Advanced Object Search

The Global Search provides a selection of the search results and a link to the list that contains all objectsor Calendar Events found. In large installations, this list can contain thousands of records. The advanced search helps you restrict its contents. It is powered by Lucene, which allows for quick search results and entails certain restrictions that are documented in this topic.

This topic provides information on the following:

Authorizations to Objects Reflected in the Search Result

The results of the search depend on your object authorizations.

When searching for an object you must have at least read rights to the folder in which it is located, otherwise you will not be able to find it. If you have read rights to a folder, the results of the search will display all the objects contained in it, even in the case the authorizations specified for those objects restrict their access. The authorization attributes defined at object level are evaluated as soon as you try to interact with the object. This is why you may find objects for which you do not have read rights but you will not be able to either open or edit.

See Granting Users/User Groups Authorizations to Folders/Objects for information on how to set user and user group rights to objects in order to avoid such situations.

If you need to change user/user group authorizations to get the desired search results, please take into account that it might take a few minutes until the updated authorizations are reflected in the object search.

Starting an Advanced Object Search

  1. Put your cursor in the Global Search box without entering anything. A popup opens up displaying two sections, each one providing a link:

    • Objects - Advanced Search

      This is your starting point for the advanced object search

    • Tasks - Process Monitoring

      This link opens the lists of Tasks in the (Undefined variable: UIElements.ProcessMonitoring) perspective.

    Alternatively, in the Global Search box enter the name or part of the name of the item you are searching for. In this case the popup opens up displaying the two sections, the upper one providing a selection of the objects that match the search string and the lower one displaying the tasks. Click the Objects - xx Results Total link on the right corner of the popup.

  2. Click the Advanced Search link.

    If you have entered the name of the item and the popup does not contain the one you are searching for, click the Objects - xx Results Total link on its right corner.

  3. The list of results is displayed. Its caption shows the number of items found and the date and time of the last index update.

    If you do not find what you are searching for, this is probably because the index is outdated. The search index is updated at regular intervals. Changes done to items after an index update will be reflected in your search results after the next update has taken place. The index update intervals are specified by administrator users in the INDEXSEARCH_INTERVAL key, UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS system variable (see UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS - System-Wide Settings).

    For example, the last index update has taken place at 14:18 today and that the next update is scheduled for 14:48. If you rename an object at 14:30 and make a search for it at 14:35 (that is, before the next index update at 14:48), this object will not be available in the results.

  4. Use the filter criteria on the Filter pane to restrict the number of records in the list.

    Object Name, Location and Object Type are always displayed and you cannot hide them.

    Object Name

    If you entered a name/part of a name in the Global Search box, this section is pre-populated with it and the Results list is filtered accordingly.

    You can use wildcard characters (* or ?) here.

    By default, the search uses implicit wildcards at the beginning and at the end of the string you enter. For example, entering DB_BACKUP actually triggers the search for *DB_BACKUP*. The following results will also be suggested in the dropdown list

      MSSQL_DB_BACKUP

      DB_BACKUP_MSSQL

      MSSQL_DB_BACKUP_JAN

    The string you enter here is searched for in the Name field of the objects and NOT in their Title.

    Location

    This limits the search for objects to a specific path within your folder structure.

    Object Type

    This restricts the list of objects to one or more object types.

    Time Frame

    This finds items that have been created, modified or used (last executed) within the period of time that you specify here. The following options are available:

    • No Time Frame

      Default value. Leave it if you do not want to set a time restriction to your object search.

    • Created

      Displays all the objects that have been created within the time frame you are about to define.

    • Modified

      Displays all the objects that have been modified within the time frame you are about to define.

    • Used

      Displays all the objects that have been last executed within the time frame you are about to define.

      This option is only effective if the LAST_USE value in the UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS - System-Wide Settings is other than 0, that is, if a refresh interval for the object usage counter has been defined.

    Object Contents

    Full text search for content available on the Process pages and sub pages (Pre Process, Post Process, Child Process), on the Documentation pages and sub pages (both for structured and unstructured documentation), in the object title and in its archive keys. It can also find keys and values used in STATIC variables.

    You can enter up to 500 characters in the TEXT input field. However, take into account the following limits:

    • Object titles can be up to 255 characters long.
    • Archive keys and Variable keys be up to 60 characters long.

    If you enter strings that exceed these limits, the search will not return any results for object titles, archive keys and variable keys.

    Important considerations:

    • Enter entire words; if you enter part of a word, it will not be found unless it is the very first word in a string.
    • The Object Contents search is not case-sensitive.
    • Wildcard searches are not supported.
    • The following characters are stripped from search terms: !"#$%&'()*+,/;:<=>?@[\]^`{|}~-
    • Regular expressions are not supported in queries, but you can search for special characters.
    • Whole words are searched for
    • When searching for strings on any of the Process pages in an object, take into account the script language that is used in the object.

    You can restrict the search to one or more of the following:

    • Process

      The system searches for the string you enter here in all your scripts on all Process pages of executable objects (Pre-Process, Process, Post-Process and Child Post-Process pages).

    • Object Title

      Enter the complete title or just part of it. Although you can use wildcards, the following restrictions are imposed by Lucene:

      • For search strings up to 20 characters long, you can enter an asterisc (*) as wildcard character.
      • For search strings that are longer than 20 characters, the Lucene search does not support the use of wirlcard characters.

    • Documentation

      The system searches for the string you enter here on all the Documentation pages, both in structured and in unstructured documentation. In the case of structured documentation, the search looks for the string you enter here both in the keys and in the values of the documentation. If you enter a string that is available as option in a dropdown list, the search function will only suggest it in the Results list if that option is also selected in the list.

    • Archive Keys

      You can enter the entire text used in the key or part of it.

    • Variable Key

      You can enter the complete string or part of it. The system searches for it in the Key column of all static VARA objects.

    • Variable Value

      The string is searched for in the values entered in Variable objects.

      If you activate this checkbox, the Search Columns and Datatype section is displayed.

      • Activate Search in all Columns if you want the system to scan the values in all columns. If you leave it deactivated , the system searches for the value in the first column only.
      • Select one of the datatypes in the dropdown list to restrict the search to values with this type. This refers to the datatypes defined in the Variable object, see Attributes Sub Page in STATIC Variable objects.

    Calendar Event

    Enter the name or part of the name of the calendar event you are searching for. The Results list displays the Calendars in which it is used.

    Non-Recurring Calendar Events can have a validity period. If you want to make sure that the search result displays only events that are valid on a particular date, activate the Valid on checkbox. By default, the system suggest the current date, but you can change it if necessary.

    Recurring Calendar Events have a validity period that the system administrator can specify in the NOW_MINUS and NOW_PLUS keys (see UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS - Various Client Settings).

    See Searching for Calendar Events.

  5. Click Search to apply the entered criteria or Reset to clear all filters.

Working with the Results List

The Results list is empty if you did not enter any search string in the Global Search box to open it. If you did, it is pre-filtered using your search string as Object Name.

You can change the sort order of the results and rearrange the columns and rows to best fit your needs. For details see Working with Tables.

From this list you have access to all the functions you can carry out on the objects, according to your rights and privileges. Right-click one or more objects to open a context menu displaying the available options. See Working with Objects.

Select one or more records and right-click to open the context-menu. If you select multiple records, the context menu displays the functions that are available and common to all of them.

Click Ctrl+A to select all the objects in the list and right-click to process all them at once. This is useful if, for example, you are searching for objects that you want to move to a different client or Automation Engine system using the Transport Case.

When bulk selecting and right-clicking, the system must check which of the available functions are common to all selected objects. If you have selected a large number of objects, this might take some time. In these cases, a message is displayed informing you of this. Likewise, a message is displayed if the selection results in no functions being available for bulk selection.

Saving Custom Filters

You probably need the same filters once and again. Instead of defining them every time from scratch, you can save your favorite settings in customized filters.

You save your personal filter settings and use them via the Custom filter button on the toolbar:

Custom filters are saved per user. If you save one under a particular user and then log in to as a different user, it will not be available.

To Save a Custom Filter

  1. Define the filter settings you need.
  2. Click the arrow on the Custom Filter button to expand the available options.

  3. Select Save custom filter as.... The following dialog is displayed:

  4. Enter a descriptive name that you can easily recognize.
  5. Click OK.
  6. If you open the list of custom filters again, yours is now available.

To Modify a Custom Filter

  1. Open a custom filter.
  2. On the Filter pane modify the filter settings.

  3. Click the arrow on the Custom Filter button to expand the available options. You have two possibilities to save the new filter:

    • Save custom filter as...

      This opens the Save custom filter as ... dialog and allows you to save the modified settings as a new filter.

    • Save as "..."

      This overwrites the existing custom filter with your new settings.

See also: