How to: Search

[#1]

If you have any questions about Compass's search, please send us a message at compass-help@sailpoint.com.

• Overview
• Search bar
• Auto-suggestions
• Search page
• Advanced search
• Filters

Overview

Federated search pulls in results from Compass, Identity University, the SaaS documentation website, and the Support Portal knowledge base. Read this tutorial to learn more about how you can filter and scope your search to find what you are looking for.

Search bar

Start your search here. The search bar appears on every page, but you can also bookmark the Search page to visit it directly.

Auto-suggestions

As you add text to the search bar, you will see suggestions for your search term. Scroll and select a relevant suggestion or hit enter and click on the magnifying glass to continue with your search phrase.

Search page

Here is a complete breakdown of the features on the full Search page.

#	Feature	Description
1	Search Bar	Use this field to type in your search phrase. Remember to avoid punctuation and non-descriptive filler words. Search is not case-sensitive.
2	Content Sources	The search page defaults to all sources. You can select a tab to view sources from a specific site. Note that Identity University and Support Portal are separate portals and require you to log in before purchasing a course or submitting a ticket.
3	Filters	Choose from more than one filter to scope your results. You can remove a filter by unchecking it from the left side component or clicking the “x” next to your selection along the top of the search page. Choose Clear all to start over.
4	Results	These are your search results. Key words from your search phrase are in bold.
5	Export	Export a CSV of your results to save or share with others.
6	Advanced Search	Utilize this option to search exact phrase, with one or more words, and without certain words. You can also change the number of results to view by page.
7	Sort	Sort your results by relevance or created date.
8	List and Grid View	The search page defaults to list view but you can switch to grid view depending on your preference.

 

Advanced search

There are multiple ways to refine your search! Start by clicking on the Advanced Search icon located to the left of the Sort By Relevance drop-down menu.

Determine how you want to refine your search terms either with the exact phrase, with one or more words, without the words, or all three boxes.

You can even change the number of search results per page up to a maximum of 50.

Once you have determined the terms you are looking for or the number of results per page, click Refine Search and then you will have a more narrow search results page.

Note: The Advanced Search icon will be highlighted to indicate that you have successfully used this feature.

Filters

There are multiple ways to filter results into areas that are relevant to you! Use the tabs along the top of the search page or select a Sources filter to a content source.

Filter by Root Category to keep the results at a high level or get granular with Parent Category and Board. 

Tip: If you know the name of the category or board you want to view results from, click Show more or the magnifying glass to look it up.

You can also choose to search by Type if want to keep results constrained to forum, knowledge base, or blog.

Only interested in seeing topics with solutions? Check off the Solved filter when you search in any of the forums.

Other filters include label, tag, created date, and author. Want more search tips? You can view the search tips anytime by clicking on the gear icon on the far right side towards the middle of the page.

Interested in sending your feedback about Compass's features and documentation? Read the How to: Submit feedback article.

[gmilunich]

@rose_cobb @justin_czimskey @darylclaude_medina 

Is there an option to have the search return results that contain ALL the terms entered, in any order, anywhere? It seems that the only option currently when looking in Advanced Search is "One or more" and "Exact Phrase" and "Does not have this". This seems to be a huge hole in the search functionality. 

For example:
I want to search "Get Hostname" for instance. When I search this, by default it uses "one or more" it seems. This means the results return contain either "Get" "Hostname" or both. You can imagine how many useless posts there are containing the word "Get" when I am trying to figure out the best way to get the hostname of the current server. 

Now, I could do "Exact Phrase", however, what if the author of the topic that contains the answer I need used the phrase "Get the hostname" instead? Or "Get a hostname"? or "Get Server Hostname"? etc. There is also nothing to Exclude to help make this search better. 

There are also no shortcuts that could be used to try and get this functionality using common search techniques, such as entering "Get" "Hostname" using quotes to denote that both are required for the search. It seems that these common shorthand notations do not work with this search box. 

Hopefully that example highlights the main deficiency of the current search process. This is by far the #1 complaint I get when discussing Compass with users. If I am missing something or do not have the correct process to do what I mentioned above, please let me know and/or add it to this document for others to reference. 

[darylclaude_medina]

Hello @gmilunich,

Currently, there is no option to have the search return results that contain all the terms entered in the Advanced Search feature, but we do appreciate your thorough feedback and will take this into consideration. Please note that we are continually working to improve Compass's search feature. If you have any more feedback to share, please do not hesitate to send a message to compass-help@sailpoint.com.

Best,

Daryl Claude Medina
Community Moderator

[gbris]

I second @gmilunich.  I'm a new SailPoint user but have found the community's search capabilities to be very limited and a big turn-off.

[david_warde]

I third @gmilunich.  I've been using Compass for a decade on IIQ, and now IdentityNow for the last few years. I cannot tell you how many times I have searched unsuccessfully for documents using fairly logical search terms. I reach someone from SP who takes pity and emails me the exact name of the document with the link. 

I've gone back and entered the exact document name and the search engine produces it immediately.  Then to see if I've just been taking crazy pills I go back to my original terms, search again and maybe find the document on like page 7 of the results. Compass has gotten better, but I have always and still today struggle with your search engine. 

Let's just get this guy's suggestion in the queue, please?

[robertclemo]

I fourth @gmilunich. We're having the same issues and it seems like a simple QOL fix. Why  hasn't this been done already?

[AdamMazurkiewiczMadej]

Same here. For me, searching on the Compass Forum is always the dreaded last resort, since the search function is just abysmal and most of the time either returns completely unrelated posts.

Please fix this or open the results to google, so we can use a search that actually works.

[gbris]

@rose_cobb @justin_czimskey @darylclaude_medina @gmilunich

Having the same search capabilities as Khoros's community (like here and below screenshot) would be a huge help trying to find relevant results.