This workflow block is a wrapper for the ShareDo public API, which can be used to search for articles based on a number of characteristics.
Prerequisites
Know what you want to search for and how to use it.
- What are you searching for? But more importantly, what will you pass into the search block to look for it? We'll break this down in the next section.
- What will you do with the returned result(s)? You need to know whether you are looking for a single or multiple results.
- You will need to set up an Output and decide whether this needs to be configured as a collection or not.
Configuration
The configuration required varies based on the type of Search Criteria you want to use. In all cases, you must set up the relevant Input Parameter or Workflow Variable.
Once you activate the relevant search criteria, you will see a Search by… section visible, as in the above image Search by reference.
| Search Criteria | Fields / Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Search by reference | Reference contains |  |
| Search by external reference | External reference contains |  |
| Search by tags | Here you have the option to enter multiple tags to search against, the search will return items that match one or more of the tags. |  |
| Search by work item path | Restricts the search to all results in a single specific work item path. |
  |
| Search by work item types | Allows you to search for all results, within multiple work item types. |  |
| Search by ancestor | This allows you to search for all ancestor work items by providing an appropriately mapped work item identifier. |  |
| Search by phase | Allows you to search all work items in a give phase, by default we include some standard phases, such as Open/Closed/Removed, but it is possible for you to pass in the value of a specific phase, either as plain text, of setting it as a variable. |  |
| Search by role holder | This is one of the more advanced searches, firstly you provide the Matter type, and then load a picker, which returns all of the Roles available on that Matter type, then you match this against a specific ODS Entity identifier. |  |
You then need to decide whether your search will return one or multiple results. In other words, whether to set your output up as a variable or a collection.
Example of use
Here is an example of how this workflow block might be used:
- Find work items by ID.
- Using an Each block, for each found work item:
- Log variables.
- load the workitem.title for the logged variables (this is for better visibility of the work items that were found).
- Assign a participant to each of the found work items.
- When each step is finished, complete the plan.
Best Practice
Although it is possible to add multiple search parameters, be mindful that overlaps may cause difficulty in finding specific items. We suggest consulting the Public API Spec within the ShareDo Modeller, Developer section for more info on how the search inputs work.