Oracle8i interMedia Text Migration
Release 8.1.5

A67845-01

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Overview of New Features and Changes

This chapter provides an overview of the new features, enhancements, and changes to Oracle8i interMedia Text, version 8.1.5, the product formerly know as ConText.

The following topics are covered in this chapter:

Terminology

The following terms are used throughout this manual:

General

Oracle8i interMedia Text

The product formerly known as Oracle ConText Cartridge. Oracle8i interMedia Text might also be abbreviated as iMT.

ConText Pre-8.1.5 or ConText 2.X

Oracle Context Cartridge, version 2.X.

migration

This term refers to moving from a ConText pre-8.1.5 application to an interMedia Text 8.1.5 application.

Old features are referred as features of ConText pre-8.1.5 or ConText 2.X. New features are referred to as features of interMedia Text 8.1.5.

See Also:

For more information on the migration process, see Chapter 2, "Migrating Your Application".  

8.1.5 Terminology

Text index

Domain index of type context.

Text query

A SELECT statement that uses the CONTAINS operator to query a Text index.

word query

A Text query that matches an exact word or phrase.

ABOUT query

A Text query that uses the ABOUT operator to search for concepts. This type of query was formerly referred to as a theme query.

New Features and Enhancements

This section briefly describes the new features of interMedia Text 8.1.

Integration with Oracle

The interMedia Text 8.1.5 index is created as an extensible (domain) index to Oracle. As a result, you create the Text index and issue Text queries using standard SQL.

Other benefits of integration include:

New Default System

A new out-of-box default system enables you to create a Text index immediately without explicitly creating and setting your own custom preferences for indexing.

For example at install time, interMedia Text establishes default indexing options, automatically setting language-specific preferences such as lexer and stoplist to the language you specify in your database setup. Oracle also detects your text column format and automatically filters the formatted text contained in these columns.

See Also:

For more information about the default system, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference.  

Filtering

Oracle8i interMedia text uses the Inso Corporation's filtering technology, which enables the system to automatically detect and filter most document formats. With this single filtering technology, the system can index single or mixed format columns.

You can also set up the system to use your own user filter.

The INSO filtering technology is also used to create plain-text and HTML output for document presentation.

See Also:

For more information about supported document formats, filtering, and document presentation, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference.  

Extensible Knowledge Base

You can add custom concepts, categories, words or phrases to the knowledge base to improve theme capabilities. You do this by creating the extension as a thesaurus. You import the thesaurus with ctxload and then compile the thesaurus with ctxkbtc to augment the existing knowledge base.

See Also:

For information about the thesaurus loader, ctxload and the knowledge base compiler, ctxkbtc, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

Hierarchical Query Feedback

Given a query expression, you can obtain related query term information (broader term, narrower term, related term). Your application can present this information to users to help them refine their queries.

.

See Also:

For more information about the CTX_DOC.HFEEDBACK procedure, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

User Datastore

An additional datastore method, USER_DATASTORE, has been added. This data storage method enables you to define a procedure that synthesizes documents during indexing. Such virtual documents exist only during indexing, but content and structure are preserved in the index.

For example, a user-defined procedure might synthesize the date, author, and text columns into one document to have author and date information be indexed as part of a single document.

See Also:

For more information about USER_DATASTORE, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

Stoplist Enhancements

Support for Stopthemes and Stopclasses in Stoplists

In addition to defining stopwords, you can define stopthemes and stopclasses, which can be added to a stoplist.

Stopthemes are themes that are not to be indexed. Stopclasses define classes of alphanumeric characters that are not to be indexed, such as numbers.

See Also:

For more information about the adding stopthemes and stopclasses, see the CTX_DDL package in the Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

Dynamic Addition of Objects To Stoplists

You can add stopwords, stopthemes, and stopclasses to a stoplist after the index has been created.

See Also:

For more information, see the ALTER INDEX command in Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

Section Searching Enhancements

Field Sections

Field sections are new for 8.1.5. These are sections that are indexed as sub-documents. They have some performance advantages over zone sections.

See Also:

For more information about document field sections, see the CTX_DDL.ADD_FIELD_SECTION procedure in Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

XML Section Group

The new section group object XML_SECTION_GROUP supports for defining sections in XML-style tagged documents.

News Group Section

The new section group object NEWS_SECTION_GROUP supports defining sections in news group formatted documents according to the RFC 1036 specification.

See Also:

For more information about defining sections in XML and news group formatted documents, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

Alternate Spelling

In German, Danish, and Swedish, interMedia Text recognizes the accepted alternate spellings of query terms. You enable alternate spelling with BASIC_LEXER.

See Also:

For information about alternate spelling, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

Changed Features

Because the Text index is now an Oracle domain index, most features such as indexing, querying, and document presentation have changed in iMT 8.1.5. How to migrate these features are discussed throughout this manual.

The following table lists the topics that are covered and where in this manual to look for more information:

Topic   Where to Find More Migration Information  

Planning Your Migration  

Chapter 2, "Migrating Your Application"  

Administration  

Chapter 3, "Administration"  

Index Tables and Objects  

Chapter 4, "Index Preferences"  

Index Creation and Management  

Chapter 5, "Indexing"  

Querying  

Chapter 6, "Querying"  

Document Presentation  

Chapter 7, "Document Presentation"  

SQL

Changes

The CONTAINS and SCORE operators remain unchanged for 8.1.

See Also:

For more information about migrating Text queries, see Chapter 6, "Querying".

For the syntax of these operators, see Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

New SQL Commands

You use following standard SQL commands to create and manage the 8.1.5 Text index, which is a domain index of type context:

Operators

Most of the operators available in pre-8.1.5 are available in 8.1.5. However, some are obsolete and have changed.

Obsolete Operators

The following table list the operators that are obsolete in 8.1.5. The column entitled "How to Migrate" tells you how to migrate and where to look for more information:

Operator  Equivalent  Status  How to Migrate 

EXECUTE  

@  

Obsolete  

Call the function in SELECT statement.

See "PL/SQL Operator" in Chapter 6.  

First/Next  

#  

Obsolete  

Replace result-set selectivity with cursor query.

See "Max and First/Next Operators" in Chapter 6.  

Max  

:  

Obsolete  

Replace result-set selectivity with cursor query.

See "Max and First/Next Operators" in Chapter 6  

Changed Operators

The following operator has changed in 8.1.5

Operator  Equivalent  Status  Migration Notes 

ACCUMulate  

,  

Changed  

Scoring method different.

See Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference  

New Operators

Oracle 8i interMedia Text 8.1.5 provides the following new operators:

Index Preference Objects

Changes to Index Preference Objects

Most index preference objects and system-defined preferences have changed in 8.1.5.

See Also:

For more information on index object changes, see Chapter 4, "Index Preferences".  

New Index Objects

The following index objects have been added:

Data Storage

Section Group

PL/SQL

PL/SQL Changes

Most PL/SQL packages and procedures have changed.

See Also:

For a list of PL/SQL changes, see Appendix A, "PL/SQL Changes".  

New PL/SQL

Oracle8i interMedia Text 8.1.5 has new packages and procedures.

See Also:

For a complete list of the interMedia Text 8.1.5 packages and procedures, refer to the Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference.  

Executables

Changes

The following executables have changed for 8.1.5:

ctxsrv Server

This executable has undergone the following changes:

ctxload Loader

This loader retains all its pre-8.1.5 functionality. It has added support of export/updating BLOB and CLOB columns.

See Also:

To learn more about the ctxsrv and ctxload command syntax, see the Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference.  

ctxctl Utility

This shell script that monitors and shuts down ctxsrv is obsolete.

See Also:

For more information about how to monitor servers in 8.1.5, see "Servers" in Chapter 3.  

New Executables

The following executable is new for 8.1:

ctxkbtc

This executable compiles an extended knowledge base from one or more thesauri (up to 16).

See Also:

To learn more about the ctxkbtc command syntax, see the Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference.  

Views

Most views from ConText 2.X have been renamed. New views have also been added to the 8.1.5 release.

See Also:

For a complete list all the views in the 8.1.5 release, see the Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference.  




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