Understanding Search Scopes

Gain insight into how search scopes help refine the search process, uncovering the most relevant results.

Introduction

ShareDo allows several types of searches that can be configured within Modeller to return relevant pieces of information. The 4 main types of search scopes are defined below:

Quick Search	This type of search is available in the top navigation of each page in ShareDo. It is a fast way to find relevant information such as tasks or cases, by entering an identifying piece of data such as the title or reference.
Advanced Search	This type of search invokes a search blade allowing the user to input specific criteria that returns the relevant results. The Advanced Search section of this article has a video demonstrating building your own advanced search.
Background / Process Search	This type of search runs as a process and records results within a task. This runs in the background, so the user is able to continue working through their other tasks. Once the search is complete, the user is notified, and they are able to view the returned records. Examples of such a search include conflict or duplicate searches run against specific participants.
Generic / External Search	This type of search is available in the top navigation of each page in ShareDo, just like Quick Search. The difference is that this search is invoked in an external system via a configurable URL and parameters.

The following sections detail how to configure each search scope described above and how each will look when accessed and run from within the UI.

Quick Search

Configuring Quick Search – Modeller

To configure a quick search, navigate to the Modeller page and select the Search Scopes option in the left-hand navigation under Work types. From there, select the + button in the top right-hand corner and then choose the Add quick search scope option. Doing so returns the following list of pre-defined data sources, the one that is most likely to be used is Search for sharedos (Elastic).

Selecting the Search for sharedos (Elastic) opens a blade that requires various pieces of information to correctly set up the new search scope. The table in this drop-down goes through this in more detail.

The tables with configuration information in this article are specific to the examples shown. The ShareDo system might have different options, depending on the type of search you choose. Information for configuration options is provided in the system, but those presented here can be used as an example.

Example of Quick Search configuration

Section	Description
Scope Settings	This represents the basic information of the search scope. The System name, and Name are mandatory fields, the rest are optional.
Display	Use the Display section to configure the basic information around where this search scope should be displayed, and which users have permission to see it. The toggle needs to be switched on if the search scope should appear in the quick search navigation bar at the top of the sharedo page. When the toggle is switched on, two mandatory settings need to be set: Scope Title: This is the title of the search scope that will appear to the end user. Scope Order: This will decide what position the search scope is displayed in. The quick search can be restricted so that it only appears to users with specific permissions. If this is left as the default value of None, all users can view and run the search.
Display Restrictions – Work Type	This section is only visible if the Add to quick search scopes list is enabled.
Provider – Output Settings	This section allows you to define how the results are returned and viewed by the end user. Find examples of each output style below. Standard view with Phase Name: Standard view: Simple view: Single row view:
General Search Parameters	This section is where the search parameters are defined; including the maximum number of rows to be returned when a search is run, whether the search results should match on all words, any of the words, or the exact phrase entered. Additionally, the results can be sorted by several pre-defined parameters including the score the search has accumulated, the created date, the updated date, the title, reference, or due date. The results can also be configured to be returned in either an ascending or descending order.
Work Type Search Filter	This section is where the work types that the search should be looking for are defined. This can be set to the parent level of a sharedo type e.g., a matter,is or at a lower level e.g., a specific matter type. This can be further refined by configuring whether the search results return open, closed, or removed work types (or a combination of all three).
Output – Navigation Control and Selection Control	These two sections determine how the output of the search results is displayed in terms of the ancestors of the work type that are shown, and how many should be displayed.

Quick Search – User Interface

Configured quick searches are available to users in the top menu of the ShareDo application. Identify the type of search by the heading. Users can select the type of search they wish to run and enter keywords to see relevant results; this is driven by the configuration put in place and discussed in the section above.

As of ShareDo version 7.8.0, Quick Searches are accent-insensitive. For example, a search for "schroder" will now match "Schröder", and "strasse" will match with "Straße".

Advanced Search

Configuring Advanced Search – Modeller

To configure an advanced search, navigate to the Modeller page and then select the Search Scopes option in the left-hand navigation under Work types. From there, select the + button in the top right-hand corner and then choose the Add advanced search scope option. This returns the following list of pre-defined data sources. The key ones have been described below.

ODS Search:
- This returns a list of organisations or people stored in the operational datastore (ODS). The amount of detail in the results can be configured as needed. Configure the ODS Search Global Feature to refine field weightings. See the article ODS Search for details.
  The search does not suggest similar results or misspellings but does allow for wildcard matches.
Participant Advanced Search:
- This allows users to search for participants based on a set of pre-defined parameters. This includes restricting the results to include or exclude certain roles, as well as the ability to filter out specific participant types.
ShareDo Advanced Hierarchy Search:
- This allows a search scope to be configured which returns both ancestors and descendants of a work item.
ShareDo Advanced Search (Elastic):
- This is the most used search scope data source; it provides the ability to search for various sharedos based on pre-defined parameters. The following section will go through this in more detail.

Example of ShareDo Advanced Search (Elastic) configuration

Section	Description
Scope Settings	This represents the basic information of the search scope. The System name, and name are mandatory fields, the rest are optional.
Display	Use the Display section to configure the basic information around where this search scope should be displayed, and which users have permission to see it. The toggle needs to be switched on for the search scope to appear in the quick search navigation bar or within the launchpad menu at the top of the sharedo page. When the toggle is switched on, two mandatory settings need to be set: Scope Title: This is the title of the search scope that will appear to the end user. Scope Order: This will decide what position the search scope is displayed in. The advanced search can be restricted so that it only appears to users with specific permissions. If this is left as the default value of None, all users can view and run the search.
Advanced Search Settings	This section allows you to determine whether the search should be automatically run or manually triggered.
Provider – Output Settings	This section allows you to define how the results are returned and viewed by the end user.
Inputs - General	Use this section to define what data attributes should be displayed. The position of the inputs can be set so that it is either on the left or above, the search results.
Inputs - Work Type	Use this section to define where the work types are that the search should be looking for. This can be set to the parent level of a sharedo type e.g., a matter, or to a lower level e.g., a specific matter type.
Inputs – Standard Dates	Use this section to show or hide: the created date, due date, and work active on date.
Inputs – Participtant Searches	Use this section to set specific roles that need to be searched for as part of the advanced search. You can also set which additional attributes you would like to see prior to running the advanced search.
Inputs – Date Searches	This section allows you to specify which key dates should be looked for.
Inputs – Attribute Searches	This section allows additional attributes to be added that the search should take into consideration.
Search – Context	This section allows you to decide if the advanced search should run through from the work item e.g., the matter, or from the global level.
Search – Work Type Filters	Use this section to define which work types to search. The search results are filtered to reflect the configuration added here. If nothing is added, all work types will be returned.
Search – Work Item Phase Filters	This section will determine whether the results that are returned include open, closed, removed, or a mix of these.
Search – Attribute Filters	This section will allow additional search attribute filters to be added. Attribute filters against the same attribute are OR'ed together, whilst different attributes are AND'ed together. Hence if you have a filter for field1=A, field1=B, field2=C this translates to ((field1=A OR field1=B) AND field2=C)
Output	This section allow you to define how the results of the advanced search should be displayed. This includes the following: The roles that should be shown on the output card. The dates that should be displayed on the output card. The ancestors that should be displayed. The maximum number of ancestors that are allowed on the output card. If the created date, due date, phase, work started date, and work finished date should be visible on the output card.

Advanced Search - User Interface

Configured advanced searches are available to users in the top menu of the ShareDo application or via the launchpad. This can be identified as these searches will be prefixed with Advanced Search:

Advanced can also be used in other parts of the application, for example, when searching for other related cases:

Advanced Search Demonstration

This video demonstrates configuring your own advanced search, tailored to your needs:

Background / Process Search

To configure a background/process search, navigate to the modeller page and select the Search Scopes option in the left-hand navigation under Work types. From there, select the + button in the top right-hand corner and then choose the Background/process search option.

Tip: To quickly see the results of these searches, select Advanced search and enter, for example, duplicate in the ShareDo type, then click the Search button.

The various background searches are configured similarly to the other search scopes. Below are descriptions of the three core background search types.

A conflict search is executed against a participant. When triggered, the search will look for that same person/organisation on other work items in conflicting roles, using both an exact match (the same person/organisation is linked) and attribute matching (another person/organisation with the same attributes like name or date of birth is linked). Configure the work item types to search against and what conflicting roles they may hold.

For instance, in a legal case, a search may be executed against a client being represented to ensure that the client has not appeared on any other cases as a defendant we have acted against. In that case, the scope itself would be configured to be added to participant menus for holders of the role "client", and the parameters configured here would be set to look at other "matter" work items and to scan for the role "defendant".

We would then specify how to search to expand or narrow the scope - to match on perhaps only surname and date of birth. In that case, the match logic would be set to "And". If we wanted to expand the scope to those with the same surname OR date of birth, the match logic would be set to "Or".

Conflict search configuration

The table below explains some configuration items available when setting up a conflict search. The search scope configuration blade features blue help text for most of the configuration items that describe what the item is for.

Config options	Details
Display restrictions - participants	Specify which participant roles the search scope should target. You can also restrict in which work types and phases the search scope is available.
Task configuration Configuration of the Task work type that manages the search	Task types to manage search: select Conflict search (task-search-conflict). Executing phase: choose the phase where the search will run, typically at “Executing”. Failed phase: choose the phase where the search will determine if there was an error. Typically, the "Error" phase. Has results phase: the phase where to report if there are results to the search. Typically, the "Review" phase. Has no results phase: If the search has no results (no conflict found), which phase should the task be in? Typically “Passed”.
Chronology	Usually, search tasks exist on either an instruction or a matter. You can record the outcome or the progress of the search in its parent or against the search task itself.
Output settings	Standard view shows the search results (participants) as a card. Extended contact details view shows search results where you can open the participant details in a new blade.
Scope of search	Set the scope of the search to scan the chosen work types (e.g., instructions, matters, proceedings) for participants in the selected roles for conflicts of interest.
Matching	Use the matching to configure which fields the search should check the participant against. Set the matching logic: whether all selected fields must match (use the And selector) or at least one of the selected fields must match (or selector).

A duplicate search is executed against a work item. When triggered, the search will look for another work item within the system that appears to be a duplicate based on the configurable search properties. The source work item is loaded, along with details about the holder of a specified role (e.g. client) - this information is then used to inspect all work item instances of the configured work types to see if that participant exists on it, that various attributes match, and optionally whether a specified key date on the work items match within a given tolerance.

Duplicate search configuration

Config options	Details
Display restrictions - participants	Specify which participant roles the search scope should target. You can also restrict in which work types and phases the scope is available.
Task configuration Configuration of the Task work type that manages the search	Task types to manage search: Select Duplicate search (task-search-duplicate) Executing phase: Choose the phase where the search will execute, typically at “Executing” Failed phase: Choose the phase where the search will determine if there was an error. Typically, the "Error" phase. Has results phase: The phase where to report if there are results to the search. Typically, the "Review" phase. Has no results phase: If the search has no results (no duplicates found), which phase should the task be in? Typically, “Passed”.
Work item scope	Set the scope of the search to scan the chosen work types (e.g., instructions, matters, proceedings) for participants in the selected roles for duplicates. You can also set that the categories (sub-types) must match.
Key date matching	Set the date type to match (e.g. instruction date) and how many days around that date (tolerance) to check for duplicates.
Matching	Use the matching to configure which fields the search should check the participant against. Set the matching logic: whether all selected fields must match (use the And selector) or at least one of the selected fields must match (or selector).

A multi-party conflict search is executed against a participant role. When triggered, the search will look for any other work items (optionally filtered by type) containing the supplied participant and any participants on the source sharedo (optionally filtered by their role).

For a more detailed article concerning configuring process searches, see Configuring search for duplicates or conflicts of interest.

External Search Scope

Configuring External Search – Modeller

A selectable scope that appears within the main search control at the top of all pages, but invokes the search in an external system via a configurable URL and parameters.

to configure an external search scope, navigate to the modeller page and select the Search Scopes option in the left-hand navigation under Work types. From there, select the + button in the top right-hand corner and then choose the Add external search scope option.