5.2 Searching in CMS

5.2.1 Understanding Searching in CMS

Searches are likely to be the fastest way to locate a CI or group of CIs of interest. After you find the CI you are looking for, you can select the CI and:

  • Refine the search based on specific attributes of the selected CI.

  • Open the CI details and edit information about the CI if you have permissions.

  • View and navigate related CI or see what the CI directly impacts.

  • View the location of the CI. For linked CIs, the location always shows the location of the actual CI, rather than the linked location.

  • View event history for the CI.

  • Right-click the CI link to edit the CI to do any of the following:

    • Further refine your search.

    • Add the CI to Favorites or the pinboard.

    • Edit the CI or create new relationships.

    • Add a flag.

    • View relationships, history or impacts.

    • Create a new CI based on that CI.

Figure 5-1 illustrates a Search Results page:

Figure 5-1 Search Results Page

There are a number of ways to search for the data you need through CMS. They include:

From any search results, you can click to expand the entry for any item and expose links to edit the CI (for the features above), run a report on the CI, or use other links to view the diagrams for relationship and impacts, or historical timeline:

However, the viewers opened by the Relationships and History links as shown above (and from the CI’s right-click menu) are limited in functionality—they only show the visual representation of relationships and the historical timeline. To access the detail listings and the Relationship Builder, you must edit the CI.

Search queries can be saved and rerun on demand later.

5.2.2 Drilling In with the Tag Cloud

The Tag Cloud is a useful feature that gives overview of your CIs. On the Home Summary page, the tag cloud can be customized to search all CIs or only a specific community. It can also be further tailored to show tags based on class name or any attribute name.

With a tag cloud, you can see immediately which category has the most CIs (largest word) and the exact number of matching CIs. Click a tag to view a list of matching CIs.

Figure 5-2 List of Matching CIs

5.2.3 Performing a Simple Search

You can search for matches in your entire CMS environment (all communities and myWorkspace) or only in a specific community.

To perform a simple search:

  1. The Search dialog box is available at the top of all CMS pages:

  2. Enter your search criteria in the first field.

  3. Select a domain from the second field’s drop-down list.

  4. Click Go.

5.2.4 Performing an Advanced Search

Use the Advanced Search to set up an advanced search query based on attribute/class matches or Boolean expressions.

If any criteria is specified on the Expression tab, any settings on the Form tab are disregarded in the search.

Perform an advanced search using one of the following methods:

Performing an Advanced Search with Simple AND/OR Matchers

  1. Click the main Search tab to open the Search page:

    To work with an existing search, do one of the following:

    • Click Load to select a saved search.

    • Click and drag a saved search over from the pinboard.

  2. To narrow the domain of the search, select the searchable area from the Look In drop-down list. Select a specific community, or select:

    All of CMS: Searches public space, all communities, and myWorkspace.

    All Communities: Searches only the communities you belong to.

    Public: Searches the default community that all users have access to.

    myWorkspace: Searches your myWorkspace area only.

  3. Specify the parameters of the desired search by specifying any one of the following search criteria on the Form tab:

    • To match by name, enter the full or partial name to match in the Name field.

      If specifying a partial name, be sure to specify a Matched By value that contains Matched Anywhere (see Step 4).

    • To specify which class library to search in, select a library from the Class Library drop-down list.

    • To specify which classes to search, select a class from the Class drop-down list.

      Select the Include Class in Query check box to consider the class value in the search.

      Depending on the class selection, the additional attribute selectors display under the Flags section for more complex search criteria.

      HINT:Begin typing in the Class drop-down list and CMS narrows the list of items to select from.

  4. From the Matched By drop-down list, specify how the search criteria are evaluated.

    Select from:

    • All of the Fields, Matched Anywhere

    • All of the Fields, Matched Exactly

    • Any of the Fields, Matched Anywhere

    • Any of the Fields, Matched Exactly

  5. From the Flags section, select the check boxes of any or all flags that a matching CI must contain.

  6. If a class is selected from the Class drop-down list, specify any search criteria using the available class attributes fields found beneath the Flags section including, but not limited to:

    • Relationships

    • Contact Information

    • Class Specific Information

    Also specify the search columns to include in the results by adding, removing, and ordering column names in the Search Results Columns section.

  7. Click Search to run the search query.

Performing an Advanced Search Using a Boolean Expression

  1. Click the main Search tab to open the Search page.

  2. To narrow the domain of the search, select a community from the Look In drop-down list.

  3. Click the Expression tab to specify advanced expressions for the search query.

  4. If desired, select a class library and class from the respective drop-down lists.

    Selecting a class library and/or class narrows options to a more useful (and shorter) list in the Attribute selectors used to define the expressions.

  5. Do one of the following:

    • Click Actions, then select Add Field to add a single expression.

    • Click Actions, then select Add Group to add a group of expressions that are evaluated together before continuing to evaluate any additional expressions.

    Expressions are evaluated in the order they are defined.

    New expression fields and groups are added below existing fields or groups.

  6. Modify the information shown in the search results by adding, removing, and ordering columns in the Search Results Column section:

    Columns vary depending on the class selected.

  7. Click Search to run the search query.

5.2.5 Refining a Search

CMS allows you to search for a CI of interest and gives you the ability to quickly search for other CIs that are similar from those search results.

To refine a search:

  1. From any Search Results dialog box, locate a CI has some attribute or quality that you want to use to search for similar CIs.

  2. Click the row of the CI to select and expand the CI’s options.

  3. Click Refine Search under the selected CI to open the Refine Search dialog box:

  4. Select any desirable options to assist the search in finding similar CIs.

  5. Click Refine.

    The dialog box closes and search results are returned.

5.2.6 Saving a Search Query

You can save any of your search queries so that they can be easily rerun at another time.

To save a search:

  1. Do one of the following:

    • From any Search Results, click (Pin).

    • From the Search page, specify the desired search criteria, then click Save.

    A Save Search dialog box opens.

  2. Specify the desired name for the saved search.

    Names of saved searches must be unique. If a search already exists with the same name, you are prompted to enter another name.

  3. Click OK and the search is saved and added to the pinboard on the Saved Searches tab.

5.2.7 Renaming a Search Query

To rename a saved search:

  1. From the Searches section of the pinboard, right-click the search name, then click Rename.

  2. Edit the name.