Defining Global Find Search Conditions

While Global Finds are created in the File Cabinet window of Virtual Ticket, the search condition used in the Find is defined separately in the Global Find editor.

This section will describe how to:

Select a Form on which the Find is based

Define the search condition for the Find

Define how the Find will appear and function for users who access it

Defining Global Find Search Conditions

1. With the File Cabinet window open, browse to and select the Global Find for which you want to define the search condition.
2. Click Open Find ( ). The Global Find Editor window will appear. Since you are opening the Global Find Editor window for a new Find, it will not show any selected form and search criteria.

3. Click the Search expander button ( ) to select the form on which you want to base the Global Find. Selecting the form will both determine which database fields are available for using in the search.
4. Click the FIND MODE button ( ) and select DESIGN. This will put the Global Find into Design mode and allow you to start specifying the search criteria.

Note: You may also specify search criteria in Normal mode. When setting up and administrating Global Finds, however, Design mode is recommended because it allows you to specify search criteria that will be hidden to the user if the Find is saved in Runtime mode.

5. Select a database field on which you want to have the Global Find search from the database field popup ("A." above). The fields available are determined by the folder/document type and the form on which the Find is based.
6. Select the operator you want to apply to the database field from the operator popup ("B." above). The operators available depend on the database field selected, but may include: starts with, contains, does not contain, equal, not equal, less than, less than or equal, greater than or equal, and greater than.
7. Specify the field or value on which the operator will be run ("C." above). The value entered/field selected will become the default value/field that appears each time a user accesses the Global Find within Virtual Ticket.

To compare the value of the database field selected in step 5 to a constant value, type the value in the text field for the search criterion ("C." above), or click the expander to the right of the text field to select a value. The values available depend on the database field selected.

NOTE: When the "contains" operator is used, spaces entered in the text entry field are treated as AND's; the search criterion will be satisfied if each word entered in the text entry field is present somewhere within the database field. To have the database field searched for a phrase that contains spaces, place the phrase within quotes (for example, the search criterion DBField contains word1 ''word2 word3'' will search for records whose DBField field contains both word1 and the phrase word2 word3).

To compare the value of the database field selected in step 5 with the value of another field, click the expander to the right of the text field ("C." above), select Switch to field, then select the appropriate database field. The fields available are determined by the folder/document and the form on which the Find is based. You can also switch back to entering a value in a text field by selecting "Switch to values" from the database field popup.

To use MetaScript to compare the value of the database field selected in step 5, type the appropriate MetaScript in the text field ("C." above). See "Using MetaScript in Finds" for additional information.

8. OPTIONAL: 'Check' the checkbox to the right of the search criterion to hide the search criterion when the Global Find is executed in Runtime mode. Leaving the checkbox unchecked will keep the search criterion visible to the user.

9. OPTIONAL: To define additional search criteria, click the Plus button to the left of the first search criterion. A new criteria line will be added to the list of search criteria. Select either AND or OR and repeat steps 5-8 for each additional criterion you would like to include in the Global Find.

note: In the Virtual Ticket system, AND has a higher priority than OR in all conditions. For example,

Criterion1
and Criterion2
or Criterion3

will be interpreted as "(Criterion1 AND Criterion2) OR Criterion3". A Find based on the above criteria will retrieve the folders/documents for which Criterion1 and Criterion2 are both true, as well as those for which only Criterion3 is true.

If you would like the search criteria to be interpreted as "Criterion1 AND (Criterion2 OR Criterion3)", you must use the following set of search criteria:

Criterion1
and Criterion2
or Criterion1
and Criterion3

A Find based on these search criteria will only retrieve the folders/documents for which Criterion1 is true and either Criterion2 or Criterion3 (or both) is true.

10. OPTIONAL: If the Global Find is based on the Digital Resources folder type, specify any reference searching criteria you want to include in the Global Find. For details on specifying this information, please refer to the "Reference Searching" section below.
11. Click the FIND MODE button and select either NORMAL or RUNTIME. This will put the Global Find into either the Normal or Runtime modes and allow you to test and save the Global Find. For more information on Normal and Runtime modes, please refer to the "About Find Modes" section of this guide.
12. Click Search ( ) to test the Global Find. The Find will retrieve from the database all folder/document records that match the search criteria you have defined. These search results will be displayed in the lower portion of the Find window, allowing you to confirm that the search criteria have been properly defined.
13. optional: Customize the search results grid listing. To do so, open the Grid Customization window for the Find by clicking the Customize Grid button ( ). This window allows you to specify the columns that will appear in the search results grid of the Global Find, the columns' order of appearance, and the columns' sort order. Click OK to close the Grid Customization window.

14. Set the appearance preferences for the find. This includes window size, Digital Resources/Documents view, column sizes (list views only), etc... These appearance preferences will be used the first time the Global Find is opened by a user. Appearance profiles are taken automatically from the working appearance of the find in the Global Find Editor at the time the Global Find is saved. If the "Always reset find appearance on load" checkbox is set, the appearance profile of the Global Find will be used every time the find is opened by a user.
15. Click SAVE ( ) to save the search criteria, grid listing specifications, and appearance profile for the Global Find.
16. Close the Global Find Editor window when finished.

At this point, the Global Find's search condition, appearance, and find modes for each criterion have been saved to the database. The Global Find will be available to all users with access privileges to use it.