Search in SP is showing some categories that are not expected

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

When a search for say "foo" is done, it showing a whole bunch of categories (as part of auto categorization) that we do not know how/why its showing them. How does Service Point determine what categories to be shown against the search strings that are being typed?

Environment

Service Point / xFlow 17.3 and higher

Resolution

When a user searches in Service Point, below 4 fields that are considered for the Auto Categorization values that are being displayed:

1) category symbol

2) category description

3) resolved ticket's description (Category symbols related to these resolved tickets are shown)

4) resolved ticket's summary (Category symbols related to these resolved tickets are shown)

For #3 and #4, the configuration related to resolved tickets considered for smart search is defined by: smartsearch.tickets.resolved.time   (xFlow Interface -> General -> smartsearch.tickets.resolved.time).  Default value is 1 year.

So, the reason why you would see additional categories for a string "foo" is because, 

a) "foo" was used in previously closed ticket's summary/description fields (so the categories for those tickets are shown)  or

b) "foo" is present in current active self-service=yes  based category symbol/description fields