Finding and Listing Issues

To build queries in HelpDesk Admin, click Query Editor on the Project menu. In the Query Editor, you use And and Or operators to combine multiple search conditions. To control the order in which search conditions are evaluated, you insert sets of parentheses.

To use one query as a starting point for a new query, choose a query from the Query Name list, click Copy, and give the new query a name.

Searching by Dates

You can use the value <Today> to match the current date. For example, you can search for all issues submitted or updated today.

To search against specific dates, double-click the Value box and then double-click a date in the calendar.

Searching for Unassigned Issues

By default, the Owner field is set to <None>. You can use the value <None> in queries to find unassigned issues.

Finding Issues for the Current User

You can use the value <User> to match the current user. With <User>, you can build generic queries that work for any user. For example, the My Assigned Issues query finds all issues assigned to the current user.

Finding New Issues

To find all issues that have not been updated since they were first submitted, search against the revision number: Revision Number = 1.

Searching Choices Lists with Relational Operators

The relational operators are <, <=, >=, and >. When you search choice lists with a relational operator, the search is based on the order of the choices in the list.

Apps - Goldmine
Apps - MS Excel
Apps - MS Outlook
Apps - MS Word
Apps - Other
HW - Disk
...

So the query Problem Area < HW - Disk returns all the application-related issues.

If a choice list uses a non-alphabetical sort order, the sense of the relational operators is reversed. For example, the Priority list has this choice-order sort:

The query Priority > Today returns issues marked ASAP or Next 4 Hours. The query Priority < Today returns issues marked Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, This Month, or Whenever.

Previewing Queries

To check the results of a query without closing the Query Editor, click the Preview button. This runs the query and displays the results in a preview window.

Saving Queries

To save changes and continue editing:

To save changes and exit the Query Editor:

Inserting Parentheses Around Search Conditions

When you combine search conditions with the And and Or operators, you may not always get the results you expect. For example, suppose you want to find all new issues with priorities ASAP or Today.

And has a higher precedence than Or, so this query finds all new issues with priority ASAP, plus all issues (not just the new ones) with priority Today:

To find just the new issues with priorities ASAP and Today, you need to put parentheses around the conditions joined by Or, so that the query looks like this in the Code View:

To insert the parentheses, click the Priority = Today search condition and then click

Searching for Strings

The Contains operator performs a case-insensitive search for a string of text anywhere in a field. You can use Contains to search for keywords in the Summary or Description fields. This allows you to package common keyword searches such as predefined queries. For example:

You can also use Contains to find all choices in a list that contain the same string of characters. For example, the choices in the default Problem Area list start with either “HW - “, “Apps - “, or “System - “. So Contains “HW -” finds all hardware problems.

Searching for Wildcards

The Like and Not Like operators support wildcard characters, which gives you considerable flexibility in the specification of search patterns. Using wildcards, you can search for inexact patterns of text in any field.


Wildcard	Matches
_	Any single character. For example: “run_time" matches "run time" or "run-time"
%	Zero or more characters. For example: Contains run%time matches any string that contains "runtime", “run time”, or "run-time". Like Install% matches any string that starts with “Install”. Like %run%time% matches the same strings as Contains run%time.
[charlist]	Any single character in charlist. Can include spaces, but not the right bracket (]) character. For example: "SP[56]" matches "SP5" or "SP6"
	Use a hyphen to specify a range of characters. For example: "[1-36-9]" matches the digits 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, or 9
	To match the hyphen character, the hyphen must be either the first or last character in charlist. For example: "[-0-9]" or "[0-9-]" match any digit or a minus sign
[!charlist]	Any single character not in charlist. For example: "[!tb]rash" matches "crash" but not "trash" or "brash"

To search for the wildcard characters _ and %, you must enclose them in brackets. For example, to search for a percent sign, use the pattern [%].

Defining Sorts

About Sorts

You can sort the Summary List by issue number, priority, state, progress, owner, or any other field or combination of fields. Enterprise HelpDesk allows you to define sorts, which are named sets of sort criteria. Sorts appear in the Sort list on the Summary toolbar.

To define a sort in HelpDesk Admin, click Sort Editor on the Project menu to open the Sort Editor.

In the Sort Editor, choose the fields you want to use as sort keys. The first field is the primary sort key, the second field is the secondary key, and so on.

For example, if you sort by Owner and Priority, then issues are sorted alphabetically by owner, so that all issues belonging to the same person are grouped together. Then the issues for each owner are sorted by Priority.

To use one sort as a starting point for a new sort, choose a sort from the Name list, click Copy, and give the new sort a name.

Sort Orders

Choice Order Ascending and Choice Order Descending sort the issues based on the order of the choices in the choice list, not on alphabetical order. For some choice lists, this is not the same order.

For example, a choice list may contain the values "High, Medium, Low" in that order. An alphabetical order for the sort list would "High, Low, Medium" or "Medium, Low, High", which doesn't make as much sense.

Previewing Sorts

To check the results of a sort without closing the Sort Editor, click the Preview button. This runs the sort and displays the results in a preview window.

Saving Sorts

To save changes and continue editing:

To save changes and exit the Sort Editor:

Defining Layouts

About Layouts

When you use different queries, you probably want to list different information in the Summary List. For example, when you list all issues assigned to you, you might replace the Owner column with some other column. But when you list all issues assigned to a group, you probably want to see who owns each issue.

Enterprise HelpDesk allows you to define layout styles that specify the column layout and contents of the Summary List. Layout styles appear in the Layout list on the Summary Toolbar.

To define a layout in HelpDesk Admin, click Layout Editor on the Project menu to open the Layout Editor.

Each column in the Summary List corresponds to a field. Choose the fields you want to list, and set the column widths and alignments. By default, field names are used as column headings, but you can change this by entering a new heading in the Title cell.

To use one layout as a starting point for a new layout, choose a layout from the Name list, click Copy, and give the new layout a name.

Previewing Layouts

To check a layout definition without closing the Layout Editor, click the Preview button.