The search bar is a critical component of modern applications, allowing users to quickly locate relevant information. It provides an intuitive way of navigation through items efficiency.

The primary search functionality works based on keyword search to identify where text or a phrase is contained within predefined Fields set by the app developer. Softools also leverages AI to improve the effectiveness of a search via its DataLens functionality.

• App Level Search Bar: Search across all Records in an App
• Report Level Search Bar: Refine the Records within a particular Report
• Data Lens: Leverage AI to pull back the most appropriate results beyond a keyword match

App Level Search Bar

The App Level search bar will search across all records within the app. This means it is not limited to any base filters that are predefined by the app developer. In the following example we have an issue log and we want to identify all records that are relevant to Quality Control

Step 1: First access the App Home screen by clicking on the App Title in the left pane menu. 

Step 2: 

Next enter the search keyword(s) into the search bar. In this case we type in 'Quality'. If we wanted to refine the search further then we could be more specific such as using the keyword phrase 'Quality Control'.

Step 3: From here we have two options

• Open a Record: If we can see the record that we want in the scrollable results then by clicking on that result line, it will open the record for us to then view or edit as required.
• Open Results Table: Alternatively we can click on the bar at the bottom of the search results and this will open a table report that . The table report will be an unfiltered version of the default/first table report set for the App.

Report Level Search Bar

The Report Level Search Bar enables Users to search through a selected Report to reduce the results to the context of the keyword search.

Step 1: First access the List Report from the Left Pane Menu 

Step 2:  Next enter the search keyword(s) into the search bar. In this case we type in 'Quality'. If we wanted to refine the search further then we could be more specific such as using the keyword phrase 'Quality Control'. Click the Search icon or hit 'Enter' on the keyboard to perform the search.

Remember to remove the keyword and apply the empty text to restore all Records back into the Report again.

DataLens

A limitation of the traditional Search Bar is that it is limited to keyword matches. DataLens switches the search method to AI-driven search, allowing broader and more relevant results beyond exact keyword matches.