Novell Doc: Novell Vibe 3.4 User Guide - Searching for Information

2.4 Searching for Information

Search functionality in Novell Vibe enables you to accomplish the following tasks:

Discover what information is available about a particular topic.
Quickly navigate to a workspace (personal, team, etc.), folder, or tagged item that you know exists on the Vibe site.
Locate a subject-matter expert.
Locate a relevant workspace or folder.

The following topics describe Search functionality:

2.4.1 Using Basic Search

To perform a basic search:

Type the words or quoted phrases into the Search field, then either press Enter on your keyboard, or click the Search icon .

Vibe enables you to refine your basic search in the following ways:

Search Capability	Function	Example
AND, OR, and NOT between two terms.	Searches for Vibe entries where two terms or phrases: Both exist (AND) Either exist (OR) One exists but not the other (NOT) By default, Vibe uses AND when you do not specify an operator between two terms.	sales NOT figure searches for Vibe entries that contain the term “sales” but not the term “figure.”
Double quotation marks surrounding a phrase.	Groups words together to make a phrase.	“marketing meeting notes”
Field name followed by a colon, followed by brackets that contain a date range.	Searches a specific field that contains values within a specific date range.	birthDate:{20070503* TO 20100608} searches all entries whose birthDate field contains values greater than 5/3/2007 and less than 6/8/2010. Use curly brackets if you want to exclude the beginning and ending dates from the search, as in the above example. Or, use square brackets if you want to include the beginning and ending dates that you specify. For example, birthDate:[20070503 TO 20100608*] searches all entries whose birthDate field contains values of 5/3/2007 or greater and 6/8/2010 or less. The search field name (birthDate) is the same as the internal data element name that you can obtain from the Form and View Designer for entry definitions. (For more information, see Creating a Custom Folder Entry Form in the Novell Vibe 3.4 Advanced User Guide.)
Asterisk (*) after word fragments. You cannot put an asterisk before word fragments.	Searches for words that begin with the word fragment that you specify.	work* searches for words such as “workspace” and “workshop.” *space does not search for words ending in “space,” such as “workspace.”
Question mark (?) as a replacement for any single character.	Replaces any single character in your search. You can use multiple question marks to replace multiple characters.	t??e returns all results containing the words “true,” “tree,” and so forth. You cannot use a question mark as the first character in a search.
Tilde (~) after a term.	Searches for approximate matches for a single word.	roam~ finds matches such as “foam” and “roams”.
Tilde (~) after a group of words, followed by a number.	Searches for instances of the words that you specify that are within a certain distance.	“marketing notes”~5 searches for instances where the words “marketing” and “notes” appear within 5 words of each other.
Caret (^) after a term.	When you search for more than one word, using the caret (^) symbol after a word gives higher relevance to the word (entries with more occurrences of the term are displayed first in the search results). Adding a number after the caret symbol gives even higher relevance to the word. By default, the relevance factor is 1. For example sales is the same as sales^1.	sales^ figure finds matches for “sales” and “figure,” giving higher relevance to the term “sales” (entries with more occurrences of the term “sales” are displayed first in the search results). To give even higher relevance, sales^2 is higher than sales^, and sales^3 is higher than sales^2, and so forth. You can also give relevance to phrases. For example, “sales figure”^2 “marketing figure”
Minus (-) before a word	Excludes the word from the search.	-tree excludes all items containing “tree,” “Tree,” “TREE,” and so on.
Field name followed by a colon, followed by what you want to search for.	Searches a specific field. When searching a specific field, you must search on the data name of the field. Data names resemble the true names found in the interface. Fields you can search on are: _creationDate _creatorName _modificationDate _modificationName _ownerName _ownerTitle _workflowState _fileName _fileStatus _fileExt _rating _loginName _groupName firstName middleName lastName emailAddress txtEmailAddress mobileEmailAddress title description When searching in a specific field, the field name is always case-sensitive, even for a case-insensitive search.	title:meeting finds instances of the word “meeting” in the entry Title field. description:meeting finds instances of the word “meeting” in the entry Description field. emailAddress:jchavez* finds instances of “jchavez” in the Email Address field.

Click the Search Options icon to refine your search to include only people, places, or tags, as described in Section 2.4.2, Searching for Specific People, Places, or Tagged Items.

You can also select one of your saved searches.

2.4.2 Searching for Specific People, Places, or Tagged Items

To refine your search to include only people, places, or tags:

Click the Search Options icon .
Select one of the following options:
- People: Enables you to quickly navigate to a user’s personal workspace.
- Places: Enables you to quickly navigate to any folder or workspace within Vibe. For example, if you want to locate a colleague’s Blog folder, simply type blog, then specify the name of your colleague. The appropriate place is listed in the drop-down list.
- Tags: Enables you to locate any workspaces, folders, or entries that have been tagged. Specify the name of the tag that you are searching for, and click the name in the drop-down list. Vibe displays all of the workspaces, folders, and entries that have been tagged with that particular tag.
  
  Vibe displays all personal tags, and all community tags for which you have appropriate rights.
In the provided field, begin typing the name of the person, place, or tag that you are searching for.

Vibe applies type-to-find functionality. As you type, Vibe lists items matching what you have typed so far (all items matching “d”, then all items matching “di,” for example).

If there is more than one panel of choices, you can click the left-arrow and right-arrow icons to review your choices.
Click the name of the person, place, or tag when it appears in the drop-down list.

The person, place, or tagged items are displayed.

2.4.3 Using Advanced Search

Advanced Search enables you to narrow your search based on various criteria.

Click the Search Options icon .
Click Advanced Search.

You can also perform an advanced search from the Search Results page.

Click Advanced Search.

If your search requires more than one criterion, click Add and Vibe provides another field for your use.

Click the X icon next to a criterion to remove it from the search.

Text: Enter the specific text that you are searching for.

For more information about the various ways that you can refine a text-based search, see Section 2.4.1, Using Basic Search.

Places: This section enables you to restrict your search to a particular place. Expand the tree by clicking the plus sign (+) next to the Home Workspace, then navigate to and select the workspace or folder that you want to search.

Search All Sub Places: Searches everything below what you selected in the Workspace tree.

Search deleted items: Search for items that have been deleted. The search returns only items that have been deleted.

Items Per Page: Select how many results you want to display on each Search Results page.

Words Per Item: Select the number of words to display for each search result.

Sort by: Select how you want to sort your search results. You can sort search results by the following categories:

Relevance: When you select Relevance, the most relevant results are displayed at the top of the list.
Date: When you select Date, the results that were most recently added or modified that match the search criteria are displayed at the top of the list.
Rating: When you select Rating, entries that have the highest rating are displayed at the top of the list. For more information on rating entries, see Section 7.18, Rating a Folder Entry.
Reply Count: When you select Reply Count, entries that have the most replies are displayed at the top of the list.

Sort by (secondary): Enables you to sort your search results by a secondary category.

If you want to sort by only one category, select the same category that you selected in the Sort by drop-down list.

Authors: Search for items based on the author.

Tags: Search for items that are tagged, whether they are community or personal tags. For more information on tags, see Section 3.6, Using Tags.

Workflow: Search for items that have a particular workflow applied to them.

Entry Attributes: Search for entries based on an element that the user selected in the entry, such as a select box or a radio button. For example, select Task Entry, then in the next field that appears, select Due Date. In the third field that appears, select a day to perform a search for all tasks due on that particular day.

Last Activity in Days: Select to search for items that have been active in the last 1, 3, 7, 30, or 90 days.

Creation Dates: Search for items based on when the items were created. In the fields provided, specify the start and end dates of the desired interval.

Modification Dates: Search for items based on when the items were last modified. In the fields provided, specify the start and end dates of the desired interval.

Item Type: Select the type of item you are searching for.

2.4.4 Searching for Deleted Items

Vibe enables you to search for items that have been deleted from the Vibe site. After you find the deleted item that you’re searching for, you can view the item by clicking it. For information on how to undelete the item, see Section 4.1.4, Undeleting a Workspace, Section 5.4, Undeleting a Folder, or Section 7.9, Undeleting a Folder Entry. You can undelete the item only if you have appropriate rights. If you want to undelete the item but you do not have appropriate rights, contact the user who created the item and ask them to undelete it.

For more information on undeleting items in Vibe, see Restoring Deleted Items in the Novell Vibe 3.4 Advanced User Guide.

To search for a deleted item:

Click the Search Options icon .

The Search Options dialog box is displayed.
Click Advanced Search.
Select Search deleted items.
(Optional) Narrow your search in any of the ways described in Section 2.4.3, Using Advanced Search.

If you decide not to narrow your search, all items that have been deleted from Vibe are displayed.

Purged items cannot be displayed.
Click Search.

2.4.5 Saving and Reusing Searches

Vibe enables you to save searches, so you can reuse them in the future.

Saving Your Search

To save a search for later use:

After you have performed a search that you want to save, click View > Saved Searches in the Action toolbar.

The Saved Searches dialog box is displayed.
In the Manage Saved Searches section, specify the name of the search that you want to save, then click Save > Close.

Accessing Saved Searches

Click the Search Options icon .

The Search Options dialog box is displayed.
In the Saved Searches drop-down list, click the saved search that you want to access.

2.4.6 Locating a Subject-Matter Expert

Vibe enables you to locate subject-matter experts by providing a list of users who have written the most concerning a particular topic. For example, you might want to locate a user in your organization who knows a lot about Java code.

Perform a basic or advanced search, as described in Section 2.4.1, Using Basic Search and Section 2.4.3, Using Advanced Search.

The Search Results page is displayed with a list of entries that match your search criteria.
Click View > Top Ranked in the Action toolbar.

A list of top-ranked places and top-ranked people is displayed. The users at the top of the Top Ranked People section have made the most posts to the Vibe site concerning the particular topic that you searched. Click a user’s name to navigate to the user’s personal workspace.

2.4.7 Locating a Relevant Workspace or Folder

Vibe enables you to locate workspaces and folders that contain information about a particular topic. For example, you might want to locate a discussion forum on the Vibe site that is centered on Java code.

Perform a basic or advanced search, as described in Section 2.4.1, Using Basic Search and Section 2.4.3, Using Advanced Search.

The Search Results page is displayed with a list of entries that match your search criteria.
Click View > Top Ranked in the Action toolbar.

A list of top-ranked places and top-ranked people is displayed. The places at the top of the Top Ranked Places section contain the most information about the particular topic that you searched. Click the name of the workspace or folder to quickly navigate there.