16.4 Viewing and searching a Collection

16.4.1 Results type

16.4.2 Document type

16.4.3 Issue type

16.4.4 Issuing criteria

16.4.5 Search results

To go into a collection, click on its name or the collection icon in the usual way. The number immediately after the name of the collection indicates the number of objects (documents, issues and reviews) it contains. A collection is unlike a folder or workspace, where a folder hierarchy is used to subdivide the objects into manageable sets which can be displayed relatively easily on a single web page. Instead, the method of accessing objects within a collection is via the Collection Search page as shown in Figure 16.2-1.

Because collections are designed to hold a potentially huge number of documents, precautions are taken when carrying out searches to avoid returning all objects within the collection in the search results. You are not permitted to submit a search in a collection without stipulating some kind of search criterion. For instance, you are not permitted to search for all documents without giving some text to match against the document name or selecting the document type (see section 13.2.5 - Document type) to be returned.

Important Note

For this reason, the first time you go into a collection, no objects will be visible.

The search criteria, and any matching results which you have previously submitted will be displayed when you return to the collection search page.

The collection search page is divided into 4 search sections each of which is described below in sections 16.4.1 - Results Type, 16.4.2 - Document Type, 16.4.3 - Issue Type and 16.4.4 - Issuing Criteria. Further search criteria can be added to refine your search and so reduce the number of results returned. When you have specified your search criteria, click "Search" to run the search. The "Clear" button resets all search criteria to their initial (blank or default) values and so the collection search page refreshes to a blank search with no results.

Note

Search results are further refined via the boxes beneath the field headings in the lower part of the page - see section 16.4.5 - Search results.

16.4.1 Results type

The first distinction to be made is between searching for a Document or for an Issue or Review. This defines what type of objects will be returned in the search but not all the criteria which will be considered in returning these objects. On its own, selecting either of these options is insufficient to narrow down the search sufficiently to permit search results to be returned.

Text entered in the Keywords search box is matched against both object names and descriptions.

Specifying that the domain of a search is "Document" and that the keyword to be searched for is "committee" is sufficient to find all documents with "committed" in their name or description. Combining this search with a Document Type search (see section 16.4.2 - Document Type) for minutes will restrict the results of the search further.

Ticking the "Search document contents" checkbox will permit searching inside documents of MS Office types and any other types configured on your server, e.g. PDF documents. (Ask your server administrator for more details of what document contents searching is available on your server.)

The "Show all revisions" textbox ensures that all the versions of a document which match the search criteria are listed in the search results.

The number of search results displayed per page is easily controlled by the next text box. When more results are returned in a search, links to the other search pages are given in the bottom right hand corner of the upper, search part of this page as shown in Figure 16.2-1. (It is recommended that no more than 50 results are displayed per page for clarity.)

By default, objects with both valid and invalid metadata (see section 13.2.3 - Validity policy) are returned in search results. However, it may often be advantageous to find only those objects with invalid metadata. For instance, this would be a quick way to locate and then set metadata on all the objects with currently invalid values. The checkboxes provided enable this selection to be carried out.

It is not necessary to narrow down the search by any criteria in the Results Type section. After selecting Issue or Review initially, the Keywords option may be left blank. For instance, all issues which have not yet been sent could be located (see section 16.4.3 - Issue Type) without specifying anything about their names.

16.4.2 Document type

Even if no values are specified in the Results Type section (see section 16.4.1 - Results Type), for example to limit the search to matching characters in the document name or description, results can be returned if a document type is selected.

If you have specified that the type of objects returned by your search results should be Document (see section 16.4.1 - Results Type), adding criteria to the Document Type section will clearly restrict the results returned. If the results type is Issue or Review, specifying will also restrict the results. Only issues or reviews with documents matching the given criteria will be returned.

Specifying "No Type" indicates that the positive search results should not be of any document type (see section 13.2.5 - Document type.) Specifying "Any Type" will return documents of any available document type as well as those of "No Type". The available document types are defined by the metadata schema applied to the workspace containing the collection. The number in brackets after the document type indicates the number of this type of object contained in the collection - see Figure 16-4.1.

Figure 16.4-1: Example of a drop down list showing document types

Document Type searching may be further restricted by clicking on "Show Fields" beside the drop-down list containing the available document types. If this section is not expanded, none of its search criteria are active. On clicking "Show Fields", textboxes and drop-down list boxes corresponding to the metadata fields which are used by the available document types appear. (Those metadata fields which are exposed in the collection's container are not displayed here but as headings in the lower part of the page - see section 16.4.5 - Search results.)

Required fields are indicated with a *. If a document type is specified, the metadata fields which do not apply to this document type are greyed out.

16.4.3 Issue type

As for Document Type searching, described in section 16.4.2 - Document Type, specifying "No Type" indicates that the positive search results should not be of any issue type (see section 13.2.7 - Issue Type). Again, if this section is not expanded, none of its search criteria are active. Specifying "Any Type" will return issues or reviews of any available issue type as well as those of "No Type". The available issue types are defined by the metadata schema applied to the workspace containing the collection.

If you have specified that the type of objects returned by your search results should be Issue or Review (see section 16.4.1 - Results Type), adding criteria to the Issue Type section will clearly restrict the results returned. If the results type is Document, specifying will also restrict the results. Only documents attached to issues or reviews matching the given criteria will be returned.

Issue Type searching may be further restricted by clicking on "Show Fields" beside the drop-down list containing the available issue types. On clicking "Show Fields", textboxes and drop-down list boxes corresponding to the metadata fields which are used by the available issue types appear. (Those metadata fields which are exposed in the collection's container are not displayed here but as headings in the lower part of the page - see section 16.4.5 - Search results.)

Required fields are indicated with a *. If an issue type is specified, the metadata fields which do not apply to this document type are greyed out.

Note

Issue Type searching applies to both issues (see section 15 - Issuing) and reviews (see section 16 - Reviews) since issues and reviews share the same set of types.

16.4.4 Issuing criteria

Click on or the text Show Issuing Criteria to expand this section and use its fields to limit the search. The issuing criteria may be applied equally well to documents in the collection which have been issued or to issues and reviews themselves. If this section is not expanded, none of its search criteria are active. The available fields are:

• Issued by - select the person who sent out the issue from the drop-down list of usernames (from your address book plus current workspace members) or leave it this set to (any) or blank to exclude this field from the search criteria
• Issued to - the same set of people as are available for Issue by
• For reason - the issuing reasons defined by all the field sets (see section 13.2.11 - Metadata field sets) available on the current metadata schema (both local and global) which define the Purpose of Issue (according to the Issue Sheet), also known as the Response Type, on the Edit Issue page. In addition, the default response type for issues or reviews of No Type will also be an option. Leave this selection blank to exclude it from the search.
• Where the issue is - allows you to search for issues (or documents related to issues) which are waiting to be sent out (Not Sent) - see section 15.4.1 - Sending out an issue, have been sent out but are still awaiting a response from at least one user (For Response) - see section 15.4.2 - Responding to an issue, which have had all responses returned and which have been completed by the person who sent out the issue (Completed) - see section 15.4.5 - Completing an issue - or those issues which were sent out and then subsequently cancelled (Cancelled) - see section 15.4.7 - Canceling an issue. This refinement does not apply to reviews. Leave this selection blank to exclude it from the search. Note that if every user has completed their actions but the issuer has not yet completed the issue, it will still be categorised as For Response.
• Where actions are - searches for objects where at least one user has at least one action outstanding. Leave this selection blank to exclude it from the search.
• Search by date - check this to include the date search criterion in the search, as defined by:
• Where actions are due from X to Y - specify the date range in which actions are due. The ordering of the higher and lower value is irrelevant.Note that a range of 0 to 0 (irrespective of units) will return issues on which actions which are due to be completed today. Therefore it is important to untick the Search by date checkbox if you wish to exclude this search term from your search. When this search criterion is not in use, it is greyed out.

16.4.5 Search results

Search results are displayed in the lower part of the Collection Search page as shown in Figure 16.2-1. Aligned with the "Search" and "Clear" buttons, the number of objects contained in the collection is shown, with the total including all revisions of documents in brackets. Next, the number of objects which match the currently specified search criteria is displayed. Finally on this line, the number of objects listed on the current page is given. Where the number of matching results extends over more than one page, links are available here to move to subsequent pages of results.

The same metadata fields are displayed for the search results as are exposed in the folder or workspace containing it - see section 13.3.6 - Viewing metadata. These fields do not appear in the "Show Fields" section of the upper part of the Collection Search page. This is because refining the initial search is accomplished by entering further search parameters in the boxes directly beneath the column headings. For instance, in the search for documents of the invoice type shown in Figure 16.4-2, only those invoices sent to Waterman will be returned when "Search" is clicked.

Figure 16.4-2: Example of searching within a collection

Click on the name of an object to view its contents. To respond to an issue or review, go into the relevant issue sheet and follow the steps outlined in section 15.4.2 - Responding to an issue or locate the issue or related documents and proceed as described in section 15.4.3 - Tasks. From an issue, return to the collection by clicking the appropriate link (usually the Issues name) in the location bar.

Depending on the settings on the workspace (in particular the metadata schema - see section 13.2.1 - Creating a metadata schema) the collection is in you may not be permitted to see all objects in the collection. If privacy settings - see section 13.2.2 - Privacy are in place, the workspace creator may have chosen to prevent documents from being visible in searches to the majority of users. Alternatively, private objects may be returned by a search but it will not be possible to perform any actions on them, including clicking on them to view them. A private object is indicated by .

Also, the metadata validity policy - see section 13.2.3 - Validity Policy - of the metadata schema may limit access to objects with invalid metadata. This may manifest itself in object names which appear simply as text rather than clickable links. In some cases, clicking on the object names to open them may be permitted but the full set of actions on the object's menu (displayed by clicking on ) will not be available. An object with invalid metadata is indicated by .

Clicking on any of the headings orders search results by this field. (If the column headings are not clickable, you should check your preferences - see section 5.7.2 - General Configuration Settings.) Clicking on the same heading again reverses the ordering. The field which is currently determining the sort order is indicated by the icon.