Using the included search facilities
| By: Jeremy North | Last Updated: December 3rd, 2007 |
The Advanced Search (Ctrl+F, Search | Advanced Search) functionality allows for greater flexibility in helping to get the exact data you want from QualityCentral.
Advanced search changes
Search for reports by RAID number - It is now possible to search for a report by its internal report number. This is probably most useful for sysops than regular users.
Search by status - support has been added to now allow searches to be done on more than one report status. Just check the box next to all of the possible report status' you want to search for.
Search by type - searching by report type now allows multiple report types to be searched on. Also included are quick set buttons to search for all bug related reports, or all feature request reports. The quick set functionality is also available on a context menu.
Search by severity - searching by report severity now supports multiple selections as well.
Ignore Automatic Incident Reports (AIRs) - more a feature for sysops but ignores the automatic incident reports that are reported when the IDE crashes.
The new advanced search dialog
Searching in multiple projects
It is possible to search across multiple projects using the Advanced Search dialog. Under the project prompt there is a check box called Multiple Projects. Check this box to see the Project Details interface change.
The project drop down has changed to an edit box with a button. Click on the button to bring up a list of projects you have access to.
You can now select which projects you would like to query on.
Important Information
You can save your selected projects as a single project that will then appear in the projects drop down.
For the sake of this article, lets check C#Builder, C++Builder, Delphi and Delphi.NET projects. Click on Save As and give the "New" project the name BDS2006.
Click OK to confirm your selection
Now the selected projects are listed in the edit box and you can continue your query across multiple projects.
Access the Advanced search dialog again and uncheck the Multiple Projects check box. Drop down the projects combo box and the new "BDS2006" project should appear in the list.
Well it worked but why would I want to do this?
It makes selecting multiple projects quicker. It does mean that you can't limit the search to a specific version but I am working on this limitation.
Accessing Advanced Search history
Did you know that the green arrows at the bottom right control your history of searches? Just navigate your previous searches using these buttons.
By default all searches are saved in the history list. To reduce the number of items stored in the history list open the search node of the options dialog (Tools | Options | Search). The Advanced Search History group contains two items.
- The edit control allows you to enter in the number of items to save in the history.
- The Clear History button clears the current contents of the history list.
Saving Advanced Searches
So you have a search that you would like to run often and don't want to have to navigate the history of the Advanced Search dialog to find it. If this sounds familiar then what you need to do is Save your advanced search.
You may have noticed that there is a Save button next to the Search button on the advanced search dialog. Clicking on the Save button allows you to persist the current search criteria locally for easy reuse.
First enter in your search criteria (Figure 1).
Figure 1
Before saving the search a dialog (Figure 2) is displayed that allows you to enter in some additional items.
Figure 2
Search Name - Give the search a useful name that you can easily recognize. This name will be used to identify a menu item as well as the tab page (if Name on Tab is blank) the results are displayed once run.
Description - Option description of the search.
Save as an Auto Notification Search - Auto notification searches run at startup
Display in Report Pane (Name on Tab): Tab name that the results will appear on.
Own Floating Window - Option not currently supported
Date Settings - Allows you to limit the search by reported by date if you wish. This option is not available in the Advanced Search dialog.
Use custom Max Return value - Advanced Searches use the global setting for maximum returned reports (Tools | Options | Search | Maximum reports to return in a search). Set this option to set a different max return value for this report.
Search in subscribed projects only - Don't check this. It doesn't do anything!
Advanced button - Functionality that clicking on this button exposes is not currently not implemented.
Once you enter in the details you want click the OK button to save the search information. To see the benefits of this, you now need to restart QC Plus (hopefully I will get an opportunity to change this requirement in the future).
After restarting QC Plus you will see no noticeable difference to the user interface until you click on the Search menu item.
Notice at the end of the menu there is a new item called VCL Reports (which is what I named my search). Click on this menu item now runs the search that I saved.
The results of this search then appear as a new tab in the Search tab that holds all search results. Similar to where searches for My Reports appear.
Maintaining saved searches
It is also possible to maintain your saved searches. You can modify the search criteria, change the saved tab name and delete the search when it is no longer useful.
To maintain your saved searches select the Search | Organise Custom Searches… menu item. Figure 3 shows the dialog.
Figure 3
Edit button - displays the advanced search dialog with the saved search information selected.
Delete button - deletes the currently selected saved search.
Quick Searches
Also don't forget the Quick Search functionality that allows you to perform Keyword, Report Number, First name and Last name searches from a docked window. There are also options to limit the result count (as some searches may return many results) and also just run a search that will return the number of matches that are found and can prompt you if you want to continue with the search.
The combo box that holds the text to search on keeps a history of the searches done with the Quick Search window specific to the criteria selected.
Options for searching
|
Option |
Description |
|
Search selected project only |
When selected, only the project that is currently selected in the Available Projects window will be searched for matches to your selected criteria. |
|
Limit search results to |
Allows you to limit the size of the result set independent of any other returned results limit option for searching. |
|
Check result count first |
Select this option to be prompted with how many results match your criteria. This is most useful for users with slow connections as because the criteria can be so broad, then could be several thousand matches found. |
|
Prompt to continue if results are over |
If the results will return more than the number of reports specified here, then you will be prompted as to whether you wish to continue running this search. Only valid if the Check result count first option is selected. |
Yet another way to search
The welcome page now includes search abilities. Enter in your keywords to search for and hit enter (or press the search button). You can also limit the keyword search to a specific project by using the following syntax:
proj:<ProjectName>
For example:
bugs proj:Delphi
This will perform a keyword search for the keyword “bugs” in the Delphi project.
You can quickly insert a project using the context menu. All projects are listed under the Insert Project menu item.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article has helped bring to your attention some new (and existing) features of QC Plus.
There are still other ways to perform searches in QC Plus. Be sure to be curious and check out the context menus. You never know what shortcuts are hidden.
Where to get QC Plus
You can download QC Plus from http://www.jed-software.com/qc_download.htm.
The QC Plus homepage is http://www.jed-software.com/qc.htm.
Tips and Tricks will be posted on my blog http://jedqc.blogspot.com/.
About the author
You can contact Jeremy via the contact page on his website at http://www.jed-software.com/.
JED Software provides the Delphi community with developer tools, specialized components and other IDE enhancements. Some are free, while others incur a small fee.