Search in the Linked Items Pane
By Miller Prosser, August 2014
Updated June 2017; May 2021
Searching Using the Linked Items Pane
In this section, we show how to use the Linked Items pane to find database items, with the specific goal of linking resource items--such as images--to other items in the database.
Open the Linked Items pane by clicking on the paperclip icon in the toolbar.
OCHRE toolbar
Adding an Image Link
To add a Resource link (e.g. to an image resource) to an item in the database:
First, navigate to the object (or other database item) that will be the destination to which the image will be linked.
Next, use the Linked Items pane to find the resource.
Use the paperclip+ button to add the link in the Other Links pane.
It's just that simple. Now when you view the item, the newly linked resource shows up in the links list on the right.
Scope to the Project and database Category in which to search. Use the pick lists to choose your project, then choose the type of database item you want to find. This could be Locations & objects, Resources, Texts, or any of the other categories.
If the Taxonomy category is selected, OCHRE will search both Variables and Values.
Type the name of the item to search.
Shareable Categories: Periods, Persons, Values, Variables, and Taxonomy
If the User is a Database Administrator (expected to be building taxonomies) and if the search is within Scope of one of the shareable categories, where users are encouraged to find and share items, the Scope will automatically expand to include items in the OCHRE Master project that have been shared from any other projects.
Finding Items by Name
There are several search options, each represented by its own button. These are described below, from left to right ...
Find all items where the item contains the given text. If the "Category of link target" option is left unspecified (i.e. <Select category> is showing instead of "Locations * objects"), then this search ignores the Category scope and could take a long time to complete. However, the results will includes everything from objects to images. Also, this search option does not require the use of wildcard operators like * and ?.
Find all items -- within the currently selected category -- where the item name contains the given text. This is the most commonly used button. If you type the name of the items to search and hit ENTER, this is the type of search used. This method requires the use of wildcard operators for partial matches. For example, R10 would not return R10-119, but R10* would return all items beginning with R10. You may also use the question mark wildcard to replace a single character in the search. E.g. R10-11? would return values such as R10-119 and R10-118.
Find all items -- within the currently selected category -- but without respect to differences in upper/lower case (that is, a case insensitive search), and with more liberal matching criteria. E.g. a search for "feature" will find "features"; technically, this is a contains( ) function instead of an equals( ). This (more computationally-intensive) option only applies to searching with the shareable categories listed above to encourage finding and sharing of these items, and will otherwise be disabled.
Find item -- within the currently selected category -- using a regular expression (regex) as the match criteria. Depending on the expression, this could take more time to complete the search.
Find item -- within the currently selected category -- with an exact match on name (quick find, expecting a single match). Use this search if you know you have typed the exact name of the item you want to find.
Examples
Below are the results of some searches using different search methods.
I searched for "R10-119" using the search all button. Notice that the results include items from various categories such as Resources, Locations & objects, and Texts.
Here I searched for "R10-11*" restricted to the Locations & objects category.
In this example I searched for "pottery" using the find-with-case-insensitivity button in the Taxonomy category. Both Values and Variables with many variations of "pottery" and "Pottery" are returned. Notice that these results come from a variety of projects (identified by the project prefix) that have shared these items with the OCHRE Master project.
Finally, I did a quick search for exactly "R10-119" restricted to Locations & objects.
Using the Items in the Query Results Pane
If the search results in a single item, the item will open automatically for viewing or editing. If more than one result is found, the list of results will display in the query results pane. Clicking an item in the list will open it. Notice that the Display format of the Query Results pane is set to List by default. This format allows the items in the pane to be opened when clicked. The display format can be changed to Checklist mode, allowing the user to select one or more items for use as links. Checklist mode is helpful for adding items to a set, for adding an item to a relational variable, etc. After selecting from the search results list, use the paperclip-check icon to add the selected items as links.
Notice also that there may be a few other features in the Query Results pane, such as Show event tools. (These options vary according to user access level. In other words, most users will not see all of these options.) Please contact Sandy or Miller for help with these features because these buttons have the ability to change a lot of data at once.