Using Keys and Search Pages

This chapter provides an overview of keys and search pages and discusses how to use search pages to retrieve data.

Understanding Keys

A field or a combination of fields uniquely identifies every table in your PeopleSoft database. For example, the employee ID field uniquely identifies your employee records. As another example, when employees enroll in training classes, the combination of employee ID, course code, and course start date uniquely identifies enrollment requests.

The fields that uniquely identify your data are called keys or key fields. To display a page, you enter the keys to search for on the search page, so that the system can retrieve the correct row of data. For example, to retrieve the personal data page for Jim Smith, you must specify the key data in the search record for that employee.

A search record is the list of defined search keys that help you locate data. The search keys are the fields that you are prompted for on a search page. If you run Search by exactly specifying the key fields, the system will always return only one (or no) result. Most transaction pages or components have search records associated with them. If you select other pages that have a common search record, such as pages within a component or an associated link, you are not prompted to enter search criteria again. You are prompted for new search keys only when you select a new page outside of the component with a different search record.

Understanding Search Pages

There are two types of search pages: basic search pages and advanced search pages. When you select a content reference, the system often displays a Find an Existing Value tab (or something similar) that enables you to do a basic search and also provides an Advanced Search link

A basic search page enables you to search by just one field at a time, and then only using the “begins with” operator. To designate the search field, if more than one is available, select the desired field from the Search by drop-down list box and then click the Search button to display the results of your search. You can perform a partial search by first entering part of a name or description in the begins with text box. For instance, if you want to find all fields beginning with the letters PS, you would type PS in the begins with text box before clicking Search.

On the advanced search page, you can narrow your search, both by searching based on more than one field at a time and by using a variety of search operators.

In some cases, search pages may include the Include History and Correct History options. In addition, search pages contain the Case Sensitive check box to enable you to perform case-sensitive searches.

Both the basic and advanced search pages include the Maximum number of rows to return field which enables you to limit the number of items in the search results. This enables you to lower processing time in case your search could yield large numbers of items.

See Entering and Saving Search Criteria.

Using Search Page Buttons

The following search-related buttons appear on search pages of all types.

Using Search Pages to Retrieve Data

This section discusses how to:

• Enter and save search criteria.

• Use wildcards to find information.

• Use type ahead to narrow the search

See Also

Using Effective Dates

Entering and Saving Search Criteria

This section discusses how to:

• Enter search criteria.

• Set the maximum number of rows to return.

• Use operators.

• Save search criteria.

Entering Search Criteria

When specifying search criteria, you can enter a full or partial value for any key field. Based on what you enter, the system uses the search record to present a list of possible matches or, if there is only one match, the page that you requested. Often, however, you do not have all of the information that you need. For example, you may want to find all administrator user profiles. If you enter the word Administrator in the Description field, and the search criterion for that field is set to contains, the system narrows the search by displaying all courses that contain Administrator in the description. With this information, you may be able to determine which user profiles you want based on the results in the Search Results grid. To access a user profile, click any link in the Search Results grid.

When browsing through a large number of search results, use the browser scroll bar to view all listings on the current page. If not all results are displayed at once, you can click the Show Next Rows button (the right arrow) above the grid to view the next set of rows, and you can click the Show Previous Rows button (the left arrow) to see previous sets of rows. You can also click the First and Last links to display the first and last sets of rows of search results. In addition, you may be able to click a View All or View x button—to view all records at once or to view a designated number of records. (The value of x will have been set by the application developer.)

When you access a page, notice that the key fields from the search page appear as the display-only fields in the upper-left corner of the page, usually just below the page tab.

Setting the Maximum Number of Rows to Return

Access the User Profiles search page (PeopleTools, Security, User Profiles, User Profiles).

When you perform a search, you have some control over the number of entries that the search can return. The maximum value and the default value depend on the search settings on the PeopleTools Options page. You can further limit the number of search items, by entering a lower value in the Maximum number of rows to return field on the search page; you can set the number of entries that the search returns to any value less than the maximum. If the search retrieves more than the maximum number of listings, the Search Results grid displays only the number of results requested in the Maximum number of rows return setting. If the search criteria would otherwise retrieve a greater number of results than are displayed, that greater number will also be displayed in a message above the search results. Attempt to narrow your search in another way if you cannot retrieve the data that you need on the first attempt.

Note. The default maximum value is set on the PeopleTools Options page.

See PeopleTools Options.

Using Operators

When performing an advanced search, you can use a variety of operators to narrow your searches—hunting for customers by a particular first letter, by values that are less than or greater than a specified amount, and so on. You can use the following operators:

Note. If you use the IN operator to search for multiple items, separated by commas, and you enter a space after the comma, the search automatically strips out that space. (For example, if you search for 1000, 1001, the search assumes that you are searching for 1000,1001. If you actually do want to search for a character string that contains a space, include that string within double quotes, like this: 1000," 1001".

You can use an operator for more than one field to make your search even more specific. For example, you could narrow your search for courses with the word orientation in the name by selecting the "=" operator for the Internal/External field and selecting Internal from the drop-down list box, as shown in the previous example. This search will find only courses that meet both criteria: internal courses that include the word orientation.

Saving Search Criteria

If you are conducting an advanced search, you can click the Save Search Criteria link to name and save the specifics of your search. If you have saved one or more searches, you can use the Use Saved Search drop-down list box to select a saved search. Once you save a search, you can use that specific saved search in other search pages that use the same search record. You can remove any saved searches by clicking the Delete Saved Search link.

Note. The applications stores saved searches by user ID.

Using Wildcards to Find Information

PeopleSoft applications support three wildcard characters to help you search for data in character fields. You can use these wildcards to track down the exact information that you need.

Note. Wildcards only work with the begins with and contains operators.

Note. Certain applications support wildcards specific only to that application. See your application PeopleBook for details.

Here are the supported standard wildcard characters:

For example, if you enter Q%sdmin, as the User ID, the system returns a list of user IDs that begin with Q and contains 'admin' as you can see here.

Using Type Ahead to Narrow the Search

Type ahead suggestions appear on two types of fields:

• Edit fields on search pages.

• Prompt fields

Edit Fields on Search Pages

When an edit field has type ahead enabled, if you type a letter into a field such as Country, and pause, the type ahead window appears and shows you a list of country codes beginning with the letters you entered. The application returns the maximum number of allowed rows and shows you a subset in the type ahead window. This suggestion list size defaults to 50, but is configurable on the Portal General Settings page.

Prompt Fields

All prompt fields have type ahead enabled. When you type into a prompt field the type ahead results are slightly different. When using prompt type ahead, the application provides additional columns to assist in choosing the correct value.

See Also

Managing General Portal Settings

Using Edit Boxes and Long Edit Boxes