Search

The page provides settings influencing Valuemation search functionality.

Catalog Search

• Case-sensitivity switches

  The following two settings influence case sensitivity of queries created in the Complex and Simple Search views and column filters. The settings do not influence existing queries.

  • Initial State

    The default initial state of the case sensitivity buttons in Simple Search, Complex Search, Quick Search, column filters and Reference Views.

  • Visible

    If selected, a case sensitivity button is provided for each text search field in the Simple Search view. This way case sensitivity can be specified for each individual field.
    If clear, the case sensitivity buttons are not provided for individual fields. Case sensitivity of the catalog query is indicated and can be changed by the global case sensitivity switch in the bottom left corner of the catalog.

• Default String Operator

  The setting specifies which operator is used by default in search fields for string attributes. Available options are 'equals', 'like' and 'starts with'.

• Show Catalog Query Selector

  If selected, a combo box for storing and recalling search queries is available in the search views. See the 'Catalog Query Selector' topic for details.

• Apply reset immediately in Field and Expert Search

  The setting influences the behaviour of the 'Reset' button in Field and Expert search. If selected, a new empty condition is used and the catalog is refreshed (the catalog data are reloaded) immediately after you click the 'Reset' button. If cleared, only the condition is deleted after you click the 'Reset' button - the filtered content below in the catalog will be preserved until you run a new search.

• Apply condition when Query is changed

  The setting applies to Column search only. If selected, any change in the condition is applied to the catalog data immediately and automatically. If cleared, a change in the condition is applied only after you start the 'Search' action.

Live Search

• Default operator for One Cell reference view search condition

  Live search typically performs the search operation over multiple attributes. Which attributes are part of the search is determined in the view customizer. (Note that by default, all attributes are included in the search. It is a task of the customizing person to select a reasonable number of search-relevant attributes for live search.)

  'Default operator for One Cell reference view search condition' determines whether searches in individual attributes are connected in an 'And' or 'Or' fashion.

  For example: Live Search has been customized to search in first name and last name. Name 'James Peterson' was entered.

  • 'And' operator setting: only records containing 'James' in either first name or last name AND at the same time containing 'Peterson' in either first name or last name will be returned.
  • 'Or' operator setting: records containing 'James' in either first name or last name as well as records containing 'Peterson' in either first name or last name will be returned.

  The setting also influences the default operator used in Quick Search.

• Maximum items in Live Search widget

  Specifies the maximal count of items to be displayed in the Live Search box.

• Time delay to get results for Live search widget (ms)

  Specifies the time delay (in milliseconds) of the search start when a user is typing in the Live Search input field.

• Minimal characters count to start Live searching

  Specifies the minimal count of characters necessary to be typed by a user in the Live Search input field to initiate Live Search.

• Use 'Starts with' in Live Search

  Specifies whether operator 'Start with' (a.k.a. 'like') should automatically be used for searching in individual fields comprising Live Search.

  To extend the example used for setting 'Default operator for One Cell reference view search condition' above: With setting 'Use 'Starts with' in Live Search' enabled, typing 'Jam' in Life Search would return the 'James' records (in an 'and' or 'or' fashion, depending on the setting) while typing 'mes' would not.

Global Search

• Order results by
  • Name (in memory)

    The default settings. If selected, the search results will be sorted by the displayed name within an object type group. Note that the search results are just a portion of all the possible results in the database that have been returned regardless of their relevancy and then sorted in memory.

  • Score (in database)

    If selected, the search results will be ordered by score (relevancy). The search will also reckon with the frequency of a keyword occurrence in the attributes (and judge some other parameters, too) to form the final search rank by which the search results will be sorted. This leads to more accurate positions of individual search results in the list. For example, if you search for 'Oracle' in Tickets, the Tickets with the 'Oracle' word used more frequently in their Ticket Descriptions will be listed first in the list of search results.

    Note that while more relevant results will be shown first, this option may have a negative impact on performance. It is highly recommended to test this setting with real-life data.

Quick Search

• Maximum count of Quick Search attributes

  Allows you to set the maximum count of attributes which the Quick Search is searching in.

  Please see also the Quick Search settings in the Catalog Customizer.

• Use 'Starts with' in Quick Search

  When selected, Quick Search will use the wildcard (%) only at the end (...like 'abc%'). This can dramatically increase performance as database indexes can be used (if they exist).

  When not selected, Quick Search will use the wildcard (%) both at the beginning and the end (...like '%abc%') at the cost of worse performance.

• Use 'left join' in generated SQL statement (experimental)

  When more than one structured attribute is used for searching, the generated SQL normally contains EXISTS(<sub-select>) for each such attribute, which sometimes leads to poor performance on large data sets (the sub-select must be executeted many times).

  When this option is set, the LEFT OUTER JOIN will be used instead of EXISTS, which should lead to a much better performance.

• Use operator Contains when full-text index exists

  This setting extends the setting above. If full text index exists for a particular string attribute, search operator 'Contains' may be the right search option.

  Set 'Use operator Contains when full-text index exists' to True to make operator 'Contains' the default operator for string attributes with full text index.

  For example, attribute 'Ticket No' is - despite its name - a string attribute for which full text index exists. With the above described setting set to True, the default search operator for 'Ticket No' will be the 'Contains' operator.

Test Search

The purpose of this section is to provide a live preview of a query generated for individual search types with various search settings.

• Quick Search, Live Search, Global Search

  Select a type of search which will be simulated.

• Make Readable

  When selected, the query will be composed in a bit more readable way. For example, toUpperCase() function will be removed, logical operators will be replaced with words etc.

• Input

  Enter a keyword or search phrase.

• Generated Query

  Displays the generated query based on the keyword or search phrase.

After you have got the generated query, now you can try to turn on/off various search options above in the search settings. The query is adjusted accordingly in live preview.