The ability to search huge volumes of messages and data in under a second is one of the key strengths of SEDNA. But we want to continue to make Search more flexible, and easier to understand so that users can find the messages that matter to them more swiftly.

In addition to improving the visual clarity of Search, we’ve also added in some new tools to searching that will help you more quickly find the messages you are looking for, including the ability to use the boolean terms OR and NOT.

This article explains how Search works (post changes that will be released Sept 2018) and how it will appear to users. It will cover:

1. Starting a new Search
2. Advanced Search Options (including boolean search)

Start a new Search

To begin a search in SEDNA, click on the search bar near the top of the screen.

With the search bar active, start typing to construct a search term and SEDNA will begin to offer you suggestions. You could also choose from some common filters displayed.

In the dropdown below Search, SEDNA will begin to suggest various tags that you may be searching for. You can either mouse click on these tags to select them, or use the keyboard and enter to select a tag and add it to the query.

	Search for messages related to a Job
	Search for messages related to a Colleague
	Search for messages that were tagged to a category
	Search based on just the text, unrelated to a tag

To do a basic search, select a few strings of text and tags together and SEDNA will find messages that contain all of the search terms.

Did you know?While typically your search is restricted to the team that you are currently working it, you can search across all teams that you are a member of by using the All Teams person tag. Just type “all teams” in the search bar and SEDNA will suggest it  

Edit or Clear a Search

To narrow down (or change) your search, click in the search bar again and add new terms, or remove existing terms. You can either remove individual search terms by clicking on the ‘x’ in the term, or you can click the larger ‘X’ to the right to clear all search terms. You can also click the SEDNA logo in the upper left of the screen.

Did you know? There is a simple shortcut to searching for all messages associated with a job - simply click on the green job tag:

Using Advanced Search

The most basic searches just look for tags and text in the body of the message, and find messages that include all of the search terms. But often users need a more powerful or flexible way of trying to narrow down what they are looking for.

SEDNA has a very simple and intuitive way to construct queries using three basic concepts. An Operator, a Modifier, and Content.

Operators

SEDNA supports three operators. By default the operator in Search is AND, when multiple terms are entered into the search bar, SEDNA retrieves messages that have TermA AND TermB, etc.

In addition to this, SEDNA also supports OR and NOT.

[TermA] or [TermB]	Returns messages that contain either TermA or TermB
not [TermA]	Returns messages that do not include the search term

Modifier

SEDNA allows you to focus your search to different attributes of the message. For example you can search for messages in a specific time range, or search for strings in specific parts of the message, or search for the existence of different types of content.

Search if a message has an attribute:

has:comment	Return messages with a comment in them
has:attachment	Return messages with an attachment

Search by a Person

from:[string]	Returns messages where the sender matches the string*
to:[string]	Returns messages which were addressed to the person who matches the string*

*When searching an email address, SEDNA matches on full email addresses, full words within the email users name (that they define in the From field), or the domain or the sender portions of the email address.

For example if an email came from “Daniel James <prod.management@acme.com>" here is a number of searches and whether or not they would return the message from Daniel.

from:Daniel		This will find the mail because Daniel matches a word in user’s From Name
from:james		This will find the mail because James matches the from name, despite the difference in capitalization
from:acme		This matches the full name of the domain of the sender, even without the “.com”
from:acm		Partial strings of domains do create a match
from:acme.com		This matches the full domain name of the sender
from:@acme.com		Adding the @ symbol still creates a match
from:Daniel James		This matches multiple words in the From Name
from:prod		This matches an entire word in the email address
from:management		This matches an entire word in the email address
from:prod.management		This matches the entire email address
from:da		Partial strings of names does not create a match
from:pro		Partial strings of addresses does not create a match
from:daniel acme		Combining words from the domain and the name does not create a match
from:prod management		Breaking the address into parts separated by a space does not create a match

Content

By default, when you search for a term in SEDNA, it searches for that text within the body of the message, the subject of the message, the sender and all the recipients, and all of the comments with the message. However you can construct more focused queries that will allow you to quickly narrow in on the messages that you are looking for.

Search by Filter

SEDNA uses some preset filters to organize mail into your InBox, OutBox and so on. These filters are present across the top of the screen and are used to quickly narrow down the scope of messages that you are working in or searching in. Search allows you to leverage these filters when constructing a search.

in:in	Returns messages in the InBox
in:mymessages	Returns messages in MyMessages
in:following	Returns messages in which you have been tagged (by yourself or by others)
in:draft	Returns messages that were drafted but not sent
in:done	Returns messages that were tagged as done
in:out	Returns messages that were sent from SEDNA

Search by Content Type

SEDNA allows you to focus your search for terms specifically within a particular part of the the message.

body:[string]	Returns messages with the string in the body
subject:[string]	Returns messages with the string in the subject line
comment:[string]	Returns messages that have a comment which includes the string
attachment:[string]	Returns messages that have attachments with names matching the string*

*SEDNA searches attachment names, unfortunately the contents of an attachment are not yet searchable. Attachment name searches allow you to search on letters, numbers and special characters. Here are a few examples of searches for a file named Bill of Lading-12062017.pdf

attachment:Lading		This matches a word in the filename
attachment:ing-12		Special characters also match
attachment:.pdf		The file type is part of the searchable name
attachment:Bill of		You cannot search with a whitespace in filenames