Searching. Qvidian Proposal Automation (QPA) Quick Reference Guide. Types of Searches. Browse

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1 Qvidian Proposal Automation (QPA) Quick Reference Guide Types of Searches There are three main types of searches within QPA: Browse Search Advanced Search Please also refer to the sections Content Items (Search Results) and Additional Search Information and Examples for more details. Browse To browse for content, either select Library from the Home Page or from within your Project. The Browse search displays all content satisfying the specific search/browse criteria as well as user permission access in a selected Library Folder. Example 1

2 Search This basic type of search can be initiated from the top-left of the Home Page and from Library s Search Panel. Type the word or phrase for which you want to search and then click or press ENTER to start the search. Navigation Bar actions Library s Search panel example As a default, the Search function will search for all of the words typed in the search field. The system will search for these words within the content title, the content, and the Search terms. When these words match content in Library s database, the Content Item(s) display in the lsit/grid. You can override the default of searching for all words using search operators within the search field. Available search operators are: OR Using OR before a term will perform a match any criteria. (e.g., OR bio OR John OR Michael) + Using a plus symbol in front of the word will search for the exact form, no inflection. - Using a minus sign in front of the word will exclude this word. (e.g., OR John OR Michael -Sally) quotes Using quotes to encompass a phrase will search for that exact phrasing. (e.g., Project Manager ) * Using an asterisk at the end of the word will perform a wild card search. (e.g., employ*) 2

3 Advanced Search The Advanced Search can be initiated from the Advanced link atop the Home Page and from Library s Search Panel. Example Advanced Search screen The Advanced Search provides built in conditions for your search words: Search for content containing all of these words will return content that contains all of the words entered in the field, which is the default for the Basic Search this exact wording or phrase will return content that contains the specific phrase entered in this field, which is similar to using quotes in the Basic Search one or more of these words will return content that contains any of the words in the field, which is similar to using the OR wild card in the Basic Search But don t show content containing any of these unwanted words will exclude content that contains any of the words in the field, which is similar to use the minus (-) in the Basic Search Enter your search words in any of the provided areas and click At the onset, the Advanced Search will search: for all languages for all individual content items and content bundles within the content title, the content, and the Search terms no filtering to start the search. When the next search is performed, the previous search configuration will be recalled from the previously executed Advanced Search. You can change any of these default settings using the More search tools area. 3

4 Search Folders When a folder is not selected, Advanced Search searches all folders of the Library. Each folder can contain different types of content Q&A Pairs, Items, and Files as well as any format type of content, such as MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, PDF, etc. You can double click a single Folder to display its Content in the list/grid. You can also browse multiple folders by checking the box to the left of each folder and then clicking the Browse button on the Actions menu. See following example. To search within specific folders rather than the entire Library, select the checkbox to the left of each folder you want included in the search. To quickly select all of the subfolders of any folder, right-click on the folder name and choose Select All from the options. Refer to the Additional Search Information and Examples for more details. 4

5 Filtering As a default, the Advanced Search does not filter any of the results based on properties of the content. To filter your search results by content properties, use either the Basic or Advanced filtering. Basic Search Filtering Content Type Content File Format Created by Owned by Last Modified by Date Created Date Last Modified Expiration Date Status Indicator Expired Indicator Advanced Search Filtering All Basic Search Filters listed at left, plus: Edit Restrictions Content ID Times Used Content Linked To Content Linked From Managed by Last Used by Translation Status Translation Parent Last Modified by Date Checked Out Date Last Used Date Checked In Unassigned Indicator Checked Out Indicator Bulk Loaded Indicator Alert Indicator Submitted Indicator Bundled Indicator Linked Indicator 5

6 Content Items (Search Results) You can choose to show your Content Items in either a List or Grid View. The List View displays each content item in multiple wrapping lines containing the title, the content, and selected properties. The Grid View displays the content items in a multi-column table. List View Example Grid View Example You can sort the results using the Sort by drop-down from the list view and by clicking on a column heading from the grid view. You can select which properties display in either view option using the option. The grid view additionally provides filtering by column and the ability to export to MS Excel. 6

7 Actions/Context Menus To perform various functions with one or more selected Content Items, you can use the For selected items: Actions menu that displays above the grid and then select the function to perform. You can also right click on selected record on the list/grid to display the same function. Context Menu (right click on record) Example 7

8 Additional Search Information and Examples Search terms The term or terms entered in All these words, this exact wording or phrase, one or more of these words, and any of these unwanted words will be treated as AND conditions between each of these types of Search terms criteria. If, for example, you enter the word research into All these words and you enter high yield fund in one or more of these words, the search will require that both of those conditions are met. In other words, both the term research and the phrase high yield fund must exist in the selected Found in metadata for a result to be found. Note that because high yield fund is surrounded by double quotes it is treated as an exact phrase match. Found in selections When selecting Found in metadata fields in the search scope (Title, Keywords, etc.), the search is constructed such that the conditions from the 'Search terms' section above must be met entirely in at least one of the Found in fields. In the above 'Search terms' section example, the term research and the phrase high yield fund must exist together in Title or exist together in Keywords or exist together independently in both Title and Keywords. The search does not look for all possible combinations such as: (research in Title and high yield funds in Keywords) or (research in Keywords and high yield funds in Title). In other words, the search does not try to generate all the permutations of which sets of Search terms exist in and/or across all the combinations of the selected Found in metadata fields in any mix, subset, or grouping of the terms. Please note these considerations when using permutations of Search terms and Found in combinations: The number of permutations of such a matrix of Search terms against the 7 Found in fields could be quite large, especially if many Search terms are entered in one or more of the Search terms entry fields. For example: A user enters 12 Search terms in the all these words field specified with all 7 Found in fields. The listing, therefore, of all the permutations of any of those terms existing in any mix across any of the selected Found in fields while requiring that each of the 12 Search terms occur at least once in any of the specified Found in fields could possibly create problems that may not be feasible in the SQL constructs available and also may be confusing to see why a certain result is present as the terms are not readily displayed to explain why the result was matched. 8

9 Saved Searches You can Save the search criteria for any Advanced Search and then select that Saved Search. Refer to the Saved Searches Quick Reference Guide for details. Keyword searching When a Keyword is defined in the system, a number of Aliases may also be associated to the Keyword. Assigning a Keyword to content implicitly/effectively also assigns the Keyword s associated Aliases to the content. When search is configured with the Found in metadata field Keywords selected, the entered Search Term(s) are not only compared to the Assigned Keywords but are also compared to the Assigned Keywords associated Aliases. This compare will find any matching instance of the search term(s) within the assigned keywords or their aliases. SQL Server Full Text Index/Search The search mechanism is entirely based on SQL Server s full text index/search mechanisms and capabilities. At the SQL statement level, search is using the full text search verb CONTAINSTABLE. CONTAINSTABLE provides a Rank of each result that is calculated by SQL Server s full text index/search engine using an internal algorithm. It is likely that this algorithm is based on many factors and complex linguistic concepts and rules. It is unclear if the details of the ranking algorithm SQL Server utilizes is publicly available. In theory, it may include factors such as how closely the search term is matched (inflectional, exact), number of times search term is found, maybe proximity of multiple instances of Search terms to each other, how close to the beginning of the metadata the Search terms are found, etc. Inflectional searching Unless configured otherwise via the Options link (top right of the search window s navigation bar), any search term not enclosed in double quotes or specified in the 'this exact wording or phrase' field will be searched using SQL s full text search s INFLECTIONAL capabilities which basically means that variations of the Search terms within the selected Found in metadata fields may also generate a match. All Languages searching In the QPA database, content of different languages are stored in different full-text indexed database tables to ensure that the SQL Server uses the correct word-breakers and word-stemmers based on the specified language. When searching 'All Languages', the list of language-specific, full-text indexed database tables holding the content are joined into a large SQL full text query which would further complicate any attempt to search for permutations of search term matches across/in selected Found in fields. 9

10 Search Content IDs You can perform a search for Content IDs only. Click in the Search by Content ID(s) field (upper right corner of Library screen). Click in the field, type in the Content ID and then press Enter. You can search for more than one Content ID by separating each ID with a comma. See following example where 1 Content ID was entered. System wide search A relatively unknown capability within the Advanced Search interface is the ability to conduct a system wide search which is only restricted by the user s permissions to access the content. Basically, this is a system wide browse without regard to a specific folder. To run such a search, the user configures the advanced search interface as follows: No folders are checked in the folder navigation tree panel. No Search terms of any type are specified in the top panel. The Filtering option of None is selected. This search will return all content across the entire system that the user has permission to access. 10

11 Home Page Search / Library Search The search s configuration can be determined by a system wide setting via a special database SearchSettings control record or via built-in default settings. Currently, most QPA systems do not leverage the special database record. So, by default, the search is configured as follows: No folders are used to restrict the search results. 'Include' setting is specified as All meaning both content and bundles will be searched. 'Found in settings include Title, Content, and Search terms. 'Filtering' option of 'None'. Inflectional search mode from the last/previous search run is applied. Language from the last/previous basic search is applied. Within the Library Basic Search panel, the user can modify the: Inflectional search mode by check its box. Language setting as desired using the Language dropdown. 11