Product documentation
Advanced Search

Business value

Advanced Search offers next level searching. Finding exactly what you need, in a massive set of data. Knowing you will find the best match for the requirements in just a few moments; that is exactly what this building block offers to some of our solutions.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations generally offers good searching capabilities on specific fields. However:

With our Advanced Search functionality we offer a flexible solution to your querying needs!

This topic describes the usage features for the solution. For the setup, please check this page.

Out of the box this functionality is available on the following objects:    

In case of a large amount of search data, there is the option to increase the performance by using Azure Search as the search engine, instead of the internal Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations database search (usually referenced as Local search).

 Important

The Advanced Search framework is designed for extensibility, if you have an object inMicrosoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations  for which you want to implement the same search experience, you can have it done by your own development department or contact us (innovationsupport@hso.com) to make you an offer.
   

Search data

There are two sources of object related data that can be used simultaneously as search values within the Advanced Search functionality:

  1. Object related attributes based on the retail attributes framework
  2. Fields defined based on queries related to the search object (aka Field search)

Search pane

For the objects where Advanced Search has been implemented a Search pane is available on the left hand side of the form.

In the Search field, a text search can be used to search for records based on a text string. The text that is entered will be interpreted and converted into filters. In order to do so, the user can use operators to indicate how the text should be interpreted. Those operators are shown to the user in a tool tip when they hover over the Search label.

Please note that partial searches using the *-wildcard only works for the ID, Title and Description fields.

Field Description Remark
exterior_color=ocean_blue Searches all items where property "exterior_color" = "ocean_blue"

iPhone*

Searches all items for which a property value exists starting with "iPhone"

iPhone6   iPhone8   iPhone10

*GB

Searches all items for which a property value exists ending with "GB"

SD card 128GB   Hard disc 500 GB

connect*=USB*

Searches all items with a property that starts with "connect" with a value that starts with USB 

Connector USB-mini

iPhone*;64GB

Searches all items for which a property values exist that starts with "iPhone" AND "64GB"

iPhone8 64GB   iPhone10 64GB

col=blue;col=red;brand=VW

if the same property e.g. color is used 2 or more times, the search request is interpreted as blue OR black.

brand="Range Rover"

Searches all items for property brand = "Range Rover"

Quotes are only needed when the search string contains an operator

 

Optional search preferences

Via the gear icon, a user can set some preferences for the behavior of the search screen.

Field Description Remark
Show grouped Filter controls are shown in groups (according to the attribute groups)

Show selected group

An additional group named "Selected" is added. All filters that have an active selection are moved to this group

Show recent group

An additional group named "Recent" is added. All filters that have been used recently are moved to this group

Move immediately

The filter control is moved to "Selected" and/or to "Recent" immediately when the selection is made

Collapse on move

The filter control auto-collapses when it is being moved to "Recent" or "Selected"

Hide if empty

When no filter values are left due to other filters being set, the filter control is hidden automatically

Lookup form threshold

When the number of filter values in the filter control exceeds this number, the More button will be replaced by Select and values can be set/unset via the lookup dialog instead of paging (More)

Search within hierarchy

Auto wild card

Search languages

Defines the languages in which a text search is searched for. This make it possible to search cross language

 

View / Compare

 

A powerful tool to quickly and easily compare multiple items is the View / Compare overview.

This function displays each selected item in a column and the attributes in the lines. The button View / Compare is available on most screens where the Advanced Search functionality has been implemented.

The user has some options in how the information is displayed within the View/Compare overview:

Field Description Remark
View - All

All attributes are displayed: matching attributes are grey, different attributes are black 

View - Different

Only the attributes with different values are displayed

View - Matching

Only the attributes with matching values are displayed 

Settings - Show grouped

Settings - Show images 

Select to show object images

Settings - Display properties in hierarchy

Select to only display properties and values on the compare form from within the selected hierarchy

Open in Excel

Download an Excel sheet with the selected items and attributes