Advanced Search
Find relevant data based on what you have documented in Ardoq through simple or multiple data sets searches.
Kristine Marhilevica avatar
Written by Kristine Marhilevica
Updated over a week ago

Use Advanced Search to find specific components or references using custom fields. You can do simple searches or search for multiple data sets for more specific results.

When building a query using Advanced Search, you can choose to search for components or references and whether you wish the results to match all or any of the rules you defined.

Moreover, you can search for components or references of a certain type or with specific field values. For example:

  • Components in workspace “Application services” that don’t have a “Criticality” value

  • References of type “Uses” that have a specific tag

  • Components that are either “Capability” or “Strategic Capability”

  • Components that have the “State” field with the value “AS-IS” and are either an “Application” or a “Service”

  • Workspaces that were created in October

Table of Contents:


Simple Search

Find components based on one rule only. For instance, you can search for all components with a specific field value.

Multiple data sets

You can also search for multiple data sets by adding as many rules or subqueries as you need. For instance:

  • Components that have the “State” field with the value “AS-IS” and are either an “Application” or a “Service”.

  • Components in workspace “Application services” that don’t have a “Criticality” value.

How to Find Components and References Using Advanced Search

There are two ways in which you can access Advanced Search. From

Using Advanced Search From Analytics > Advanced Search

To build and Advanced Search query:

  1. Hover over the "Analytics" icon on the left side bar menu and select "Advanced Search".

  2. Choose to search for components or references and whether you wish the results to match all or any of the rules you defined.

  3. Next, select a field and an operator. For example, "equal to" or "not equal to".

  4. Add more rules or subqueries to refine your search.

  5. Click "Search" and see the results below the Advanced Search query builder.

Using Advanced Search From the Report Builder

You can create a report to use the Advanced Search query builder. See our detailed guide on how to create a report here or follow the steps below.

  1. Navigate to the Home page or the Report Overview page.

  2. From the Home page, click on "Create new > Report" at the top right corner of the screen. From the Report Overview page, select "Create new".

  3. Select "Advanced Search" in the first step of the Report Builder.

  4. Select the workspace(s) you wish to query.

  5. Choose to search for components or references and whether you wish the results to match all or any of the rules you defined.

  6. Build your query.

  7. Click "Next" and see your search results.

Available Operators Per Field Type

The available operators in the Advanced Search query builder vary according to the selected field. For instance, for fields of type text, text paragraph, email, or url, you will find the following operators:

  • Equal to

  • No equal to

  • Contains phrase

  • Does not contain phrase

  • Contains substring

  • Does not contains substring

The Difference Between Contains Phrase and Contains Substring

Use "Contains phrase" to find components or references using a field value that contains a given word.

For instance, your search results will return components named “App”, “Mobile app”, or “Desktop App Slack” when selecting the "contains phrase" operator to find components with a field value that includes the word "app”.

Use "Contains substring" to find components and references using a field value that contains a series of letters.

For example, searching for components based on a field value that contains the substring “app” results in components named “My application”, “My app”, or “Apple Macbook”.

ardoq advanced search contains substring operator

How to Export Advanced Search Results

You can export your Advanced Search results as an .xls file by clicking the 'three-dot menu' > Export to Excel.

Troubleshooting

You have added or removed a field that is being used in a saved search or a widget

This may cause one of the following things:

  • Your saved search or widget is showing 0 results

  • Your widget is showing a number instead of a sum or average

  • Your widget is showing different periods of history for different fields

My saved search is not returning any results anymore

You have had a saved search for a long time that usually had returned results, but suddenly it gives 0 results. This may be because you have removed a field on that component or reference, that was specified in the search.

For example, if you have searched for “All components with a criticality of High” and you remove the criticality field and replace it with two fields: “Criticality list” and “Criticality number,” the original search will not return any values because there are no components with the“Criticality” field

My widget is not showing the full history

When you save a query, we start snapshotting it on a nightly basis. Still, you might have an incomplete history because you have added a field to your component or reference at a later point.

Did this answer your question?