Quick search (censhare Client)

Find assets faster using Quick Search.

Start a quick search

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You can search through the entire inventory of assets in a very fast and fuzzy way. 

Each search term separated by whitespace is treated as a partial string and produces results independently of the order of the individual search terms.

Multiple search terms are treated as AND connected. Results contain all of the search terms. There is no OR- or NOT-option in the quick search. The behavior of the quick search can be best compared to internet search engines like Google.

The search term "* " (asterisks followed by two spaces) will produce a list of all assets in the system.

Quick Search behavior

The quick search is executed against the asset names, most common textual metadata fields (as the annotation, author and the like) and the available full-text of the documents. There is an internal ranking system hardcoded in the censhare system to judge the importance of the hits (for example, hits in asset names are considered of higher relevance as hits in the annotation field). The ranking value is made visible in the Rank column of the list views and can be used as a sort criterion (note that the Rank column might have been removed by customization in the actual environment).

The results are generated from the fast buffered censhare database index (cdb) without making a detour to the slower Oracle database. When a search term yields no result, the positive results of the already entered search terms remain on display. By using the simple-search method all search terms (including stop words) that do not occur, are ignored. Without this, the search would return no results too often. The Quick Search is dedicated for novice users and advanced users alike.

Search results

The quick search finds asset names, most common textual metadata fields (as the annotation, author and the like) and the available full-text of the documents. Hits (for example, in asset names are considered of higher relevance as hits in the annotation field). The ranking value is made visible in the  Rank-column of the list views and can be used as a sort criterion (note that the  Rank-column might have been removed by customization in the actual environment).

The quick search is immediately refreshed with any new character that is typed in the quick search field (after a minimum of three characters has been typed). Results are quite fuzzy due to the broadness of the search and the lack of pattern- and wildcard commands leads to a somewhat fuzzy hitlist and especially qualifies this search type for the recovery of   lost assets   for which the user has no specific information.

The search results can be refined further in the filter tab on the right by clicking on a filter type in the list or you can narrow the search results by entering something in the search box in the filter area for 'Metadata'.

Filters

When falling back on fuzzy searching, the Quick Search at first glance returns too many or sometimes even confusing results. In this case, the filter list in the right pane comes in handy. If you still cannot find the expected asset, use the detailed Asset Search to strictly limit the search results with operands. To switch from Quick Search to the detailed Asset search, run "Asset Query · Find Again (Ctrl-R / cmd-R)" to open a pre-populated search dialog using the last search terms.