People Power Search Syntax and Rules

A People Power Search is a User-designed Boolean query comprising pre-built BASIC queries or building blocks. It can search any data field in the database and concurrently search for document content.

The general structure of a Power Search query is:

QUERY1 AND | OR | AND_NOT ( QUERY2 OR  QUERY3 OR  QUERY4 )

where QUERY1, QUERY2 etc are BASIC queries on a set of database fields and/or documents.

There are 110 BASIC queries with names that are provided in the People Power Search appendix.

More BASIC queries may be built using the Administrator utility.

•In People Power Search, each BASIC query returns a set of PeopleIDs.

•In Companies Power Search, each BASIC query returns a set of CompaniesIDs.

•In Projects Power Search, each BASIC query returns a set of ProjectsIDs.

•In Job Orders Power Search, each BASIC query returns a set of JobOrdersIDs.

Example: Power Search for People on four data fields using editable parameters in the last column

Example: People Power Search Structure

CONNECTOR has drop down values of:

•AND

•OR

•AND NOT

QUERYNAME has about 150 different values in a drop down list (see Appendix for details).

OPERATOR (also called a comparison operator) has drop down values of:

Example: Comparison Operators

PARAMETER is text that a User types into the box. It must match the OPERATOR type.

OPENBRACKET and CLOSEBRACKET are inserted by clicking in the small boxes provided.

An existing bracket can be removed by clicking in the box where it exists.

Basic Query Names

Example: People Power Search Queries

The BASIC queries are accessible from a drop down list. Power Search capabilities are provided for Companies, People, Projects and Job Orders, but the Basic queries for People are the most well developed and most often used. There are about 150 pre-built low level BASIC queries defined for People. Text for these queries is shown in the Appendix.

Example of a Power Search

Example: Search for People who are Presidents but not Vice Presidents (shows dropdown list of queries).

Candidate Power Search

This search screen provides a very flexible and powerful way to combine low-level queries into higher-level compound queries. A high-level query can be catalogued and re-used. The top half of the Power Search form is for building, saving, retrieving and executing Power Search queries. The bottom half of the form is for building a matrix to rank the search results. A separate utility provided in the Deskflow Administrator module allows a User to edit the dictionary of low-level queries, and to add new queries to the dictionary.

•To clear the screen of previous search forms, click Clear All.

•To create a Power Search form, click Add Line, then click Add New Regular Search Line.

•Add more lines as needed, then program each line with a low level query, a condition clause, and search text.

•Link each line to the previous one with an AND/OR connector, and add brackets for OR lines.

•To execute a Power Search, click Search.

•To save the results of a query, click Save Current List As….

•To print a report from the query result set, click Print and select a report in the Reports Manager People folder.

Example of a Power Search:

Find all Systems Analysts that live in the Ottawa-Hull area, and that have all the following phrases mentioned in their resumes:

•Object Oriented or OOAD.

•Coach or Mentor or Mentoring.

In this example “systems analyst" OR "system analyst” is the primary job function so the first query line searches for Systems Analysts. The suggested syntax for this example is:

Find [system analyst OR Systems analyst]

AND [mentor OR mentoring OR coach]

AND [object oriented OR ooad]

AND [(613) OR (819)]