Power Searching for People

A 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.

One of the benefits of a Power Search query is that it can be saved then re-used with different parameters.

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 150 BASIC queries provided in the Deskflow People Power Search view. See list below:

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.

An example of a People Power Search is:

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

This People Power Search has the following structure:

CONNECTOR has drop down values of:

•AND

•OR

•AND NOT

QUERYNAME has about 120 different values in a drop down list (see Addendum for details).

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

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: Names of People Power Search Queries - query syntax is shown below:

The BASIC queries are accessible from a drop down list. Power Search capabilities are provided for Companies,  People and Projects, but the searches for People are the most well developed and most often used. There are about 110 pre-built low level BASIC queried defined for People. Text for these queries are shown in the Addendum.

Example of Power Search

Example: Search for Presidents but not Vice Presidents (shows drop down list of BASIC 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 cataloged 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 screen is for building a matrix to rank the search results.

•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 People folder.

Power Search Example

The Power Search capability provides a means to create a custom Boolean search of all database and text content. Pre-defined low-level queries can be combined into a compound query. This can be saved for re-use. A separate utility provided in the Deskflow Administrator module allows User to edit the dictionary of low-level queries, and to add new queries to the dictionary.

•This search will use an existing list with the name of “Baan Candidates”, then AND the results with a search for People currently working in Ontario, then AND the results with Candidates that have ALL of the named five skills.

•The final result will be displayed as a list of People that meet all the specified requirements.