Running Searches in Applications and Questionnaires

Search enables you to perform searches within a specific application or questionnaire of Archer.

On this page

Search Options

Besides keywords and phrases, search provides other options to narrow search results: you can select which fields to display in the search results, use filters to show only the information you want, sort records in the search, and configure the display options on the search results page. You can also present data in a format that is clear and easy to read by defining the display format.

Note: If you want to create charts from your search results, run a search in statistics mode.

Multiple Application Search Options

The following table describes the options for searching across multiple applications, which may run in tandem.

Options

Description

Multiple Application Search

Each secondary application has a direct relationship to the primary application. The system ignores any relationships between the secondary applications.

N-Tier Search

The primary application has a direct relationship to a secondary application. The secondary application in turn has a direct relationship to another secondary application, and so on.

The primary application is the application from which you originate your search, and secondary applications are any number of subsequent applications linked to the primary application and sometimes to each other. Cross-references contained within sub-form records are not supported. In addition, an application or questionnaire can be displayed in a search tree only once.

Permissions still apply, regardless of the structure of the search. In other words, you cannot view records for which you do not have access.

Run a Search

  1. Go to the Search Records page.

    1. From the menu bar, click the Solution menu.
    2. Click the solution.
    3. From the Applications list, click the application or questionnaire.
    4. Click the Search button.
  2. (Optional) In the Keyword Search section, enter the keyword or phrase.
  3. In the Fields to Display section, select the fields you want to appear in the search results.
    1. From the Available list, select the fields that you want to include in your search results.

      Note: If the application in which you are searching is related to other applications, you can include fields from the related applications.

    2. (Optional) Do one or more of the following:
      • To remove fields from your search results, click Close to the right of the field in the Selected list.
      • To reorder the fields in the Selected list, click a field and use the up and down arrows to move it up or down in the list.

      Note: If you select to view fields from related applications or data levels, or fields from within a history log or sub-form field, you can reorder how these fields are displayed in their respective grouping. However, you cannot mix fields contained in these items with fields from your primary application. All contained sub-form fields must be displayed together.

    3. (Optional) Add relationships to additional applications that you want to include in the search.
      1. In the Available list, click Add New Relationship.
      2. Select the related application that you want to include in the search.
      3. At the bottom of the Available list, expand the list of fields for the related application and select the fields that are to be included in the search.
      4. Continue adding fields and related applications as needed.
      5. (Optional) Specify that the search results contain only records that form a relationship between the associated applications or data levels.
        1. On the bottom right corner of the Fields to Display section, click Configure Relationships.
        2. For each associated application or data level that you want included in the search results, select Enforce Relationships.

          To specify that the search results contain higher levels of directly matched records from secondary applications, click Add Higher Levels to Record Lookup.

        3. Click OK.

        Note: If Enforce Relationships is enabled and Filter conditions are set, the search results will be computed like an OR condition.

  4. (Optional) In the Filters section, filter what records are returned in the search results.
    1. In the Field to Evaluate field, select the field to evaluate for one or more specific values.
    2. In the Operator column, select the filter operator.
    3. In the Value(s) column, click the ellipses and select the values for the condition.

      Note: Values lists with 2000 items or more must be manually expanded by clicking the + icon.

    4. (Optional) To create additional conditions, click Add New and repeat steps a - c.
    5. (Optional) If you create more than on condition, apply logic to your search criteria in the Advanced Operator Logic section.
  5. (Optional) In the Sorting section, sort records in the search.
    1. In the Field column, select the field that is the primary sort for the search results.
    2. (Optional) Click Add New to add additional fields for sorting.
    3. In the Order column, select to sort records in ascending or descending order.

      Note: When items in a value list are custom ordered, the order is used for the ascending or descending in the sort order, not an alphabetic sort. Null (blank) values are listed first in ascending sorts. Prefixes and suffixes are not evaluated when determining a sort order.

    4. In the Grouping column, select whether to enable grouping for the search results displayed in the column-hierarchical format.

      If you select to enable grouping, you can expand and collapse sections of the search results based on the values in the sorting field.

    5. (Optional) In the second row of the Field column, select a field by which results are sorted after the initial sort.
    6. (Optional) Select the order and grouping preferences for this field.

      7. If you select to enable grouping, you can expand and collapse sections of the data point search results based on the values in the sorting field. This option is available for only the Column-Hierarchical display format.

  6. (Optional) In the Display Options section, configure the display options for your search results.
    1. From the Display Format list, select one of the available display format options.

        Note: The Map display option is available only if the administrator has enabled the Bing Maps Connection.

    2. From the Results Per Page list, select the number of records you want displayed on each page.
    3. In the Headings field, select the content to display as the header.
    4. In the Record Count field, set the limit of records to display in the search results.
      1. Select one of the following:
        • Return All
        • Limit To
      3. If you selected Limit To, select one of the following:
        • Records. In the Records field, set an integer 1 - 1000 to limit the number of total results shown.
        • Percent. In the Percent field, set a percentage 1 - 100 to limit the number of total results shown.

        Note: Record Count applies only to the top level application.

        Note: Due to tie resolution inclusion, the number of records returned may exceed the defined limit.

    5. (Optional) Choose one or more of the following display options:
      • Expand All Results
      • Fix Headers
      • Enable Inline Edit

        • Note: Display options vary based on the selected display format. Enable Inline Edit is enabled by default for all new searches. To disable Inline Edit, uncheck the box and save the search or report.

  7. If you selected the Map display format, in the Map Configuration section, configure the map display. For more information, see Map Configuration.

    Note: The Map display option does not support cross-reference and leveled applications.

    1. In the Display Mode field, select one of the following:
      • Road
      • Aerial
    2. Add data layers.
      1. In the Data Layer section, click Add New.
      2. In the Name field, enter the data layer name.
      3. In the Location Type field, select one of the following:
        • Address. In the Address Data field, select the address values.
        • Latitude/Longitude. In the Latitude and Longitude fields, select the numeric field corresponding to the values.
      4. (Optional) In the Pin Color field, do one of the following:
        • Select a color and click OK.
        • Select Custom (By Value) to set different colors for multiple values.
      5. If you selected Custom (By Value), customize the pin colors.
        1. In the Values List field, select the values list.
        2. For each value in the values list, select a pin color.
      6. Click OK.
      7. Repeat step b for each data layer.
  8. Click Search.