Creating Search Views
Users search for records by entering search criteria in the resulting search screens. Lists of matching records appear with various columns of information to help users recognize and access the desired record. For example, on the Tasks search screen, users may select various search views from links in the left navigation pane to help them find their own pending tasks or others' overdue tasks.
TeamConnect contains many predefined search views for objects installed by default. It also allows you to customize the search views for each object to include a variety of fields, providing users with choices of how they want to search for and display records.
Uses for Search Views
A custom-defined search view can be designated as a collection. When you create such a collection, the collection name appears as a link in the left navigation pane of the end-user interface. Clicking on that link runs the search and displays the search results in the work area of the user interface. In this way a search with complex filtering criteria can be reused quickly, saving the end user the trouble of entering those criteria each time. You can also define, and then assign search views to groups of users.
You may use search views not only for finding records, but also to create a summary of or report on records, which you may print directly from the search screen. For example, you may use a search view for creating a report of all expenses posted during the last 30 days.
When you define a search view, you must also specify where it may be used or accessed in any of the following ways: as a related object, through a portal pane, as a collection link for the object, and through a search module. This flexibility allows you to design different search views to meet the needs of users depending on where they need to search for records.
Searching with Related Objects
When a search view is used with an object that may have other kinds of objects related to it, the search results are limited to records that actually do have related objects present. For example, this combination might happen if a custom object has a category associated with it, which specifies a relation with Involved objects.
If a specific record of that custom object type has the specified category assigned to it, but does not have any relationships with Involved records currently, that record is omitted from the search results.