Advanced Search

The Global Search provides a selection of the search results and a link to the list that contains all objects or 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.

Tip: You can share filtered lists with other users. You can also bookmark the filtered list to be able to access it quickly next time. For more information, see Bookmarking and Sharing Links.

This page includes the following:

Authorizations and Search Results

The results of the search depend on your object authorizations.

To find an object, you must have at least read rights to the folder where it is stored. Otherwise, the search does not display it. If you have read rights to a folder, the results of the search 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 the list of search results displays objects for which you do not have read rights. You can see them on the list, but you cannot open or edit them.

Starting an Advanced Search

  1. You can start an advanced search in two different ways, both from the global search box:

    • Put your cursor in the global search box without entering anything. A pop-up opens up displaying the following sections, each with 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 Process Monitoring perspective.

    • Type a search string in the global search box. The pop-up 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 Totallink on the right corner of the pop-up.

  2. Depending on how you have started the advanced search, click either Advanced Search (if you have not entered anything) or xx Results Total (if you have entered a search string).

  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.

  4. Use the filter criteria on the Filter pane to restrict the number of records in the list. For details on the available filters, see below.

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

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

Outdated Index

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 are 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 - Systemwide Settings).

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.

Filters

Use the following filter criteria to restrict the number of records in the advanced search results.

Object Name

If you entered a name or part of a name in the global search box, this section shows it and the Results list is filtered accordingly.

Allowed wildcard characters: * and ?

By default, the search function uses implicit wildcards at the beginning and at the end of the string you enter here.

Example:

Entering DB_BACKUP triggers the search for *DB_BACKUP*. The following results are also found:

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

Location

This option limits the search for objects to a specific path within your folder structure. Click the arrow to expand the list of folders where you can search for the object and select one.

Object Type

This option restricts the list of objects to one or more object types. See Using AWI Combo Boxes.

Time Frame

This option 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:

Object Contents

Full text search for content available on the following pages of the object definition:

The following limits apply:

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

Notes:

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

Calendar Event

See Searching for Calendar Events.

List of Results

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.

Information in the Browser Caption

The caption of the browser tab of the result list provides information about the Automation Engine system, Client and user that triggered the search:

Search: <entered search criterion>, <number of items found> results (<connection>: client number | user/department | Automic Web Interface)

For example:

Screenshot showing the popup message that displays when hovering the mouse over he browser tab in which the advanced search is opened.

Working with the List

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 with 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.

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.

Note: 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.

Exporting the List to a CSV File

See Exporting Tables to CSV.

Saving Custom Filters

You can save your favorite filters for future reuse. 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. Add and define the filter settings.
  2. Click the arrow on the Custom Filter button to expand the available options.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Select Save custom filter as... and enter the name of the filter in the dialog that is displayed.
    • Select Save as <xxx> to use the name suggested by the system.

  4. Click OK.

    The filter is now available in the Custom filter dropdown list.

To Modify a Custom Filter

  1. Click the arrow on the Custom Filter button.
  2. Select the filter you want to modify.
  3. On the Filter pane modify the filter settings.

  4. Click the arrow on the Custom Filter button again.

    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 "<name of custom filter>"

      This overwrites the existing custom filter with your new settings.

To Delete a Custom Filter

  1. Select the custom filter that you want to delete.
  2. Select Delete view <name of the filter>.

See also: