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

The search feature pulls in results from all content in the Compass Community which includes the wikis, forums, events, and more. 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 click on the magnifying glass icon 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 content in Compass. You can select the "Places" tab to view content from specific boards in the community.
3	Filters	Choose one or more filters to scope your results from location to the type of post. You can also remove a filter by clicking the "X" button.
4	Results	These are your search results. Key words from your search phrase are in bold.
5	Advanced Search	Utilize this option to search an exact phrase with one or more words and/or without certain words. You can also change how you can view your results by and the number of search results that are generated per page.
6	Search Options	Click this option to subscribe to the RSS feed for a particular search phrase.
7	Sorted by	Sort your results by best match, replies, kudos, views, or date.

 

Advanced search

There are multiple ways to refine your search. To start, click on Advanced located to the left of Search Options.

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

You can even change how you can view your results by.

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

Once you have determined your search modifiers, click the magnifying glass icon to generate a more narrow search results page.

Filters

There are multiple ways to filter results into areas that are relevant to you. To get started, use any of the tabs located above the search results.

Filter by Location to specify which boards in the community you would like to pull your search results from.

You can also choose to search by specific Labels in the community.

Only interested in seeing topics with solutions? Start by clicking Metadata and then check mark the Solved filter.

Other filters include Author, Date, Type of Post, and Contains. You can use as many filters as you want to generate a refined search results 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. 

[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.

 

[NGMUNOZ001]

Great information, thank you.