Searching for items and eRooms

You can search for items in a specific eRoom, or you can search an entire site for items or eRooms. If Documentum Server search is enabled (eRoom Enterprise only) for your site and community, you can access the search page of the Documentum Server.

See also:

Searching in an eRoom

eRoom provides two search forms for eRoom-level searches: a quick search form in the map, and the eRoom's main search form. The one you use depends on what you want to search for and the complexity of your search criteria. In general, use the quick search form to find unread items, or to find items with particular text; if you have more detailed criteria, use the main search form.

Note: When you apply search criteria to filter items in an eRoom, these criteria persist for the duration of your browser session unless you either clear them (in either the map's quick search form or in the main search form), or change them. Even with a search filter in effect, however, you can hide results lists in either the map or the item box to show an unfiltered view of items.

To search using the map's quick search form:

  1. In the map's header bar, click . (To display the map if it's hidden, click at the top left.)  

The map's search form opens.

  1. Specify your search criteria:

(To search using other criteria, click " more options" to open the main search form, and use the procedure below).

  1. In the map, click the "search" button.

eRoom finds all items that match your criteria and lists them in the map under "Search results". Click on any item to go to its page.

To search using the main search form:

  1. In the button bar of the eRoom's front page, click "".

Or, in the map's search form, click " more options".

The "Search the eRoom" page opens. Its title is added to the path below the eRoom's banner (so you can navigate back to the eRoom's front page).

  1. Specify your search criteria (text, date, owner, unread only, or custom fields).

You can use the different types of search criteria alone or in combination.

  1. Below the search form, click the "Search" button.

eRoom finds all items that match your criteria and lists them in a results box under the search form.

Note: To close the "Search the eRoom" page and return to the front page of the eRoom, click the eRoom's name in the path.

Search criteria

You can search for items based on these criteria: text (including titles and comments), date, owner, unread status, or custom field values (if any). eRoom searches all parts of eRoom pages -- text, titles, and comments -- as well as the contents of files, for items that match your search criteria. Search results show all items that match your criteria, including Documentum Server-linked files (with eRoom Enterprise only) and hidden items to which you have at least open rights.

Searching for text

To search for text, you enter a search expression made up of text characters, plus any special characters to refine your criteria.

Wildcards

In the search text box, you can enter words or phrases in upper or lower case, and you can use wildcard characters.
 

Wildcard

Replaces

Example

question mark (?)

a single character

wom?n finds woman and women

asterisk (*)

several characters

comput* finds computers, computing, and so on

Boolean operators

You can also use logical operators in your text search criteria.
 

Operator

Finds

Example

AND

items containing all of the specified words or phrases

poetry AND Greece finds items that have both the word poetry and the word Greece.

OR

items containing at least one of the specified words or phrases

Poetry OR Greece finds items containing either word or both word.

NOT

items that include the first word and exclude the second

Poetry NOT Greece finds items that contain the word Poetry, but not Greece.

You can type logical operators in any combination of upper- and lower-case letters.

Quotation marks

To search for a specific phrase or name, enclose it in double quotation marks ("). If you enter a phrase or a name without quotes, eRoom interprets each space between words as a logical AND. For example, typing International Space Station is equivalent to typing International AND Space AND Station&emdash;you might find an item that contains the sentence, Space exploration reaches beyond international boundaries with the station in place. To find only those items containing the exact title in text, enter "International Space Station".

Grouping search expressions

To simplify a complex text search, you can group elements of a search expression with parentheses. For example, if you are looking for information on the Fairbanks Country Day School, you might specify Fairbanks NOT (Douglas OR Alaska). eRoom looks for items containing the word Fairbanks, but not Douglas Fairbanks or Fairbanks, Alaska. Parentheses work with any of the logical operators.

To search for one of the logical operators, enclose the operator in double quotes. For example, you could enter Portland AND (Oregon OR "OR") to look for either Oregon or its US Postal Service abbreviation OR.

Searching by date

Using the main search form, you can search for an item modified on a certain date or within a particular time period. To search by date, decide on the appropriate time period -- any, on, before, after, or between -- and then specify the date or dates. You can type the dates, or click the date picker () to open a calendar for selecting dates.

Note: When you search by date, eRoom retrieves project plans and project tasks whose modification dates match. Start and finish dates are not matched.

Searching by owner

You can search for an item based on who owns it by clicking the member picker (). On the Choose Members page, your choices are

Note: When you search by owner, eRoom retrieves project plans and project tasks whose owners (i.e. designated editors) match.

Searching for unread items only

Check this box to search only for those items you have not yet read.

Searching by custom fields

You can search for items based on values for any custom fields defined for items in eRooms in the facility. In this case, the Search page includes an Advanced button, which you can click to reveal each custom field with a drop-down list of the their values (except for text values), including "any". For example, if items in your eRoom have custom "Status" and "Priority" fields, you might want to find all items with "Approved" status and "High" priority.

To hide the custom fields on the Search page, click Basic.

Searching a site

You can look for items or eRooms in a site using the "Search All eRooms" page.

To search a site:

  1. On your My eRooms page, click .

Or, in the eRoom's button bar, click , and then on the "Search the eRoom" page, click .

The "Search All eRooms" page opens.

  1. Pick whether you are searching for items (the default) or eRooms.

If you are searching for items, you must specify text or date criteria, or both. eRoom searches for matching items only in eRooms you are a member of.

If you are searching for eRooms, you can only specify text criteria. eRoom searches for matches among eRooms that you are either a member of, or that you are not a member of but in communities that you are (as long as the eRooms are not unlisted).

If you are an administrator, you can select the "Search all eRooms I administer" check box so that eRoom searches the site for eRooms or items in eRooms that you are allowed to open, including those you are not a member of.

  1. Below the search form, click the "Search" button.

eRoom finds the items or eRooms that match your criteria and lists them in a results box under the search form.

Documentum Server searches

If Documentum Server searching is available in your site and community, the "Search All eRooms" page has a section labeled "Documentum Server search". This section shows a link for each community to which you belong that has a Documentum Server connection and a search URL. Click a link to launch a Documentum Server search and log in, if necessary, to the repository specified for the search. Run your search in the Documentum Server search page that opens in a new browser window.

Search results

An item search produces the first 250 items (or fewer) that match your search criteria. If the item you want to find is not in that initial group, try narrowing your search to produce fewer results. The more search criteria you can specify (date range, owner, etc.), the more you weed out unintended items from your results.

Note: If rights management is enabled in your eRoom, protected files are not indexed for searching. You can, however, locate such files using the file name and properties.

Quick search form results

When you use the quick search form, your results replace the unfiltered item tree in the map, and you cannot expand or collapse the item tree. The item box shows items as usual, unfiltered by the search criteria. In this case, you can

Main search form results

When you use the eRoom's main search form, your results replace unfiltered items in the item box. If the map search form is open, it shows results filtered according to the latest search. You can

To hide the main search form/results box, click the name of the eRoom either at the top of the map (if it is showing), or in the path above the map.

Site-wide eRoom search results

When you search a site for eRooms, your results appear in a list on the "Search All eRooms" page. Column labels in the list of eRooms that match your text criteria show

For eRoom searches, results that match your text criteria show

Click the name of an eRoom to go to its front page.

Site-wide item search results

When you search a site for items, your results appear in a list on the "Search All eRooms" page.

Items in the results list that match your text and/or date criteria are ranked according to relevance. Relevance is based on how closely the item matches your criteria -- for example, an item's title ranks higher than description text, a high frequency of a text string occurrence ranks higher than low frequency, and so forth.

In addition, column labels in the list of items that match your text criteria show

Click an item to open it.