Search for a record by using Advanced Search

With Advanced Search, you can select from several types of search criteria to limit a search to help you locate a specific record or group of records when there is a large number of records in a table. The search provides two entries where users can specify a table to search (Look For) and a view to search (View). In addition to these two entries, the following tabs are available to further define a search.

• The Table tab identifies the table being searched (for example, Change or Incident). This tab includes the main fields for the table being searched. Smart Search is used so that the search automatically includes the ID prefix ( IM for incident records) as part of a record number search. For example, when you search for record number 1003, the search will locate IM1003. This tab also includes more choices (checkboxes) that provide additional search criteria to further limit a search.
• The Advanced Filter tab enables users to create and save filters for advanced searches that locate a specific set of records, such as all interaction records closed after a certain date. A wizard helps users construct a complex query that combines various search criteria and compounds to create an advanced search. The selections include all available fields for the table you are searching with comparison criteria based on the data type of the field you choose. The Advanced Filter tab also includes a Not check box, which gives you the ability to negate any search criteria or whole compounds.
• Where applicable, there is also a Text Search tab that enables you to search for text in IR Key fields defined for the table in the dbdict. For example, an IR Key that has a description defined could be searched for a text string.

Example: Search for a record

This topic demonstrates how to search for an incident record as an example of how to search for any type of record or set of records in Service Manager. Most of the actions that are described below are common to any record search. However, the search criteria that are available will depend on the fields in the table that you are searching.

To search for an incident record, follow these steps:

1. In Incident Management, click Search Incidents.
2. Use the search form to specify additional search criteria to make your search more efficient. For example, in the View field, select Open incidents assigned to my group.
3. For more search options, click the following tabs:

   • Incident
     You can leave any or all fields on this tab blank. For the fastest searching, use the fields identified as key (indexed) fields at your site. If these fields are not clearly identified on the form, ask your Service Manager administrator for a list of key fields. You can also select some options that provide additional search criteria.

   • Advanced Filter
     Add new filter criteria to your search.
     • To write your own search query to sort the results by keyed fields, click More or the More Actions icon, and then select Expert Search.
     • To specify the field, comparison, and value for the filter, click Add New Filter Criteria.

4. Click Search to display the list of records that matches your search criteria. Select a record in the list to view it.

   Note If Service Manager generates a message that states no records were found, you can broaden the search by eliminating some of the search parameters. You can sort a record list by clicking the header of the column that you want to sort. For example, to sort the list by status, click the Status column header.

5. To modify or end your search, choose one of the following options:
   • To clear the search criteria you selected and return to a blank search form, click Clear or press Alt+F7.
   • To start the Add a New Device wizard and add a new business service or device to your configuration items, click New or press Alt+F1.
   • To restore the search criteria you have cleared, click Restore or press Alt+F11.
   • To end your search and return to the previous screen, click Cancel or press Alt+F3.

You can choose to create a new view, so that you have the query readily available the next time you want to search for these records.

• In the web client, click More, and then select Save List as View.

• In the Windows client, click the More Actions menu (the down-arrow button on the far right of the toolbar), and then select Save List as View.

Advanced filter

Service Manager provides a standard search screen for the main tables of each module. The search screens provide the main fields to perform the search on the first tab as well as the capability to perform more complex queries using the Advanced Filter tab. The Advanced Filter tab maintains search functionality when migrating from Service Desk to Service Manager.

The Advanced Filter tab enables you to specify queries against any other field in the table in addition to the fields that appear on the initial search screen. You can use the Advanced Filter wizard to combine the fields with other expressions using either "and" or "or" operators as well as parentheses to create complex queries. The comparison operators will vary depending on the field type that you select. On array fields, the values will also change depending on whether you are searching on an array field that has been configured to be used as an IR key or as a regular array. The "Is Null" and "Not Equal to" operators allow you to search for records where a field is equal to a specified value or is null. A "Not" checkbox appears as part of the wizard to help you create negated queries on any field except arrays that are configured as IR keys.

When you create a filter, you should consider that the execution time for the query may vary, depending on the following factors:

• The number of records in the table
• The complexity of the query
• The use of non-keyed fields

We recommend that you try to avoid queries against non-keyed fields and avoid using multiple negations that would cancel each other, such as not(not <field> <operator> <value>).

Create an advanced filter

The following example demonstrates how to use an advanced filter to search for a record or set of records in Service Manager. In this example, a new advanced filter is created to search for a set of records that satisfy the specified search criteria for incident records.

To create an advanced filter, follow these steps:

1. Click Incident Management > Search Incidents.
2. Click the Advanced Filter tab, and then click Add New Filter Criteria.
3. Select a field from Field in Incident to be part of the search criteria. For example, select Assignment Group. If you do not find the fields that are appropriate for your search criteria (for example, you want Manager Name as a field ), follow these steps:
   1. From Field in Incident, select a field that is linked to a table that contains the field that you want to add as search criteria. In this example, select Assignment Group from Field in Incident, as the assignment table contains both the Manager Name and Assignment Group fields.
   2. Click Use Multi Level Chooser, select Manager Name from Incident Assignment Records, and then click Next.

      Note Incident Assignment Records may not appear if the field you selected in step a is not linked to any other table.

4. Select a comparison from the drop-down list (for example, Equals). You can also negate the operator field you select by selecting the Not check box, except for an IR field, which cannot be negated.
5. Type or use Fill to select a value for the Value field. For example, enter the manager’s name, and then click Next.

The new advanced filter is created, and the system now uses the filter to search for and display a list of records that satisfy the search criteria you provided.

Related topics

Searching records
IR keys and non-IR keys
Creating an IR file
Enable IR search for a file
Regenerate IR keys