Run a search using a finder
- Juan Tomás Alonso Nieto (Unlicensed)
Finders are the most intuitive and visual way of accessing data tables. In Devo, finders are divided into different lists, each one including a tag level. In this way, you can navigate through the lists and select the tag levels of the data table you want to access. Finders are located in the Finders tab of the Data Search → Explore Your Data area, which is displayed by default.
The four lists, from left to right, correspond to the four tag elements. These are technology, application, type, and subtype. When you select a tag level in the first box on the left, the lists in the other boxes will be filtered to display only the levels that the selected tag structures have.
You can use the time buttons above the tag level lists to display only tables that have received data over the last day, last week, etc. This is applicable to all finders except for the aliased, which show always all of them regardless of time.
Once you select the final level of the tag, the search window will open displaying the contents of the selected data table.
How are tags displayed?
When using finders, you will notice that tags are shown in different colors and sometimes with icons in front of them. Furthermore, those colors and icons change as you click the different tag levels to reflect different behaviors. This is what they mean:
| Color-coded text | ||
|---|---|---|
If a tag is written in black, it does not represent a table by itself. You need to make further selections in the levels below to open a table.
| If a tag is written in green, it represents a table by itself. Selecting it will open that table.
Unless it presents this arrow, in which case it is both a table by itself and a part of a table with more levels below. In this case, you have to perform an extra action to open this table because clicking it will mark it for further selections. Hover over the tag and click the magnifying glass that appears to the right.
| |
| Icons | ||
|---|---|---|
If a tag presents this arrow, there is more than one tag level below for you to select afterwards. This always appears in combination with the text in green to let you know that you can open that table or keep selecting levels below (text in black by itself would already imply more levels below).
| If a tag presents this arrow, no tag has been selected in the level above and there is more than one containing it (the number of possibilities is expressed between brackets). Click it to see which are the possibilities and then click the desired one. They comply with the color code explained above (black-green).
| If a tag presents this icon, it is a union table. Hover over the icon to see the tables composing it.
|
Select the table columns before opening it
Tables with a large number of columns can be cumbersome to work with when using the search window and, often, many of the columns will not be relevant to the query you want to create. In this case, you can select the columns that you want to show in the search window before opening the table.
To do this, select the 
icon on the final level of the tag and choose Select Columns. This opens a window that lets you select the columns you want to show. All columns are automatically checked, if you manually uncheck a column then it will not be displayed. You can also reorder the columns by dragging them to the required place. Click Apply and the table opens in the search window showing only the columns you selected. You can use the Column Operations available in the search window to further customize the display of columns in your table.
Types of finders
There are three types of finders in Devo.
- Default finder - the main finder in Devo, where you can easily locate and access all the data tables available in your domain.
- Custom finder - you can select a subset of data and create a custom finder for specific user profiles. Check the Use a custom finder article to know more about this type of finder.
- Aliased finder - a finder that can be used to easily access those searches you use most frequently. You can create alternative tags, or aliases, for the tables and searches that you choose to include. Check the Use the aliased finder article to know more about this type of finder.
You can select the one you want to use as shown in the picture below.
