Free Search Syntax Rules and Examples

These rules apply to Free Search:

  • The length of the search query string cannot exceed 4,000 characters including spaces.
  • When no field name is specified, search phrases are searched for throughout the content of the predefined fields and of all fields configured in workflows.
  • When you click in the Free Search field, you can select from the list of predefined fields.

  • To search for a field value with multiple words, separated by a space character, use quotation marks. The search results will return all tickets that containing the search terms, regardless of the order in which they appear, For example:

    assignee:"Steve Smith"

    will return tickets with:

    Steve Smith, Steve Samuel Smith, Samuel Steve Smith, and Smith Samuel Steve.

  • Use logical operators OR and AND.

    • Operators must be uppercase.

    • You can only use one logical operator when searching for a user-defined field.

  • Use * as a wildcard. For example, to find all network addresses in the 192.168.0.0 network, search for:

    192.168.*

  • Use - to negate or exclude or NOT include. For example, to find all tickets except those with low priority:

    priority:(* -low)

  • To search for a single date, enter the date in the format YYYYMMDD

    For example:

    createdate:20100120

  • To search for values in a range. The range limits should be bracketed, with TO between them. For example:

    createdate:[20080120 TO 20090120]

    In an API, the brackets and space should be replaced with URL encoding, for example:

    https://<IP>/securechangeworkflow/api/securechange/tickets/free_text_search/?parameter=createDate%3A%5B20201123%20TO%2020201125%5D

Search for Text in a predefined field

  • Enter the field name and the search phrase separated by a colon.

    For example, to find tickets with a priority of high or critical:

    priority:(high OR critical)

Search for Text in a User-defined Text Field

  • Enter fieldname:fieldvalue, with the actual name of the user-defined field and value of the user-defined field. If the field name includes spaces, special characters, or uppercase letters, replace these characters with an underscore (_) or lowercase letters. For example, replace Some field Name with some_field_name.

    For example, to find tickets that have a text field named Department with the value Marketing:

    department:marketing

Search for a Date in a User-defined Date Field

  • Enter fieldname:fieldvalue, with the actual name of the user-defined field and value of the user-defined field. If the field name includes spaces, special characters, or uppercase letters, replace these characters with an underscore (_) or lowercase letters. For example, replace My field Name with my_field_name.

    For example, to find tickets that have a date field named Service Date with the value Fri, Oct 20, 2011:

    service_date:20111020

Free Search Examples

Some Free Search examples are:

  • High priority tickets assigned to Alice Grainger, Bob, or Charles:

    assignee:("Alice Grainger" OR Bob OR Charles) AND priority:(high OR critical)

  • Old tickets (opened within a specific date range, for example: in May 2009) that are still open:

    createdate:[20090501 TO 20090530] AND status:(* -resolved -cancelled -rejected)

  • Tickets with a word beginning with net in the Subject, but without the word infrastructure:

    subject:(net* -infrastructure)

  • In-progress tickets whose priority are low or normal and whose sunject is NSX

    subject: *NSX* AND status: in_progress AND priority: (Low OR Normal)

  • Critical tickets assigned to either Henry or Jack

    assignee:(henry OR jack) AND priority: critical