Search – Servis.ai

In this tutorial, we will cover the following topics:

Global Search
- Global Search Preferences
Local Search
Advanced Search
How Search Preferences Affect Results
Special Considerations

Global Search

The search box at the top of the menu will help you get to where you need to go faster. This is a global search which means that it will take your keyword(s) and match it to any existing record within all your Apps as well as the Settings.

As soon as you start typing in the search bar, the results will show all those records that start with the word you search for. Here is an example, if you are searching for FreeAgent you just need to type "Free", and the platform will retrieve "FreeAgent" (and all other matches that start with "Free").

If after you type your keyword(s) you hit the 'enter' key, the results of the search will be displayed on a single page. If the keyword(s) matches multiple elements from different Apps, they will be divided into sections that correspond to each of the Apps. Results that match a Setting page will only be displayed in the menu.

Clicking on the List icon to the right of the App name will take you to the results page for the specific App you selected.

Global Search Preferences

Admins can set the global search preferences for the entire team. To do so, click on the gear icon that appears for admins in the search bar. A window with all available search filter options will appear.

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Special Considerations for Global Search

Limit your search fields

Global search uses the search index for each application. The search index is set on the main configuration page for the app. You can see it by navigating to Settings > Apps then choose the application and make sure the "General" tab is selected.

Most people add too many fields to their search preferences. Include as little as you need - this will actually improve your search results.

Short Codes

You can speed up your searches by adding a text field that can contain the text you would like search to pick up. Make sure to include your short code field in the search preference for your app after it's created.

Note: search needs each word to have at least 3 characters.

Birthdate

Regular dates do not work in global search so the best way to have birthdate work on global search is to implement a calculated field that turns a date into a text string. So April 25, 1986, would become 4-25-86. Let's say you called this new calculated text field: Birthdate Text - then you would add this field to the search preferences and it would work both within your app and in global search.

Note: when you modify search preferences the system "rebuilds" the search index and this can take some time. So you will need to wait before testing what you've added or removed.

Local Search

Local search is searching within individual applications. The results will be limited to the fields that you've allowed to be searched in your application preferences.

There are a few different ways you can search within your apps.

1. The search bar at the top of the screen.

2. Qiuck search while in List View.

When you hover over any column title in list view you'll see a search icon appear. Click on it and a search box will appear allowing you to search right within the column.

Advanced Search

There are 6 options for you to dig deeper into your data if you are looking to get specific results.

ADVANCED SEARCH	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE
Exact Match	Enclose the keyword between double quotes "" to get an exact match.	To find FreeAgent type "FreeAgent"
OR	Use \| (Vertical Bar) to get coincidences that match one OR the other word in the search.	To find FreeAgent or CRM type FreeAgent \| CRM
AND	Use and to get coincidences for all the words used in the search.	To find FreeAgent CRM type FreeAgent & CRM
Exclude	Use ! at the beginning of your search to exclude that word from the results.	To find a contact named Ryan whose last name is not Smith type Ryan & !Smith
Group Rules	Use ( ) to enclose various rules to gain more control over the results.	To find a contact named Ryan or Dave whose last name is not Smith type (Dave \| Ryan) & !Smith
Starts with {word} in Group rules	Use :* to get results that match the first letters of a word.	To find contacts named Dave whose last name is Stephens type Dave & St:*

These advanced search options will open up a world of possibilities since it is possible to combine them to create the ultimate search function.

Best of all, you can use the advanced search in the local search feature, available in each of the Apps.

How Search Preferences Affect Results

Search results within FreeAgent are driven by your search preferences set for each application. You can decide which fields are searchable within each app. You can make changes to this by going to Settings > Apps and then clicking on the app you would like to edit. The search preferences are located in the 'General' tab.

The searchable fields follow the following logic:

When a record is updated/created that is when the searchable data is stored. Again, this needs to be in a field that is set to be searchable in your app preferences.
These searchable fields for each app drive our search index. In the backend of the system when a record is created or updated we gather the search preference fields for that record and log/update a search field in the backend. If information is not showing you either:
- Don’t have that field in your search preferences.
- Aren't entering the starting characters of the field value /record you are looking for.
- The record has not been updated with that information in our search index (you can solve this by editing a record and saving it)

Note: search does not trigger unless you enter at least three characters.

Special Considerations

When the search contains a special character from advanced search symbols like |, &, ! It will get you the exact match (not a fragment), so you will need to use :* if you are not looking for the exact match.
When the search does not contain any advanced search symbol, but you use a space between words, it will search the words in the order you typed them in, for example, if we want to search for a contact with the name John Martin, you can enter the text Jo Mar. The platform will get you the records with the coincidences that follow the specified order.