Creating search filters for BMC applications

BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround supports creating filters to narrow down search results in BMC applications based on predefined conditions. These filters use article tags as filtering criteria. A single filter can combine multiple article tags by using the AND or OR operators. When users search for knowledge articles in a BMC application that uses a specific filter, the search results return only the articles that include a tag or a combination of tags defined in the filter. 

You can create and use search filters for the following BMC applications:

• BMC Helix Virtual Agent
• BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced
• BMC HelixGPT

As an administrator of BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you can create search filters for supported BMC applications. After you create a search filter in BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you must enable it in the BMC application. For more information about enabling search filters for the required chatbot instance in BMC Helix Virtual Agent, see Defining a knowledge search provider for chatbot. Learn how to enable search filters for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced in Configuring search.

The following image shows the benefits of using search filters:

Static and dynamic tags

When you create search filters in BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you can use the following types of tags:

The following table provides information about dynamic tags available by default, and their structure. You can also find information about the formatting patterns that static tags in the knowledge articles must follow for proper mapping with each dynamic tag. 

Scenarios for creating search filters 

The following scenario describes how a company creates and uses a search filter that includes static tags for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced. However, the process of creating and utilizing search filters with static tags is identical for BMC Helix Virtual Agent.

The following scenario describes how a company creates and uses a search filter that includes a dynamic tag for BMC Helix Virtual Agent. However, the process of creating and utilizing search filters with dynamic tags is identical for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.

(Optional) To create a process that constructs a dynamic tag

As an administrator of BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you can create a process to construct a dynamic tag. 

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
2. Click the application for which you want to create a dynamic tag:
   1. To create a dynamic tag for BMC Helix Virtual Agent, click BMC Chatbot.
   2. To create a dynamic tag for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, click Digital Workplace. 
3. Click the Processes tab and click New. 
4. On the Process Properties pane, specify the following fields:

   1. Name—enter a name for the process.

      Important

      The name must start with CONTENT TAG to filter out processes that create dynamic tags. For example, CONTENT TAG Get Organization. Otherwise, the created dynamic tag won't be displayed in the list of tags available for selection. 

   2. Run as—Select Administrator. 
5. On the Process Properties pane, add the Output process variable required for the workflow.
   1. In the VARIABLES section, click Add/ Remove Variables. 
   2. Click Add Variable.
   3. In the Name field, enter tag.
   4. In Variable type field, select Output.
   5. From the Data Type list, select Text.
   6. Click Save.
      

1. In Workflow designer, drag and drop the Get Records by Query element on to the canvas and map the required process input variables: 
   1. On the  GENERAL tab, in the INPUT MAP section, from the Record Definition Name list, select the CTM form you want to query. For example, select People.
   2. In the INPUT MAP section, click Click to build an expression and build the following expression that queries the selected CTM form: 
      
      This expression queries the selected CTM form for the current user. 
   3.  In the OUTPUT MAP section, to add the process output parameter, click Add and specify the following output parameters:
      1. From the Name field, select tag.
      2. Click Click to build an expression for the Source parameter. 

      3. In the expression builder, construct an expression that will be returned as a tag. Enter the attribute of the tag as text and select the tag value from the list of available form values. See the following image for the example structure of the dynamic tag: 
         

         Important

         • You must create a single output parameter. If multiple parameters are added, the system returns only the tag parameter.
         • You must construct the entire string that will be returned as a tag. 
      4. Click Ok.
2. Click Save. 

The new dynamic tag is created. You can select it from the list of tags while creating a search filter. 

(Optional) To edit the process of a predefined dynamic tag

As an administrator of BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you can edit processes that define dynamic tags provided by default.

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
2. Click the BMC Chatbot application to edit the following predefined dynamic tags:

1. • Get Company
   • Get Department
   • Get Region
   • Get Site
   • Get Support groups
2. Click the Shared Services application to edit Get Knowledge Set and Get Line of Business dynamic tags. 

3. Click the Processes tab and select the process of the predefined dynamic tag that you want to edit. For example, select CONTENT TAG Get Region.

   Note

   For dynamic tags, the process names start with CONTENT TAG. 

4. On the canvas, click the Get Records by Query element.
5. On the  GENERAL tab, in the OUTPUT MAP section, to add the process output parameter, click Click to build an expression for the Source parameter.
6. In the expression builder, edit the defined expression that is returned as a tag. See the following image for the example edited structure of the dynamic tag:  
   

1. Click Save. 

To create a search filter

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and click Administration. 
2. Select Knowledge management > Search filters. 

3. On the Search filters page, click New search filter and specify the following fields:

   Field	Action
   Name	Enter the name for a search filter.
   Relationship	Select one of the following logical operators to define the relationship between filtering criteria:  AND—Returns articles that meet all filtering criteria. For example, Line of Business=HR and Operational Tier 1=People. OR—Returns articles that meet any filtering criterion. For example, Line of Business=Office Facilities or Knowledge Set=Office. Important: You cannot combine AND and OR logical operators in a single filter. You can use only one operator to define the relationship between all selected filtering criteria. For example, you cannot define the following filtering expression: Company=Apex Global and Line of Business=Office Facilities or Knowledge Set=Office.
   Tags	Select one or multiple article tags to be used as filtering criteria. You can combine static and dynamic tags in a search filter.  Important: Only existing static and dynamic tags are displayed in the list. However, you can add new static tags to the articles or create custom dynamic tags. For instructions on how to create a dynamic tag, see (Optional) To create a dynamic tag.  Tip: To see the list of predefined tags, click on a text input area of the Tags field. Alternatively, you can enter the tag name. When you begin entering the tag name, a list of suggested selections appears.  You can distinguish dynamic tags by the presence of the cogwheel icon next to the tag name . To remove a selected tag, hover over the tag and click the Remove  icon.

   The following image shows a sample search filter. In the example scenario described in this topic, Jordan creates the same filter for the HR chatbot. 
   

4. Click Save. 

You have created the search filter. This filter is displayed on the Search filters page. To modify this or other created filters, open the filter by clicking its name. 

Where to go from here

After you create a search filter, you must enable it for your BMC application.