Searching the Library

You can search for library items in the Open from Library dialog, in the Library Administration tool and in Information Designer.

Searching for a text string will by default look for matching text in the title and keywords of the items in the library. You can use wildcards and boolean operators to search for parts and combinations of words. For a listing of the basic search syntax, see Searching in TIBCO Spotfire.

Library specific search:

Keyword	Example	Function
title:<word in title>	title:sales	Locates library items with the specified word (or part of word) somewhere in the title.
created_by: <username>	created_by:admin created_by::admin	Locates library items created by a certain user. In the first example, all items modified by any users beginning with admin will be found. In the second example, only items modified by the user 'admin' will be found.
modified_by: <username>	modified_by:admin	Locates library items modified by a certain user.
item_type:<type> or type:<type>	item_type:datasource	Locates items of a specific type. The available types are: column, filter, join, procedure, query (=information link) folder, dxp (= TIBCO Spotfire analysis file), SBDF (= TIBCO Spotfire Binary Data Format file) datasource, dataconnection, connectiondatasource, datafunction and colorscheme.
item_id::<GUID> or id::<GUID>	item_id::dac3cd8c-47ec-454a-a8f2-691c60ece052	Locates a specific library item based on its unique identifier.
depends_on (<expression>)	depends_on(item_id::538bcde4-7212-475f-a348-5bb41ba39c41) depends_on(Sales) depends_on(type::connectiondatasource)	Locates all items that depend on a specific element.
required_by (<expression>)	required_by(item_id::6f6dc7e0-57bd-11d7-5ac0-0010ac110132) required_by (title:MyAnalysis) required_by(type::dataconnection)	Locates all items that are required by another item. If the GUID in the example to the left belongs to an information link, the search will find all columns, filters, etc. that are included in that information link.
modified	modified:"2 days ago" modified:"a week ago" modified:>"an hour ago" modified:today modified:<"this month" modified::>created modified:"2009-02-01T18:27:55CEST"	It is possible to search for items that have been modified during a specified time span, relative to today. There are two different ways of describing relative dates and times: 1) State the number of time parts ago in a string surrounded by quotes. The available time parts are seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. For example, search for modified:<"6 months ago". The given number of time units will be subtracted from the current time in the search. 2) State the time period to look back at using either of the keywords; today, yesterday, "this week", "this month", "this year". Note that you need quotes around all keywords consisting of more than one word. In this type of search, the last part of the date or time is "reset" (the time gets set to zero, the day of the month gets set to 1 etc.). The start day of a week is dependent on your server locale. For a en-US locale the first day of the week would be Sunday. Modified, created and accessed can also be used in comparisons with each other. The example to the left locates all items that have been modified after their creation. Modified can also be used together with a timestamp of ISO 8601 format ("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz") to find items modified at a specific time.
created	created:>"this week" created:<"2 weeks ago" created:>"2009-02-01T18:27:55CEST"	It is possible to search for items that have been created during a specified time span, relative to today. See details regarding the allowed time spans under "modified" above. Modified, created and accessed can be used in comparisons with each other. Created can also be used together with a timestamp of ISO 8601 format ("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz") to find items created at a certain time.
accessed	accessed:>"this month" accessed:<"2 weeks ago" accessed:null accessed:>"2009-02-01T18:27:55CEST"	It is possible to search for items that have been accessed during a specified time span, relative to today. See details regarding the allowed time spans under "modified" above. Modified, created and accessed can be used in comparisons with each other. Accessed can also be used together with a timestamp of ISO 8601 format ("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz") to find items accessed at a certain time. The example accessed:null finds all items that have never been accessed. The last example finds all items that have been accessed after the first of February 2009.
::>	modified::>created	Used to finds items strictly greater than the expression following the operator. For example, finds all items that have been modified after their creation.
::<	accessed::<modified	Used to finds items strictly less than the expression following the operator. For example, finds all items that have been modified after they were last accessed.
parent_id:: <folder GUID>	parent_id::538bcde4-7212-475f-a348-5bb41ba39c41	Locates all items located in the specified folder.
format_version: <string or null>	format_version:null	Locates all items of a specified format version. For example, all items which have no format version specified can be found.
content_size: <byte>	content_size:>10000 content_size:>500KB content_size:<2MB	Locates all items of a specific byte size. In the first example, all items larger than 10000 bytes are found. If nothing else is specified, the number is interpreted as bytes, but you can specify content sizes in KB, MB or GB as well.

Analysis files:

When searching for analysis files, there are a number of search parameters that may help you locating a specific group of analyses. If you want to locate analysis files only, add type:dxp to the search expression.

Keyword	Example	Function
description	description:sales type:dxp description:sales description::null	Locates all items containing the specified word in their description. Locates all analysis files containing the specified word in their description. Locates all items that are missing a description.
keywords	keywords:sales type:dxp keywords:sales	Locates all items containing the specified keyword. Locates all analysis files containing the specified keyword.
AllowWebPlayerResume: <true or false>	AllowWebPlayerResume:true	If true, locates all analysis files that allow personalized views for all web player users.
EmbedAllSourceData: <true or false>	EmbedAllSourceData:true	If true, locates all analysis files that embed all source data. (Override and embed all data check box selected.)
OnDemandInformationLinks: <GUID>	OnDemandInformationLinks:* OnDemandInformationLinks:c45618c3-b7ac-43aa-bafe-e14f39fd4bb7	The first example locates all analyses that use on-demand data tables. You can also specify a GUID to locate all analyses that use a specific information link as an on-demand data table.
AllTablesEmbedded: <true or false>	AllTablesEmbedded:true	If true, locates all analysis files that only have embedded data tables.

Information Model elements:

If you want to locate information model elements of a specific type only, add type:column (or filter, join, procedure, query, folder or datasource) to the search expression.

Keyword	Example	Function
description	description:sales type:query description:sales	Locates all items containing the specified word in their description. Locates all information links containing the specified word in their description.
column	column:Sales column::Sales	Locates all items referring to a source column with the specified name. The source column could be referred to in the conditions or groupings of a column element, a filter condition, a join condition or the join condition of a procedure.
table	table:SalesandCost	Locates all items referring to a source table or stored procedure with the specified name. This could be referred to in the conditions or groupings of a column element, a filter condition, the condition or target tables of a join or in the source procedure or join condition of a procedure.
schema	schema:dbo	Locates all items referring to a source schema with the specified name. This could be referred to in the conditions or groupings of a column element, a filter condition, the condition or target tables of a join or in the source procedure or join condition of a procedure.
catalog	catalog:Sales	Locates all elements referring to a source catalog with the specified name. This could be referred to in the conditions or groupings of a column element, a filter condition, the condition or target tables of a join or in the source procedure or join condition of a procedure.
datatype	datatype:integer	Locates all columns of the specified data type (integer, real, string, date, time, datetime, clob or blob).
parameter	parameter:MinSales parameter:*	Locates information links using the specified parameter.
<property_name>: <property_value>	"my.prop":*	Custom properties in any information model element are searchable using the same syntax. However, note that the property name must by quoted if it contains a '.' delimiter.

Combinations of keywords:

You can combine many of the keywords described above to create more advanced search expressions. For example:

type:query depends_on(type:column salary) - searches for information links that contains a column with "salary" in its name.

type:query depends_on(column:salary) - searches for information links that contains an element that refers to a data source column with "salary" in its name.

required_by(type::query InformationLinkName) - shows the elements used by the information link with the name InformationLinkName.

(not (required_by(type:dxp))) and type:query - searches for information links that are not used by any analysis file in the library.

type:dxp depends_on(type:dataconnection title:Teradata) - searches for analyses that uses a data connection in the library with "Teradata" in its title.

To search for items in the Open from Library dialog:

Depending on where you are searching, you may get different search results. Analyses and information links are shown when searching in the Open from Library dialog, not any information model elements or data sources, etc.

Navigate to the top folder of the structure you want to perform the search in. If you want to search the entire library, navigate to the library root.
Type the text you want to search for in the search field at the top right corner of the dialog.
Click on the search button with a magnifying glass.

Response: The dialog will switch to a Search Results view.
The items matching your search criteria will be displayed in the list. To return to the normal folder view, click the Back to folder link.

To search for items in the Library Administration tool:

Navigate to the top folder of the structure you want to perform the search in. If you want to search the entire library, navigate to the library root.
Type the text you want to search for in the search field at the top right corner of the Library Administration tool.
Click on the Search button.

Response: The Library Administration tool will switch to a Search Result view. Note: Searching for data sources does not include searching for database entities like catalogs, schemas or tables. It is only the database instance itself that can be located via search.
The items matching your search criteria will be displayed in the list. To return to the normal folder view, click the Back to folder link.

To search for items in Information Designer:

Depending on where you are searching, you may get different search results. Information model elements, information links and data sources are shown when searching in Information Designer, not any analyses, etc.

Type the text you want to search for in the search field at the top of the Elements tree.
Click on the search button with a magnifying glass, .

Response: The search results are displayed. Note: Searching for data sources does not include searching for database entities like catalogs, schemas or tables. It is only the database instance itself that can be located via search.
The items matching the search result are shown in the list. To return to the normal folder view, click the Clear Search... link.

To use search expressions in custom RSS feeds:

You can create a customized RSS feed showing the latest changes to the library items you are interested in by appending a library search expression to a URL.

Use the following syntax to create your own feed:

http://<server>/spotfire/library[/path/to/something/interesting]?rss[&search=<search_expression>]

The path and search parameters are optional. If you only specify http://myspotfireserver/spotfire/library?rss, the feed will return the 20 most recently modified files in the library. You can also add a max-results section if you want to limit the number of results shown, see example below.

Examples:

http://myspotfireserver/spotfire/library?rss&search=content_size:>500KB

http://myspotfireserver/spotfire/library?rss&search=created_by::admin

http://myspotfireserver/spotfire/library?rss&max-results=10&search=title:sales

To use search expressions in tibcospotfire links:

You can incorporate a search expression in a tibcospotfire link in order to directly populate the Open from Library dialog with some suitable analyses or information links. See Links to Analyses in the Library for more information about links. The links are a list of keys and value pairs. The key and value are separated using colon, :, and each key and value pair are also separated with colons:

tibcospotfire:<key1>:<value1>:<key2>:<value2>...<keyN>:<valueN>

The following keys and values are allowed:

Search: <search expression> with optional parameters.

MaxResult: <positive integer>

SortDirection: Ascending | Descending

The values should be encoded using the following pattern:

Value	Encoded to:
:	\:
"	\'
\	\\

Examples:

tibcospotfire:search:*:OrderBy:Modified:SortDirection:Descending:MaxResult:20

tibcospotfire:search:modified\:<\'3 days ago'\:OrderBy:Modified:SortDirection:Descending