Create a Smart Discovery index using Teamcenter command prompt

The Smart Discovery index in Teamcenter stores the structure hierarchy and spatial coordinates for each element in a structure.

Restrictions and limitations

For structures already existing in the Teamcenter database, plan and choose which structures you want to index based on your site requirements. The selected structures must be the topmost nodes. This is a one-time activity. The recurring task will keep the indexed structures up to date.

Every time a user creates a new structure, if automatic Smart Discovery indexing is not already set up, you must determine if the new product structure needs to be indexed and manually index it. When automatic Smart Discovery indexing is set up, the newly created product structure is automatically indexed if it meets the saved query criteria.

Prerequisites

Before setting up the creation of the Smart Discovery index, ensure that the recurring task to update the index is running. Also, ensure that you have read access to the structures (and their contents) that you want to index.

Procedure

1. Perform a basic test to ensure that TcFTSIndexer and Smart Discovery Indexing are set up correctly:

   TC_ROOT/TcFTSIndexer/bin/runTcFTSIndexer -task=discovery:test

2. Create the Smart Discovery index in one of the following ways:

Create the Smart Discovery index automatically for a list of products

Identify the top-level item type that represents the root of the products you want to index and create saved queries for these items (or for their sub-classes). Do not index every top-level item or product — index only the specific and required products. While creating the saved query, ensure that:

• The top-level item you identified is not an item revision.
• No user input is required to return the items that you intend to index.
• The User Entry L10N Key and User Entry Name fields are left blank in the query definition.

If engineering BOM management is deployed in your Teamcenter setup, the EBOM Designs and EBOM Products saved queries are created by default for design structures and collaborative product engineering BOMs.

Add the saved queries as values of the QSEARCH_products_to_index_saved_queries preference. By default, the EBOM Designs and EBOM Products saved queries are added to this preference.

Note: Begin executing the saved queries one by one and evaluate their results. Refine these queries as needed to improve accuracy and performance. Always prioritize indexing major structures rather than smaller sub-assemblies to ensure comprehensive and efficient data retrieval.

Run the TcFTSIndexer utility to index all the products that get listed when you run each search query added in the QSEARCH_products_to_index_saved_queries preference:

TC_ROOT/TcFTSIndexer/bin/runTcFTSIndexer -task=discovery:create -product=#autoindex# -interval=<time_interval_in_seconds>

The TcFTSIndexer service automatically runs the TcFTSIndexer utility at the time interval you specified. Any product that was not indexed in the earlier time interval is indexed when the utility is run again.

Create the Smart Discovery index manually for each structure

You can do this using either the runTcFTSIndexer utility or the smart_discovery_index utility:

Using the runTcFTSIndexer utility (run on the machine on which Indexer is deployed):

TC_ROOT/TcFTSIndexer/bin/runTcFTSIndexer -task=discovery:create -product=<product_item_id>

If Multi-Field Key (MFK) is used to uniquely identify a structure:

TC_ROOT/TcFTSIndexer/bin/runTcFTSIndexer -task=discovery:create -productKey="item_id=<product_item_id>,object_type=<item_or_its_sub_type>"

The time taken to create the Smart Discovery index depends on the size of the structure. Larger structures may take longer to get indexed. To avoid time-outs during index creation, it is recommended that you use the server manager (pool manager) dedicated to runTcFTSIndexer for executing the indexing process. It is also recommended that you set QUERY_TIMEOUT to 0 using the Teamcenter management console so that the server connection does not time out automatically and allows the indexing process to complete.

To check the status of the indexing process:

TC_ROOT/TcFTSIndexer/bin/runTcFTSIndexer -status

Using the smart_discovery_index utility (run on the machine where Teamcenter is deployed):

smart_discovery_index -u=<user_id> -p=<password> -g=<group> -create -product=<item_id>

For structures with Multi-Field Key (MFK):

smart_discovery_index -u=<user_id> -p=<password> -g=<group> -create -product=%#MFK#%,=item_id=<product_item_id>,object_type=<item_or_its_sub_type>

The structure is now submitted for processing the index creation. If indexed successfully, the structure is moved to the list of products for which indexes are Available. To verify if the structure is listed in the Available list, inspect the status of the indexing process:

smart_discovery_index -u=<user_id> -p=<password> -g=<group> -inspect

Note: The Teamcenter user mentioned in %TC_ROOT%/TcFTSIndexer/conf/TcFTSIndexer.properties must have Read access to the structures that need to be indexed.

What to do next

After you index structures, generate a report to inspect the status of the indexer. In case of any issue, see "Troubleshoot issues related to administering Smart Discovery Indexing."