How To: Use Search

Introduction

Administrators can use Standard search or Advanced search to locate specific users in the Users section of the administration portal. Standard search enables you to perform simple keyword searches over all profile fields with limited filtering based on user group and OU membership, and assigned roles. Advanced search enables you to search individual profile fields for specific values, and combine multiple search terms to further refine your selected user set.

Standard search

To search for a user using standard search, on the Users page:

• Type your search terms in the Search box and/or,
• Select one or more groups and/or,
• Select one or more OUs and/or,
• Select one or more roles

The results will be the user set where one or more of the search terms (if specified) matches a profile field for the user(s) (any field will match), the users are members of all of the specified groups, OUs and have all of the specified roles. Any criteria not specified is ignored.

To perform a keyword based search, you must first enter your search terms, and then either press Enter or click the search icon. Search results are updated automatically after selecting groups, OUs or roles.

Advanced search

To access advanced search, on the Users page, select the Advanced search checkbox.

In the ADVANCED SEARCH panel, you can define you search criteria. To start, add the required properties to the search. To add a property, select the property in the Select search property list, and then click Add property to search. The profile fields available will be dependent on your lms configuration, but will always contain Username, Roles, Groups, Organizational units (OUs), and All profile fields.  

After adding a property to the search, you must define an operator and the criteria for that property. The available operators depend on the field type.

For a text property (this includes username, email address and approver properties) you can choose from the following operators:

• Is -The Is operator requires that the field contains an exact match to the criteria specified. E.g. if the criteria specified was "Jo" this would match "Jo" but not "John".
• Is not - The Is not operator requires that the field does not exactly match the criteria specified. E.g. if the criteria specified was "Jo" the would match "John" but not "Jo".
• Starts with - The Starts with operator requires that the first letters (or numbers, etc.) in the value match the criteria specified. E.g. if the criteria specified was "Jo" this would match "Jo", "John" and "Joanne", but would not match "Mike".
• Ends with - The Ends with operator requires that the last letters of the value match the criteria specified. E.g. if the criteria specified was "as" this would match "Nicholas" and "Thomas", but would not match "Nicola" or "Ashley".
• Contains - The Contains operator requires that the criteria specified exists somewhere in the value. This could be an exact match, or it could be a partial match anywhere with the value. E.g. if the criteria specified was "so" this would match, "Sophie", "Alyson" and "Alonso", but would not match "Alfonse" or "Sergio"

For a date property you can choose from the following operators:

• Is - The Is operator requires that the criteria (a date) exactly matches the value. E.g. if the criteria specified was the 1st December 2010, this would match 1st December 2010 but not 30th November 2010 or 2nd December 2010.
• Is before - The Is before operator requires that the criteria is after the value in the user's profile. E.g. if the criteria specified was the 1st December 2010, this would match 30th December 2010 and 1st January 2008, but not 2nd December 2010.
• Is after - The Is after operator requires that the criteria is before the value in the user's profile. E.g. if the criteria specified was the 1st December 2010, this would match 2nd December 2010 and 1st January 2012, but not 30th November 2010.
• Is between - The Is between operator requires that value in the user's profile is between the two dates specified (this is inclusive). E.g. if the criteria specified was from the 1st December 2010 to 20th December 2010, this would match 1st December 2010 and 15th December 2010, but not 30th November 2010 or 21st December 2010.

For a single choice property you can choose from the following operators:

• Is one of - The Is one of operator requires that the value in the user's profile is an exact match for one of the selected options (criteria). E.g. If the selected criteria was "Full Time", "Part Time" this would match if the user's value was "Full Time", but not if the user's value was "Contractor".
• Is none of - The Is none of operator requires that the value in the user's profile does not match any of the selected options (criteria). E.g. If the selected criteria was "Full Time", "Part Time" this would match if the user's value was "Contractor", but not if the user's value was "Full Time".

For a multiple choice property you can choose from the following operators:

• Has all of - The Has all of operator requires that the value(s) in the user's profile are an exact match for all of the selected options (criteria). E.g. If the selected criteria was "HR", "Support" this would match if the user's value was "HR", "Support", but not if the user's value was just "HR".
• Has any of - The Has any of operator requires that the value(s) in the user's profile are an exact match for at least one of the selected options (criteria). E.g. If the selected criteria was "HR", "Support" this would match if the user's value was "HR", or "Support", but not if the user's value was "Legal", "Managerial".
• Has none of - The Has none of operator requires that the value in the user's profile does not match any of the selected options (criteria). E.g. If the selected criteria was "HR", "Support" this would match if the user's value was "Legal", ""Managerial", but not if the user's value was "Legal", "Support".

For groups you can choose from the following operators:

• Is a member of all - The Is a member of all operator requires that the user is a member of every group selected (criteria). E.g. if the selected groups were "HR", "Support" this would match if a user was a member of the "HR" and "Support" groups, but not if they were just a member of the "HR" group.
• Is a member of at least one of - The Is a member of at least one of operator requires that the user is a member of any one of the selected groups (criteria). E.g. if the selected groups were "HR", "Support" this would match if a user was a member of the "HR" and "Support" groups, or if they were a member of just the "HR" group, but not if they were just a member of the "Compliance" group.
• Is a member of none of - The Is a member of none of operator requires that the user is not a member of any of the selected groups (criteria). E.g. if the selected groups were "HR", "Support" this would match if a user was a member of only the "Compliance" group but not if the user was a member of the "HR" and "Compliance" groups.

For organisational units you can choose from the following operators:

• Is a member of all - The Is a member of all operator requires that the user is a member of every OU (or a child thereof) selected (criteria). E.g. if the selected OUs were "division/HR", "position/Clerk" this would match if a user was in the "division/HR/Discipline" and "position/Clerk" OUs, but not if they were just in the "division/HR" OU.
• Is a member of at least one of - The Is a member of at least one of operator requires that the user is a member of any one of the OUs (or a child thereof) selected (criteria). E.g. if the selected OUs were "division/HR", "position/Clerk" this would match if a user was in the "division/HR/Managerial" and "position/Clerk" OUs, or if they were just in the "division/HR" OU, but not if they were just a member of the "division/Production" group.
• Is a member of none of - The Is a member of none of operator requires that the user is not a member of any of the selected OUs(criteria). E.g. if the selected groups were "division/HR", "position/Clerk" this would match if a user was a member of only the "division/Production" OU but not if the user was in both the "division/HR/Managerial" and "position/Management" OUs.

For roles you can choose from the following operators:

• Has all of - The Has all of operator requires that the user has all of the specified roles (criteria). E.g. if the criteria was "Team administrator", "Content administrator" this would match if the user has both the "Team administrator" and "Content administrator" roles but not if the user has only the "Content administrator" role.
• Has any of - The Has any of operator requires that the user has at least one of the specified roles (criteria). E.g. if the criteria was "Team administrator", "Content administrator" this would match if the user has both the "Team administrator" and "Content administrator" roles or if they just have the "Content administrator" role but not if the user has only the "User administrator" role.
• Has none of - The Has none of operator requires that the user does not have any of the specified roles (criteria). E.g. if the criteria was "Team administrator", "Content administrator", this would match a user with no roles, a user with the "User administrator" role, but not a user with the "Content administrator" role. 

The All profile fields search property does not have any operators. This is equivalent to using the keyword search in standard search and searches using across all profile fields. The operators applied to each field are predetermined and ranking is applied to order the results as logically as possible, with the most relevant results displayed first in most cases. You cannot modify this behaviour if searching over all fields. 

After you enter your search criteria, click Search to perform the search.  

You can remove a search property from the search by clicking the delete icon, in the relevant row in the ADVANCED SEARCH panel. To remove all search criteria in a single operation, click the Reset button. 

INFO: After you enable Advanced search, any criteria you had already configured in standard search will be copied to the advanced search box.

A short demonstration of how to use search