The search index creates an index of all terms in the documents and file names within Course Files or, if your institution licenses content management, the Content Collection. When a search is performed, the system queries this index to find results. This method enhances system performance because the search query uses a stored set of data, rather than querying all active data on the system for each search request.

On the Search Settings page, administrators set the time and the duration for the system to rebuild the search index. If a rebuild is not complete within the duration set, the index will begin rebuilding next time from the point it left off. For best results, administrators should allow the system to completely rebuild the search indexes.

Full text search does not index text from encrypted PDF documents.

Open the search settings page

If your institution does not license content management:

  1. In the Administrator Panel, in the Content Management section, select Search Settings.
  2. The Search Settings page appears.

If your institution licenses content management:

  1. In the Administrator Panel, in the Content Management section, select Technical Settings.
  2. On the Technical Settings page, select Full Text Search Settings.
  3. The Full Text Search Settings page appears.

Configure search settings

  1. On the Search Settings page, select Yes to make the Search tool available to users. This setting is only available if your institution does not license content management.
  2. Configure the search settings as appropriate. The following table describes the available options on the Search Settings and the Full Text Search Settings pages.
    Search Settings Available Options
    Field Description
    Full Text Settings
    Hour of Day Select the time for the system to begin rebuilding the full text search indexes.
    Duration to Recreate Select Until Completion for the system to completely rebuild the search indexes. Select a specific amount of time and the system rebuilds the search indexes for the allotted time. Blackboard recommends that this value is set to a minimum of one hour. The search indexes may not be fully rebuilt when the system stops.
    Status of Last Recreate Displays the status of the last attempt of the system to rebuild the search indexes.
    Last Started Displays the time the last rebuild of the search indexes began.
    Last Finished Displays the time the last rebuild of the search indexes finished.
    Immediate Update If Yes is selected, the full text index will be updated as files are added or edited. If No is selected, the index will be updated when the full text search index is rebuilt during the next periodic index. Turning this option on may impact performance. If the value in this field is changed, Tomcat must be restarted for the new setting to take effect.
  3. Select Submit.