Search

This page is all about the many ways to perform a Search in NetForum.

Searching For Records

There are several different ways that you can search for records and view the list results in NetForum: Super Search, Find, and Run Query. Each is useful in different scenarios. Before elaborating on each method, there are a few things which apply to every method that you should be aware of.

• Searches in NetForum are not case sensitive. A search for JOHN, john, or JoHn will return the same results.
• NetForum is space sensitive. A search for Mc Carthy will not return McCarthy.
• The NetForum wild card is the percent sign (%). The wild card will take the place of any combination of characters — single or multiple. For example, a search for a last name beginning with M%arth will return McCarthy, McCarthey, McArthur, MacArthur, Mc Carthy, etc.

Find

Find - The Find page can be accessed by clicking on the group item link for the type of record you want to find. Find pages are generated by adding a Search Control in the Toolkit on the Help; see Find FAQ for more.

Query

A Query gives you more advanced search capabilities. The query tool allows you to use a more complex set of criteria to find records than a standard search. From here, you can create a true Boolean query, using any combination of AND, OR, and parentheses. You can also search on many more columns than the Find page allows. See Query, Sub-Query, and Query Central topics for more information.

Super Search

The Super Search (located in the upper right hand corner) is useful when you have a fairly unique value to search on. This functionality will search through a number of different columns in the database, as defined by your system administrator. Baseline values include: Individual full name, Organization name, Committee name, Batch name, and Invoice number. Of interest to developers, the Form key and Column name are also indexed. If you do not use a somewhat unique value, you might have so many records returned that the search results are of little value. Remember that you can use a wild card here as well; for example, jo%smi when looking for John Smith.

The Super Search is best used to search for a single record (not a group of records) using a relatively unique value.

See the Super Search topic for how to enable database tables and columns for super search.

List

Clicking the List group item link will list all the records (up to the maximum number set by the system option DataGridRowLimit). Running a List can make sense if you are working with a relatively small number of records. If, for example, you have only 30 committees, then it is probably more practical to List the committees than to find a specific committee. For Individuals, by contrast, running a List is pointless -- as well as very slow and bad for system performance -- because there are so many records.

List to Regenerate Find Results

If you have just run a Query or a Find, and you are looking at your List Results, and then you press the List link, then NetForum will run your Find/Query again with the same filters and show you those results. This can be useful when you are continuously running the same Find/Query, then drilling into records from the result, and then you want to run the same Find/Query again with fresh results.

For many users, this behavior is confusing because you might think pressing the List link should give you all records.

If you truly want to get all records, then first click the Find link to "clear" your search criteria, and then click the List link.

Find/List/Query/Super Search Results

The List Results grid that appears after a Find/List/Query/Super Search, including the column headers and the rows that come back, are defined in the Toolkit using List Tables. If you want to see different columns returned, then you will need to use a Query. See the main topic, List.