Select object types

Search Designer can search for documents, folders, or custom objects. You can also search for different objects at the same time. Help usually refers to "documents," but in most cases you can substitute the term "folders" or "custom objects" if you are designing a search for those object types.

Use the Object Types tab if you want to search for anything other than documents or you want to find only certain types of documents. Note that there are many types of documents, so you can choose a particular subclass within the Document category. You can choose only one primary object type (document, folder or custom object) or multiple object types per search.

To specify an object type or multiple object types

  1. Next to Object Types, select any of the following document types: Document, Folder, Custom Object. Each of these object types has subclasses that appear in the grid below as you specify an object type. You must choose as least one object type. By default, the Document object type is selected.

    Custom Object is disabled by default and you might not see it as an Object Type option. If you want to see this option, you need to modify the General Settings in Site Preferences.

    NOTE If you select more than one object type, the related subclasses from each object type appear in a list format. Notice the Document, Folder and Custom Object icons next to the object subclass.

  2. Click Update Subclass List to synchronize the subclasses you selected for your objects.

    NOTE After you modify the main object type selections and you want to select the subclasses to limit your search, you must click Update Subclass List first to update the subclass list that appears in the grid below.

To select object subclasses

  1. From the View menu, you can choose Editable, Read Only, or Hidden. Users see only Editable and Read Only search criteria.
    • Select Editable to allow users to clear one or more subclasses they do not want included in the search results. They cannot select different subclasses.
    • Choose Read Only to allow users to see which subclasses you selected. They cannot change Read Only subclasses.
    • Use Hidden if you do not want users to see the subclasses. This is the default.

    NOTE Users should understand that if they deselect all subclasses, they have told the system not to filter out anything. Therefore, the search results will include all subclasses in the object type. If you leave one subclass hidden, this won't happen. For example, you might keep the Document subclass hidden but expose all other Document subclasses (like search, entry, and publish templates). Users could deselect all of the subclasses they see and the search would filter out everything but the hidden document subclass.

  2. In the Object Subclass column, choose one of the subclasses from the drop-down menu. To add more subclasses to the search criteria, click on the next row and choose another item from the menu. The subclasses you choose determine the list of properties you see when entering property conditions. The relationship between multiple rows is always OR.
  3. Delete rows by clicking on the row and then click the Delete a Row icon.
  4. While you can copy and paste rows, add blank rows by clicking the Insert a Row icon, or move a row by clicking the Move Row Up icon or the Move Row Down icon, there is no reason to put rows in any particular order.

A search is a type of document. By default, all document types are included in the search results. Your search always contains all text you entered in the Words/phrases field, so the search is always found along with other document types that contain the same text.

To avoid seeing the search in the results, always choose the appropriate subclasses for the object type. If you only want typical documents returned (such as those created by word processing programs), choose only the Document subclass.