Searching

Type part of a name, an email, a status, or a city, and ObjectOS finds the records that contain it. The same search runs in three places:

All three send your words to the server and get the same answer, so a record that turns up in one turns up in the others.

How matching works

Which fields are searched is set per object by whoever built the app. When they haven't chosen, search looks at the record's name or title, its text fields (including email, phone, URL and long text) and its choice fields — not numbers, dates, yes/no fields, files, or links to other records.

Tip: More words narrow the results. acme invoice finds Acme's invoices, not every Acme record plus every invoice.

You only find what you can read

Search runs with your permissions, the same as opening a list:

• Records you can't read are never returned, and they aren't counted in the total either.
• An object you have no access to is skipped quietly — your search still answers from the objects you can read.
• Fields hidden from you are not searched, so a hit can't reveal what's in them.

Two people can type the same words and get different results. That's correct: each sees the matches they're allowed to see.

Always up to date

There's no index to wait for. A record you just created is findable right away; after a rename the new name matches and the old one no longer does; a deleted record disappears from results immediately.

When nothing matches you get No results found — not an error. Try fewer or shorter words.

Chinese names and pinyin

When your app supports Chinese, search also matches Chinese names typed in pinyin: the full spelling (zhangwei) or the initials (zw) find 张伟, and Chinese characters keep matching as typed. Pinyin applies to the record's name field.

Pinyin search is on when the app lists a Chinese language among its languages. An administrator can switch it on or off for the whole deployment with the OS_SEARCH_PINYIN_ENABLED setting.

The command palette

Press ⌘K / Ctrl-K (or click Search…) to open the palette. It's a search box and a navigator in one:

The palette only offers what you could reach anyway: menu items hidden from you in the sidebar are hidden here too, and inactive apps don't appear under Switch App.

Tip: Keep your hands on the keyboard — ⌘K, type, arrow keys, Enter. Pressing ⌘K again closes the palette.

The search page

Open Full Search Page takes you to a full-page view of the same search: the app's objects, dashboards, pages and reports that match, and record matches grouped by object. Type in its box to refine.

Searching inside a list

The magnifier in a view's toolbar narrows the list you're on. It works together with the view's filters, grouping and sort — see Using views. Use it when you know which list; use ⌘K when you don't.

For app builders

An object's searchableFields sets the fields search scans; leave it out to get the name, text and choice fields described above. A view or an API call can narrow the scan to fewer of those fields but never widen it — asking for a field outside the set is refused, not ignored. A computed formula field can't be searched, because it isn't stored; copy the value onto a stored text field and search that.

Where to go next