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Using Quick Search

When you're looking to find something fast in an LDAP directory, it's recommended you use the Quick Search tool. Located on the Navigation Bar, the Quick Search is easy to access at any time you might need it. A quick search can only involve LDAP entries, so in case you have any other element selected, it will hide automatically.

Performing Quick Search

To perform a quick search: 

  1. Select an entry which you'd like to search down from.

  2. In the Quick Search edit box, type a keyword or phrase you are looking for in attribute values. Sometimes you may face the need to search for a value knowing just a part of it. This can be accomplished with the help of the asterisk ('*') wildcard serving as a replacement for the unknown part. For example: *photo*, jpeg*, jpegph*o.

  3. Specify the attributes to be searched by clicking the Settings button and checking the attribute groups you are interested in.

  4. Click or press Enter to start searching. The process may take some time, but pressing will abort the search operation at any moment.

Configuring Quick Search

The Quick Search tool is easily customizable with its parameters like search scope, referrals handling mode, results paging mode all capable of being adjusted. Besides, you can even edit the automatically generated LDAP filter.

Changing Search Scope

The search scope can be changed via the Quick Search Attribute Groups dialog.

Changing Referrals Handling Mode

The referrals handling mode can be changed via the Directory Search property page of the quick search node. To display property pages for the node, select one and then press Properties on the Standard toolbar.

There are three modes for handling referrals:

  • None: Referrals will not be processed.

  • Opaque: Referrals encountered during search will be processed and all sub-entries that satisfy the search criteria, including ones of the referral, will be displayed in results.

  • Manual: All referrals that satisfy the search criteria will be displayed as search result items with none of their sub-entries displayed in results.

Changing Paging Policy

The search results paging mode can be adjusted via the Paging Policy property page of the quick search node. To display property pages for the node, select one and then press Properties on the Standard toolbar.

By default, the paging mode for the search node is set to None, which means that all the search results will not be paged and will be represented 'as is'. Learn more about managing large numbers of entries.

Results paging may not work when searching under RootDSE.

Browsing Quick Search Results

All quick search results are represented as items of the search node displayed under the currently selected entry after you perform search. This view implies that one can perform all kinds of operations with search items, just like you do with other application tree elements.

Each value of a search result item contains a full DN of the entry it refers to, which helps you distinguish between entries having equal RDNs. To locate an entry which a search result item belongs to in a directory tree, just double-click the item.

The search node is a singleton element, meaning that after you do a search, all the results retrieved during the previous search operation are cleared with the previous search node.

Exporting Quick Search Results

To export quick search results: 

  1. Do a search using the Quick Search tool.

  2. Make sure that the search node is currently selected.

  3. Click Export Data on the Entry toolbar, or use the same command from the context menu for the search node. Learn more about exporting data.

See Also