The Content Search view is a combination function and view - allowing users to find things in the system, then use the results like any other item listing with standard content actions and tools. The search capability operates on all items including folders and can be triggered from either the content manager itself of from the home menu on the Home page.
Content Search Workspace
To access the content search tools and view, user can either start a simple search from the home menu (pink arrow below) or opening up the search view itself in the content manager (red arrow below).
The content search workspace has these elements:
- Search String and Type (red box above) - here a user can supply the text they wish to search on. The system will search names and descriptions for a match. The match is driven by the search type (white arrow above) which is set ot "contains" by default.
- Content Type Filter (blue arrow above) - this allows the user to narrow down the types of content to search and return: Model, Discover, Formulate, Present, Publish, Illustrate and folders.
- Data Model Filter (purple box above) - this allows the user to narrow down the search by finding only those content types that are attached to certain data models. Use the drop down to pick a data model from the list.
- Meta Data Filters (orange arrow above) - this allows the user to narrow down the search based on create date, last modified date and last modified user. Clicking the button will expose the following pop-up dialog, giving the user the ability to specify more detailed filter criteria for the search.
Using Content Search
Standard Search
As described above, the search can be triggered from the home menu or from inside the content search view.
- If the home menu approach is used, the application prompts the user to first supply a search term after which it shows the results in the content search view using a basic term search with a "contains" match type - ignoring all other filter options.
Using the search bar in the content search view, the user can supply as many or as few elements of the search mechanism. Typically, the search term is supplied, after which the user clicks the search button (green box above). The results are shown in the item listing (yellow box) with a mini summary count of the items returned in the bar (blue box).
Supplying no details will, in effect, return the entire data repository. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
Users can change the way the result listing looks (like in all content views) by changing the display types (teal box above). Once rendered, the items can be used like in any other view - this includes actions for both content items and folders.
To clear the search, and start from scratch, click the clear button (teal arrow above).
Tag Search
Once content has been tagged it can be used in searched - however, it operates on a slightly different path to the standard search approach described above.
First, check the "Tag Search" option in the search bar (green arrow above). The list of current tags in the system is then presented to the user (green box below). Clicking on any tag will immediately find and show any items that have been tagged accordingly in the item listing (yellow box below).
Users can then filter this list further by using the search term (in the red box below) to search and filter the results of the tagged item listing.
Some of the other search filters are disabled when using tag based searches
