Finding Entries

In order to search for one or several particular entries the Entry List can be restricted by applying particular search filter criteria. There are various options available here.

Re-arrange columns

Like for TABLES, you should make your ENTRIES column layout appealing to you. You can simply

• Re-arrange ENTRIES columns by dragging a column title to its desired position, or
• Change the width of a column by dragging the separator between two column titles.

Same applies for the MULTI TABLE SEARCH columns (see also below).

Text search

You look for entries matching your search text in their meta data (Title, Author, Editor, etc.):

1. Define your search text by one of three ways:
   • Enter the text to search for in the selection field Text search (searching for matches in the current table, e.g. "test").
   • Click on the dropdown button to show previously used search phrases and select one.
   • Click on the Text search settings button 

     

     so that you get additional search options:
     

     

2. Pressing ENTER on the keyboard or clicking on the Apply text search button 

   

    next to the text field gives you all entry matches for the current table.
3. To sort the entry list according to a column, click on the column header. Click on the column header again to sort it in descending order.
4. Pressing the Display comment button

   

   in the ENTRIES bar displays / hides comments made to entries in the list. Coloured blue/grey: display of comments is on/off.
   

5. Pressing the Show/Hide group members button 

   

    lets you see all members belonging to a selected Group entry from the ENTRIES list, displayed in the area headlined GROUP MEMBERS - that possibly changed from the area headlined MULTI TABLE SEARCH.
   

   Show/Hide group members button coloured blue/grey: display of GROUP MEMBERS area is on/off.
6. If you do not find what you are looking for, you may try the bin: pressing the Soft deleted button

   

    displays all soft deleted entries.
7. To clear any filter and to reset the display for showing all entries click on the Show all button 

   

   .
   

In order to search for a keyword in different tables, activate the Keep selection option in the Settings dialog of the Program menu. This enables you to click on a different table while keeping the same search keyword.

Searching with wildcards and escaped characters

• * and % search for none or any amount of characters
• ? and _ for exactly one character
• \* for searching for *
• \% for searching for %
• \? for searching for ?
• \_ for searching for _

Multi Table Search

This way you perform a text search for entries in several tables at the same time:

1. Activate MultiTable Search by clicking the Multi-Table search button 

   

   in the TABLES bar.
   The new Multi Table Search window is opening at the bottom of the entry list. Besides, the table list window gets a new column "S" ("Search").

2. Click the "S" columns of the tables you want to search in: The tables will be marked with a magnifier symbol 

   

    - or click again for removal.
3. Enter your search text in the Text search field of the ENTRIES bar (e.g. "test" here).
4. Clicking on the Apply text search button 

   

    gives you all entry matches in the selected tables (which are marked with 

   

    in the "S" column).
   

5. Click the Multi-Table search button 

   

    again to close the function: The "S" column and the MULTI TABLE SEARCH listing disappear.

Please note: Multi-Table search button coloured blue/grey: display of S-column and new Multi Table Search window is on/off.

Using a Filter

In the FILTERS Tree you can quickly pick a selection criterium (or property) that you are looking for among all entries.

1. Clicking on a leaf (criterium) of the FILTERS Tree gives you a display of all entries fulfilling this criterium:

   • display of entries in the ENTRIES list for the selected table.

   • display of entries in the MULTI TABLES SEARCH listing for tables that have been Multi Table selected.

     More technically speaking, you get all entries having the selected criterium stored in their meta data. E.g. clicking on "USER" would list all entries where "USER" is the "Author" of.

2. If the obtained list in ENTRIES is still too long, you can further shorten it by applying an additional Text search as described above. Same applies to a list in the MULTI TABLE SEARCH area.

3. To clear a filter click on the Show all button 

   

   .

• Please note, a selected filter gets applied only once and it is not stored in memory for repeated usage.
• Changes in dynamic fields (such as new user, authors, etc.) are automatically updated (after a delay of 30 seconds since the last query).

Using multiple Filters

For searching through a vast amount of entries, you can also define a combination of several search criteria via the Definitions tab of the FILTERS area.

The search criteria are applied in a logical And order.

1. Select the category in one of the Definitions fields via the dropdown button "v" (e.g. Author):
   

   

2. Select the criterium (property) in the associated field via the dropdown button "v" (e.g. "USER"):
   

   

3. Repeat for other pairs category/criterium (e.g. Flags/Perfect):
   

   

4. Activate / deactivate a search pair with the [v] toggle on the right side of a category.
5. To deactivate all filters click on the Show all button 

   

Upon each modification of a selection, the matching entry listings are updated.

The Easy Selection

Whereas the usage of multiple filters (c.f. above) works only in a logical And order, the Easy Selection offers you filter combinations with logical And and Or orders for three standard templates (News, Commercials and Music), each for a variety of predefined search categories. In addition, the Easy Selection lets you use also Custom fields. But note, the Custom fields may have to be generated by the Administrator (c.f. Learn and Explore).

Clicking on the Selection button 

Please note, that logging out from the DBM lets you loose all Easy Selection dialogs that you have edited in that session. If you want to use permanent Selection masks you are advised to make use of the coloured Selection buttons of the Selection bar - as described below.

Selection Buttons

Selection buttons provide you with permanently defined filter criteria.

• Pressing the Show/Hide custom selection buttons button 

  

   in the ENTRIES filter bar shows / hides the custom Selection bar on bottom of the DBM Window. Coloured blue/grey: display is on/off.

There are four predefined filters which can be invoked by pressing buttons for Today, Audio, User, or Graphics in the Selection bar:

• Pressing one of the buttons applies the respective filter to the current list of entries. Then only entries that satisfy the filter conditions are displayed in the entry area.
  Each filter contains a configured sort order of the entry list - typically latest created entries on top.
• The Configure selection buttons button 

  

   allows you to create your own filters with associated buttons. Details see Configure Selection Buttons.

Filtering for Groups or Non-Groups

If you work with a table that contains groups (see Working with Groups and Stories), you may want to see only the groups in a table, or you may want to remove groups from the current table view. The "groups" filter gives you this option.

It must be enabled, details see Configuring Tables

Using the "Groups" Filter

The "groups" filter, when available, can be found in the title bar of the main table view:

When you click the filter, you see the list of possible choices:

The "groups" filter is added on top of the current filter, i.e. if any filtering is currently active and you use the "groups" filter, the list displays only groups or non-groups from the filtered list.

Using Full-Text Search

Full-text search is a powerful search engine which optionally comes with DAVID's DPE system. If this component is installed, you can use the features of full-text search from within DBM.

Full-Text Search Enabled Tables

DBM can show you for which tables full-text index is available.

1. Open the "Settings" dialog (main menu → Program → Settings)
2. Go to the "Columns" tab.
3. Under "Table view", set the checkmark next to "F"
   

   

   
   
   
4. Then click "OK" and make the "Tables" are wide enough so that you can see the "F" column at the right end:
   

   

   
   
   
5. A check in this column means that full-text search is available.

Searching with Full-text search

When the current database table is full-text search enabled, you can see the small "rocket" button next to the search text field.

When you click the rocket, it toggles between the hollow shape and a filled shape. At the same time, the background text of the search text field toggled between "DigaSQL Search" and "full-text search".

To start a search with full-text search, enter the search term into the search text field and press the ENTER key or click the magnifier glass at the right of the search text.

Full-Text Search Results and Refinements

You will notice that search results from standard (DigaSQL) search and those from full-text search are usually not identical. This is not a fault; rather, this stems from usage of different search algorithms. To fully understand where, what, and how full-text search searches for the search term that you have entered, and how you can restrict the search to certain fields and make it even more powerful, please refer to the web pages of Elasticsearch B.V. and to the DPE manual.

The Full-Text Search Index

Full-text search creates and maintains an index of keywords of each full-text search enabled database table. Searches are made in this index only, which makes them so incredibly fast. However the index must, at all times, be up to date. Any modifications made to the table - insertions, updates, and deletions - must immediately be reflected in the index. Current versions DPE and DBM contain code that guarantee maintaining the index up to date.

Some older applications may not update the index when they update database tables. If this happens, the index becomes out of sync, and search results will deteriorate. In this case, an administrator must recreate the index from scratch. DPE contains a workflow that allows this.

Multi Table Full-Text Search

You can use full-text search to search across several tables, similar to what is described in this page under the "Multi Table Search" heading. However, full-text search is available only if all selected tables are full-text search enabled.