Searching for Calls

You can search for calls that have been saved or actioned in vFire.

  1. Display the Call Search window in one of the following ways:
    • From the wrapper, select the button.
    • Select the arrow on the wrapper search button and select Calls from the drop-down menu.
    • Select and then Search. From the submenu, select Calls.

    2. vFire Core has a default timeout setting that aborts searches that take too long. When a search is aborted, a message is displayed to that effect.

  2. From the Options section on the search criteria panel, select the options you wish to filter the search results.

    3. Open searches for open calls (even if they are the responsibility of other analysts)
    Open - Resolved searches for open resolved calls (even if they are the responsibility of other analysts)
    Open - Unresolved searches for open unresolved calls (even if they are the responsibility of other analysts)
    Closed searches for closed calls (these can then be re-opened)
    Closed - Unresolved searches for closed unresolved calls
    Submitted searches for submitted calls
    Not Submitted includes unsubmitted calls in the search
    Template includes call templates in the search
    Include Deleted Field Values includes deleted field values in your call search. Selecting this option updates the selected list fields with values that have been deleted for those fields. For example, if you are searching for a call by IPK Status and you select the Include Deleted Field Values option. The IPK Status list will be updated to display names of statuses that you created and subsequently deleted. You can then select a deleted value from the list, and conduct your search.
    Include Suggested Knowledge Calls

    includes calls that were deflected from the Service Desk through use of Suggested Knowledge in the Self Service Portal by users who resolved their own issues with the help of knowledge articles presented during the call logging process.

    Those calls are automatically logged and closed, ignoring mandatory fields.
    Partition

    This option is only visible if you have access to more than one partition.

    Use the drop-down list to select from the partitions you can access.

  3. Specify the search criteria. When you have made a selection in a field, select the checkbox (in front of the search criteria title name) to ensure that the search criteria is included in the search.

    4. You may define as many fields as required. When more than one criterion is selected, only those items (such as calls, requests, tasks, or people, depending on the type of search you are performing) that match all the search criteria will be displayed. If you are unsure about what you want to locate it is best to keep to just one or two search parameters.

    To remove any unwanted criteria, simply clear the selection of the checkbox (you do not need to delete the entry).

    You can partially complete two or more fields to narrow the search.

    You could specify S% in the User field and % in the CI field. This would retrieve calls for all Users whose name contains an S and all the configuration items linked to those Users.

  4. Specify any required Call Details.

    5. User

    Key in part or all of the user's name, and press Enter.

    If there is only one match, the field is completed. If there are several, a list of matching user names is shown, from which you can select one. Alternatively, use the button to search for and find the user.

    As soon as you specify a value for conducting your search, the User option is automatically selected to include it in the search.
    Service

    Key in part or all of the service's name, and press Enter.

    If there is only one match, the field is completed. If there are several, a list of matching names is shown, from which you can select one. Alternatively, use the button to search for and find the user.

    As soon as you specify a value for conducting your search, the Service checkbox is automatically selected to include it in the search.
    Configuration Item

    Key in part or all of the item's name, and press Enter.

    If there is only one match, the field is completed. If there are several, a list of matching itemss is shown, from which you can select one. Alternatively, use the button, changing the search field by clicking on the arrow and choosing from the pop-up list.

    As soon as you specify a value for conducting your search, the checkbox is automatically selected to include it in the search.

    You can also search for config items using other fields such as linked user, organization, or location.

    The configuration item used in call searches is the configuration item selected in the Call Details window, and not the configuration item selected in the Close Call window.
    Type

    Select the button to display the menu of issue types. Depending on the number of tiers configured for your system, you may see a minimum of one to a maximum of five tiers. When you select an type at one level, the available types within that category are displayed. You can select types from any available level.

    • To view only top level issue types, select the Equal option. This will display a list of top-tier issue types defined on your vFire system.
    • Where there are intermediate tiers associated with the top tier, these can be viewed and selected using the Equal + Below option.

    The type used in call searches is the type selected in the Call Details window, and not the type selected in the Close Call window.
    Call Priority

    From the list, select the priority of the call/s you want to search.

    Search Text

    Text Retrieval must be enabled in the Text Retrieval Settings window.

    Select the checkbox to perform a free text search. Then type any word or words into the Text box. Use the options to choose whether you want to search on all the words or any of the words in the text box. 

    Special characters such as the wildcard character ‘%’ are not supported. Text search cannot be performed on archived calls. This is because when a call is archived, it is moved from the core call data table along with any text indexing on this call. This is done to improve performance and regain data storage space.

    The following options are available for text searches:

    All Words Returns calls with words that match all the search text. However, it does not take into account the sequence of the words specified.
    Any Words Returns calls with one or more words that match the search text.
    Exact Returns calls in which the Description or History contains (any or all) words specified in the Search Text field, not necessarily in the same order. This will not retrieve text that has another form of the word or a synonym.

    For example, if you specify “Join” in the text box, the search will not retrieve “Joined” as a match.

    This type of search does not include an exact phrase search. To search for an exact phrase, the words for which you are searching must be specified within quotation marks.

    Related Returns calls in which the Description or History contain synonyms or words that are similar to the search text.

    For example, if you specify the search text as “Cloning”, the search will locate entries that have any form of the search text, such as “clone” and “cloned”.
    Logical

    Returns calls in which the Description contains words specified in the Search Text field, not necessarily in the same order. This will not retrieve text that has another form of the word or a synonym.

    For example, if you specify “Join” in the text box, the search will not retrieve “Joined” as a match.

    This type of search does not include an exact phrase search. To search for an exact phrase, the words for which you are searching must be specified within quotation marks.

    This option uses the SQL Server text searching engine instead of the vFire text search engine. Both require the vFire Indexing Service to be running.
    Regular Expression Returns calls with regular expressions associated with the search words, including wildcard characters such as an underscore (_) to represent one character or percentage (%) to represent zero or more characters.

    Wildcard characters are ignored if the Regular Expression option is not selected.

    Usage of regular expressions is specific to the database engine you are using: SQL Server or Oracle. Regular expressions are limited to searching for individual words and therefore exclude any punctuation and white space specified in the search text. The regular expression wildcard characters that vFire Core supports include:

    %to search for any string of zero or more characters. Use of this character at the beginning of a word by which you are searching is not supported. Furthermore, if using ‘%’ in the middle of a word, you should ensure that you always put ‘%’ at the end also. For example, col%r% will return color, colour
    _Any single character
    []Any single character within the specified range. For example, in the range [a-f] or in the set [abcdef]
    [^]Any single character not within the specified range. For example, not in the range [^a-f] or not in the set [^abcdef]

  5. Specify the Date Criteria, if appropriate, using the button.
  6. If the default search criteria do not provide the search options you want, you can configure them, specifying additional search fields if necessary.
  7. Click Search. The results are displayed in a browse table located in the right hand window. You can view the results in either tabular format (by default) or in graphical format.
  8. Ensure that the Call Search results pane is in table view. It is in Table view by default. If you are in Graph mode, click the Table button.
  9. To close one or more of the calls in the search results, use the Bulk Close function. Select the record(s) you want to close, using the Shift key to select consecutive records, or the Ctrl key to select non-consecutive. Then click on the toolbar.
  10. To take action on a call, highlight it and click . To view the call details without taking action on the call, click .

Searching for a Call by Number

You can also search for a call by its number.

  1. To the far right of the Wrapper, there is a search text box with a button beside it. By default this field searches on calls. However, you can select another search criterion, such as Request and Task, from the drop-down menu that displays when the arrow beside the button is clicked.
  2. In the text box, type the call number and press Enter. The call is displayed in the Call Details window.