Searching

The Anywhere Platform provides the capability to search for data in the system using a variety of methods. These include a natural text search, advanced search as well as searching within dashboard pages using supplied filter criteria.

Text and advanced search

A search capability is provided which allows either a quick text search across commonly used entities or an advanced search using specific attributes as the search criteria.

How to access

The text and advanced search capability can be accessed from any page in the platform by clicking on the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the screen. This will bring up the search window.
When this feature is first accessed during a login session it will default to the text search.
To close the search window click on the magnifying glass again.
When returning to the search window within a login session it will display whatever was displayed when it was closed. For example if the user is viewing search results, closes the window and then reopens it, the same search results will be shown.

Toggling between text search and advanced search

When in text search mode, click on the link to 'Switch To Advanced Search' beneath the search icon to the right of the text field.
When in advanced mode, click on 'Switch to Text Search' beneath the 'Search' button

Text search

This search mode provides a way to perform a quick text search across one or more commonly used forms.
Enter the text to search for in the field provided
Select which of the commonly used forms to search across.
Click on the magnifying glass icon to the right of the text field to begin the search.
Which fields on the form that are searched for a match will depend on the configuration. More than 1 field may be searched. Commonly used fields include: the Form ID, the Description field and the Creator.
The search automatically applies a wildcard to the start and the end of the string.

Text Search Results

The results of a text search are shown as a list of tiles with each tile representing a form. Basic attributes about the form are displayed.
Click on the tile to open the form and view its details
To get back to the search list after looking at the form, click on the magnifying glass at the top right of the page again.
The text search does not support ordering or exporting to excel. These features are available in the advanced search.

Advanced search - Overview

There are 3 parts to the Advanced Search.

Selecting the forms to be searched.
Selecting the Filters.
Initiating the Search

Items 1 and 3 are required for the search. Not specifying any filters will result in all occurrences of forms of the type(s) selected in step 1 being displayed.

Advanced Search - Selecting forms

At least one form must be selected, multiple ones can be selected but having more than one will limit the possible filters to fields which are common across those forms.
Click on 'Add Form' to add forms to the scope of the search.
Click on the 'x' to the right of a selected form to remove it from the scope

Advanced Search - Adding filters

At least one form must be selected before being able to add filters
Click on 'Add Data Filter' to add a filter. A pop-up window will display the list of available filters. If only one form is selected in step 1, the list of available filters will be all the fields on that form. If more than one form is selected in step 1 only those fields which are configured the same in both forms will be displayed. This is based on the token and the validation assigned to the field during configuration. For example, if form 'Risk' has a field called 'Priority' and token 'PRIORITY' and form 'Issue' also has a field called 'Priority' and token 'PRIORITY' and the list of values is the same then the 'Priority' field will be filterable when searching across both 'Risk' and 'Issue' forms. Fields that are unique to the 'Risk' or 'Issue' forms will not be available as a filter.
After selecting the available field to filter on, select appropriate filter values. These will depend on the field type:

Advanced search - Initiating the search

Click on the 'Search' button to initiate the search. Results matching the search will be shown below.

Advanced search - Results

The result set can be further filtered by entering text into the field at the top of the results.
Use the 'Order By' field to specify which column to order by. Alternatively click the column header to order by that column. Click on the header multiple times to toggle between ascending or descending order. An arrow indicates which column is being ordered by and its direction indicates whether it is ascending or descending order.
Click on the 'Cog' icon to the right of the column headers to bring up the list of columns that can be displayed. If more than one form is selected, this list will contain only fields that are common to all the forms selected.
Click on the Excel icon to the right of the 'Order By' field to export the results to Excel
Click on the ID field of the form to open that form.
To get back to the search list after looking at the form, click on the magnifying glass at the top right of the page again.

Advanced search - Export to Excel

Click on the Excel icon to the right of the 'Order By' field to export the results to Excel

Searching within dashboard pages

Overview

Dashboard pages showing data will, where appropriate, support the ability to filter the data displayed. This is commonly the case where there is potentially more data than can be fitted on the screen.
Some dashboard pages do not support searching. This is either because the page functions as a landing page providing a launch pad to other points in the system or because the data displayed is summary data or relates to a single record, for example an overview page.

Filtering

Where a search capability exists there will be one or more filter fields at the top of the data set. As a minimum this will be a simple text field to search based on a text value. Entering values in the filter fields will automatically filter the data.
Dashboards may have multiple data sets (known as 'Content Areas'). Each of these may have their own filters.
Some dashboards may have filters which apply across all data on the page.

Ordering

In addition to filter fields there will be an 'Order By' field to select which attribute to order by.

Display Format (List vs Tile)

Some data sets can be displayed in 'Tile' form or in 'List' form. Toggling between these two, if available, will be indicated by two icons to the right of the 'Order By' field either 4 squares (to display as tiles) or 4 stacked rectangles (to display as a list).
When in list form, the column header can be clicked to select that column as the ordering column. Click on the header multiple times to toggle between ascending or descending order. An arrow indicates which column is being ordered by and its direction indicates whether it is ascending or descending order.

Managing large data sets with Show More/Show Max

With large data sets only a certain number of rows will be displayed by default.
Where there is more data available there will be 'Show More/Show Max' toggle at the bottom of the data set.
Select 'Show More' to bring back the next batch of data and 'Show Max' to show all data.

FAQ

Q: Why are there only a small number of filters available on the advanced search?
A1: This is likely because multiple forms have been included in the scope of the search. The list of filters will be restricted to those which are common to all forms. As a minimum this would include the form id and the creator. To view a full list of fields for the form, restrict the scope to just that form.
A2: During configuration fields are selected for whether they are visible when searching. If the field is not visible, contact the person responsible for configuration.
A3: Some field types cannot be searched. Examples of these are document attachment fields and table components.

Q: Why is there no export to Excel option?
A: The export to Excel option is only available when the results are displayed in tabular (or list) form. The option is not available when the data is displayed in 'Tile' form. Follow the instructions above to toggle from tile to list form and the export option will become available.

Q: When using Text Search, which fields are searched?
A: The text search is a configurable function which supports searching across multiple fields in different forms. Usually this will include the ID, the creator and prominent text fields such as 'Name', 'Title' or 'Description'.

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