In this article:
1. Introduction to the Advanced Search
2. How to Get the "All cards per board" Report?
3. How to Refine and Configure Your Search Criteria for Custom Reports?
4. How to Save Your Filters for Future Reference?
4.1. How to Load a Saved Filter?
5. Other Feature Capabilities
Knowing how to find specific data from your complex processes and workflows is an important skill. This article will help you search smarter with the Advanced Search functionality, so you can find the information you need.
1. Introduction to the Advanced Search
The Advanced Search tool in Businessmap is a very powerful feature that helps you filter information by a particular search category.
The most common scenario is the "keyword" search use case. Using the input field, you could easily search through all workspaces and boards for tasks matching your searched string. By default, the keyword search will look into the tasks' Owner, ID, Title, and Description.
When you search from an open board, the system defaults to searching for cards on that specific board. To search for results outside of that board, you will need to remove the default “Board is” filter.
The result is shown in a table view with graphical elements for faster visual perception.
To quickly locate a work item by its ID (standard or custom), use the quick search option available when you open the Advanced Search. Click the clock icon inside the search box; it will turn blue when enabled. The quick search will immediately stop upon finding a match by ID or Custom ID, providing the fastest results. If you want to search in the remaining default locations (owner, title, and description), click the “Run full search” button at the bottom of the panel. Please note that a full search may take longer to show results.
To create more sophisticated reports and get specific information from your account, the system allows you to refine and configure the data you need.
Important: There is a standard limit of 1000 records that can be exported to a spreadsheet. You will get a system message when the limit is reached.
TIP: We recommend optimizing/reviewing the required data for export or making several exports split by the "created at" property, for example.
2. How to Get the "All cards per board" Report?
Click on the magnifying glass located at the top of your account interface to open the Advanced Search panel.
The default panel view displays the board name on which you are performing the search (left side of the panel).
Click on the Search icon (1) to run the report, and you will get all the cards from your board in a table view.
Use the Configure results button (2) in the upper right corner of the search panel to select which card properties will be displayed in the report (e.g. Title, Owner, Last Modified). With the different View options (3), you can choose to display the data from your search in a bar graph or as a pie chart and slice it by certain criteria (e.g. by Owner). You can also display your results in a Board view mode to see where cards are located on the board.
You can use the Options button (4) to customize which cards fall into the report. Checkmark any of the following options:
- Include archived cards — allow the search to return cards that have been archived.
- Include discarded cards — allow the search to return cards that have been discarded.
- Include subtasks — search in the title of the subtasks and show the matching ones in the result table.
- Exclude search criteria from the results — by default, your search criteria will be included in the results table. Select this option to disable this behavior.
In many cases, your search outcome might contain too many cards. You could sort them out by clicking on the title of the desired field and changing the order as you like.
Note: Sorting by task IDs would mean that chronologically the newest tasks should be at the top.
The "All cards per board" Report in the Different View Modes
To get a closer view of the actions we described above in the different view modes, please watch the short video below:
Through the aggregation function, the bar chart view lets you aggregate data to get different insights about your search results. The way it works is it aggregates the Y-axis values by grouping the X-axis data. An exception is the “Count” option which ignores the criteria in the Y-axis and takes the number of cards when grouping data in the X-axis.
You can use the aggregation function to see the average cycle time of cards per owner or show the number of cards each owner is responsible for on the selected board. Check the short video below to see this in action.
3. How to Refine and Configure Your Search Criteria for Custom Reports?
This is where the true value of the Refine search criteria option in the Advanced search lies. The result we are searching for is not always a single type of entry. Oftentimes, the right information is a combination of tasks that match a pattern. Searching for these can be achieved with the "Refine Search Criteria" panel where you select and add fields to narrow down your search results.
Open the Advanced Search tool and click on the Refine search criteria link to open the dedicated "Refine Search Criteria" panel. It displays all properties in your account: both Regular and Custom fields. Аll the criteria are sorted in alphabetical order.
Notes:
- You can select the following units for the time-related properties: Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds.
- All of the card elements (blockers, stickers, tags, types, and custom fields) are connected to the specific board/column/lane/workflow that they are used in. This means that if you select a card element that doesn't exist within the specific board/column/lane/workflow, the filter will not be successful and a disclaimer will appear next to the selected criteria.
In this example, we will get a report for all cards in the Board where you perform the search, which are assigned to a particular user. To narrow down your search, select "Owner" and click on Add. The selected criteria are highlighted.
The criteria you select will be instantly added to the left side of the panel (see image below).
Go there and define the Board name as well as the username from the drop-down menus. Then click on the search icon to run the report. The system will filter out the information and will generate a report with all cards assigned to the selected user for the specified board.
Tip: If you want to get cards for more than one Owner→ select “or” and define the second username from the dropdown list. Run the report via the search icon.
Don't forget to configure your matching results. From the “Configure results panel,” you can easily select the properties that you want visible in the report. You can also deselect the properties, which you consider unsuitable.
When you select/deselect, click on "Apply changes" to see these parameters reflected in the report. Scroll right to see the extended report.
Tip: When organizing your search, you can drag and drop the properties you have selected to move them in order to achieve the most suitable visualization for your report.
4. How to Save Your Filters for Future Reference?
A common application of the Advanced Search includes generating monthly, weekly, and other regular time-based reports. That is why we provide the option to set up your criteria and results once and save them for later frequent use. You could then easily load your custom search criteria and execute it to receive the required information in the right format and details.
Once you group the information you need and run a report, you can save it, and generate the same report with a single click (load it) next time.
To save your search criteria, click on the "Save" button to open the "Save Filter" panel.
Give your filter a name (1) and provide a description (2) (optional). You can share the filter (3) with internal users in your account so that they can start using it, without configuring the data you want them focusing on. To share your filter with internal users, select their usernames, from the dropdown list.
Note: Every time you share a filter with a user, they will receive an email notification. All shared filters become available in the selected users' Load panels under the Advanced search, where all saved filters get stored.
You can share your filter as public (4). If you select this option and click on Save filter, you will get a unique URL link of your filter, which you can share with both registered users and people that are not registered in Businessmap. You can learn more about public filters here.
In addition, you can also generate a Power BI query (5) of the saved filter. You can use the query in the advanced query editor of MS PowerBI to build compelling visualizations with dynamic data. For more details, check the dedicated article on the Businessmap to MS Power BI Integration.
Click the Save filter button to complete the action.
How to Load a Saved Filter?
All saved filters are stored in Businessmap. Click the Load button and the system will produce a menu that stores all saved and "shared" filters. You can easily re-open the actual version of the filter you are interested in just by clicking on its name.
5. Other Feature Capabilities
The Advanced Search also lets you:
- Export your data in an Excel file where the outcome fields are aligned to match your Excel columns. Use the Download button (1) at the bottom right corner and save the link to get your data in an Excel file.
- Pin your filter as a widget directly on your Dashboard and have а quick access to important information at the entry point of your account. Click the Add to Dashboard icon (2) → then Save and pin your Filter. You can learn more about custom widgets here.
- Share (3) the filter externally.