on the BEA Search API, see http://e-docs.bea.com/wlp/docs81/javadoc/index.html.

 


Upgrading and Getting Support

You can upgrade to newer versions of Autonomy and get technical support.

Upgrading Autonomy

BEA WebLogic Portal 8.1 customers can file a trouble ticket with BEA Support to request an updated version of an Autonomy product or a version for a different operating system. Support specialists log into Autonomy's Automater system and download the most recent version for you.

Contacting Support

The Autonomy documentation is located at http://e-docs.bea.com/wlp/docs81/index.html, under Included Third-Party Technologies.

BEA provides front-line support for Autonomy components—contact the BEA Support Department. BEA Support will contact Autonomy for additional back-line support as needed.

 

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