You are here: Designer Studio > Developer tools > Search

Designer Studio — Search

The Designer Studio provides full-text search for non-deprecated rules, data objects and the help system. You can search help system topics at any time. Searching for rules or data depends on system-maintained index files.

Performing a Search

To start a search:

Enter one or more terms (keywords) into the search text field, and then press the Enter key, or click .
Leave the search text field empty, then press Enter to see a list of rules recently updated by your operator.
Click next to the search text field to see a list of rules that are checked out by your operator.

Viewing matches

Matching results are organized by record type and then by name. Each result in the list may identify one or more rule versions with the same name:

Click a record type to scope the existing results without closing the results display.

Click a record name to open it in the Designer Studio work area (rule resolution determines the highest version available to you).
Click the expand button () to see a list of all versions of the rule. The containing ruleset, last operator to update the rule, last update time, and availability are also shown.

Filtering results

Use the following drop-down lists to control how results are displayed:

Menu	Option	Result
Result type	`Rules`	Only return instances of classes derived from the Rule– base class.
	`Data`	Only return instances of classes derived from the Data– base class.
	`Rules and Data`	Return results for all record types.
	`Help Topics`	Only return topics available in the Pega 7 Platform Help System.
Search Type	`Name`	Evaluate the pyRuleName property for Rule– instances, the pxInsName for Data– instances, and Help topic titles when looking for a match.
Search Type	`All Content`	In addition to record names and help topic titles, evaluate record data (XML) and bodies of help topics when looking for match.
Match Criteria	`Contains`	Return results based on words that match any part of for the entered term(s), including in the middle of words.
	`Starts With`	Return results based on words that begin with the entered term(s).
	`Exact Match`	Return results based on words that exactly match the entered term(s).
Scope	`My Current Application`	Only evaluate records in your current application when looking for a match.
Scope	`All Applications`	Evaluate records in your entire application stack when looking for a match.

Notes:

By default, matches include both rules and data instances.
Changes to filtering options are remembered only for the duration of the session.
The Search tool does not search work items.
Rule–, Data– and other matches are ranked by Elasticsearch’s default relevancy ranking, based on factors such as the number of times that the search term appears in the object.

Viewing all results

The initial results display the highest ranked matches, up to 50 results. Click Show all results in new window to open the list of all matches in a new window. Records are organized by type, name, and class.

Advanced Searches

The search capability is implemented using robust, fault-tolerant Elasticsearch technology for use in distributed environments. Elasticsearch will detect and remove failed nodes in a cluster, automatically replicating and reorganizing nodes as needed.

Note: To take advantage of Elasticsearch distributed architecture, multiple nodes should be configured to host Elasticsearch index files. See Full text search.

The search terms entered are converted into the appropriate Elasticsearch query syntax based on the search method chosen. You can enter more advanced Elasticsearch query syntax to perform complex searches.

Note: The following general rules apply to searches:

Elasticsearch uses the (*) asterisk as a wildcard to match zero or more characters, and the (?) question mark as a wildcard to match any single character. The * character is automatically added before and after search terms when you use the Starts With (term*) or Contains (*term*) search method , and you do not have to manually enter them.
To search for a rule based on its Applies To class and name, select the All Content option for Search Type (since pyRuleName does not contain the class name), and enter a search such as class-name*rule-name or class-name. For example, to see the version of the pyLabel property within the Work- class, search for Work-*pyLabel.
If you enter two or more words, they are treated by default as a single phrase during search.
Your search string may contain characters - _ % or @. Your search string may contain a ! but escaped with a preceding \ character. Searches with any of these characters are exact match only. Searches involving other special characters such as ( [ { }]} ^ ~ * # : \ | are not supported.
When a search string is enclosed in quotes, the selected search method is ignored, and an Exact Match is always performed using the exact text within quotes.
Use the special syntax property-name:value to search for instances with a specific property value.
Note: Set the Search Type option to Content for this type of search. Enter an exact property name, including capitalization. The searched value cannot contain any special characters. Instances whose value starts with the value entered are matched.
For example, pxObjClass:Rule-Obj-Flow returns a list of all Rule-Obj-Flow and Rule-Obj-FlowAction rules.
You can enter more advanced Elasticsearch queries. For information about the Elasticsearch query syntax, go to the Elasticsearch website at elastic.co.
Note: When entering advanced syntax, select Exact Match as the Search Method.
For example, you can use the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to search for combinations of multiple terms and phrases. Capitalize the Boolean operators to distinguish them from the terms or phrases being combined. You can use parentheses to group conditions. See the examples below.

Entered Text	Search Method	Syntax Sent To Elasticsearch	Match Returned If...
`abc`	`Exact Match`	`abc`	Exact word `abc` exists in searched text.
`abc`	`Starts With`	`abc*`	One or more words beginning with `abc` exist in searched text.
`abc`	`Contains`	`abc`	One or more words containing `abc` exist in searched text.
`abc def`	`Exact Match`	`abc def`	Exact phrase`abc def` exists in searched text.
`abc def`	`Starts With`	`abc def*`	One or more phrases starting with the exact word `abc` followed by a word starting with `def` exists in searched text.
`abc def`	`Contains`	`abc def`	The string `abc def` exists anywhere in searched text.
`“abc:01-01-01”`	`Any`	`abc:01-01-01`	Exact word`abc:01-01-01` exists in searched text.
`abc\:def`	`Exact Match`	`abc\:def`	Exact word`abc:01-01-01` exists in searched text.
`abc\:def`	`Starts With`	`abc\:def*`	One or more words beginning with `abc:def` exist in searched text.
`abc\:def`	`Contains`	`abc\:def`	One or more words containing `abc:def` exists in searched text.
abc OR def	`Exact Match`	`abc OR def`	Either the exact word `abc`or the exact word `def` exists in searched text.
`abc* OR def`	`Exact Match`	`abc* OR def`	Either one or more words beginning with `abc`or one or more words containing `def` exists in searched text.
`abc AND def`	`Exact Match`	`abc AND def`	Both the exact word `abc`and the exact word `def` exists in searched text.
`abc AND def`	`Exact Match`	`abc* AND def*`	Both one or more words beginning with `abc`and one or more words beginning with `def` exists in searched text.
`(+abc* def) NOT ghi*`	`Any`	`(+abc* def) NOT ghi*`	One or more words starting with `abc` exists in searched text, the string `def` may also exist anywhere within the searched text, and no words starting with `ghi` exist in the searched text.

Open topic with navigation

Designer Studio — Search

Performing a Search

Viewing matches

Filtering results

Menu

Option

Result

Viewing all results

Advanced Searches

Entered Text

Search Method

Syntax Sent To Elasticsearch

Match Returned If...