Searching in Flows

In the Search Manager users can search for any specific word or characters inside the most important elements of a flow. Once the string has been inserted in the Search Manager, the following elements in a flow are inspected:

• Variables

• Task name

• History

• Options

You can open the Search Manager:

• on a single flow from the Flow context menu in the Explorer or directly from the toolbar for the current flow.

• on a selection of flows belonging to the same environment by clicking on the Search Manager entry in the Environment context menu, from the Explorer.

When opening a flow from the environment, users can select the desired flows from the Select required flows list on the left side of the Search Manager panel. Users can sort the flows within the Search Manager panel by using the Order by drop-down menu.

The results of the search will be displayed in a table in the Results’ pane in the following format:

Column	Description
Task	It returns the name of the task, only when the match is found in history or options.
Task category	It returns the name of the task category, only when the match is found in history or options. For a lookup table connecting the displayed name of the task and the internal category shown here please refer to this section.
Match	It displays the precise match found by the Search Manager.
Type	It displays the search category type for the current match, possible values are: Variable code, Variable name, Task name, History code or Option.
Detail	It provides useful extra information about the retrieved match.

To open the Search Manager from the flow toolbar, follow the steps below.

Procedure

1. Click on the Search icon in the stage toolbar.

2. In the Research fields menu, select all the areas you want to search in the current flow:

   • variables

   • task names

   • histories

   • options

3. Enter the word you want to search for in the search bar and press ENTER (or click on the magnifying glass icon).

4. The results are going to appear in the Results pane on the right side of the window in table format.

5. Click on a single row to inspect it or double-click on the Task column to open it.

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Search results

Once a search is performed, results can be visualized in the table format in the Results pane on the upper right side of the window. When clicking on any retrieved entry, the corresponding column or line is highlighted and in the bottom side the Inspector pane is activated.

Important

You can inspect only one occurrence at the time

The Inspector pane shows further information about the highlighted entry and this information varies according to the search type. In particular:

• For variables entries, the list of variables of the correct type (Code or Vault) is shown below with the variable matched in the selected occurrence highlighted in yellow.

• For task names entries, no further information is provided.

• For history lines, the complete history of the task containing the match is shown with the matching row centered into the screen and highlighted in yellow.

• For options entries, a view of the task in parametric mode is shown with the matching entry centered into the screen and highlighted in yellow.

The Inspector pane allows the user to evaluate the retrieved match in its context, immediately providing a full picture about the entry.

In the Results table pane (when the Task column contains values) double-clicking on that entry line, opens the task containing the considered match in a separate window. In this way the user can pick immediately the desired task without the need to search for it on the stage or using the summary.

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Search customization

By default, the search is performed considering any occurrence that includes the searched string, taking into account all the possible search types.

Search, however, can be customizing. First, you can reduce the area where operation is performed by checking out types you are not interested into.

Moreover, by clicking on the three-dotted icon located at the right of the search type field, you will trigger the Advanced option panel to be shown.

In the Advanced Option panel you can control:

Section	Option	Description
Search Options	Case sensitive	Only words which match the upper/lowercase of the search string will be displayed.
	Match strategy	The following options are available: * Substring: any results which contain the search string will be displayed. * Starts with: any results which start with the search string will be displayed. * Ends with: any results which end with the search string will be displayed. * Matches: any results which perfectly match the search string will be displayed.
History options	Whole formula	The string you entered will search for matches in both sides of formulas in the History tab.
	Left-hand formula	The string you entered will search for matches in the left-hand side of formulas in the History tab.
	Right-hand formula	The string you entered will search for matches in the right-hand side of formulas in the History tab.
Display options	Sort by workflow hierarchy	The results will be ordered by where they appear within the hierarchy of the flow.