Enhanced queries functionality in Dovetail Agent 5.6
With the 5.6 release of Dovetail Agent we’ve really amped up the querying functionality.
This is a quick walkthrough of some of the new functionality.
Queries Page
Click on the Query list icon in the sidebar.
This takes you to your Queries page. From here you can:
- View your existing queries
- Share, Delete, and Favorite queries
- View queries that you’ve subscribed to
- View queries that have been shared to you
Create It
Click on the green + icon on the My Queries tab header to start a new query
Now we can add our filters
Click on the + (Add Filter) button
Select Created from the Name dropdown
Select within last (days) from the Operator dropdown
Type 30 into the Value textbox.
Click Apply
We now get results back – items created in the last 30 days.
Lets add our 2nd filter
Click on the Add Filter button again
Select Case Type from the Name dropdown
Select Is Equal To from the Operator dropdown
Select Cashiering from the Value dropdown.
Click Apply
We’ve now filtered our results even more – items created in the last 30 days with a case type of Cashiering
We can also add a filter to limit this query to just cases.
Click on the Add Filter button again
Select Item Type from the Name dropdown
Select Is Equal To from the Operator dropdown
Select Case from the Value dropdown.
Click Apply
Now we have the exact results we’re looking for.
Save it
From the query menu (we affectionally call it the cheeseburger menu), choose Save.
Type in a name, such as cashiering cases in last 30 days
Click the Save As option
We’ve now saved the query.
Sort It
Click one of the headers, such as Last Updated. The query is now sorted by last updated date/time.
This sorting is automatically saved. So anytime you run this query, your sort order is automatically applied.
Edit It
Click on the Filters icon, and the Filters tray will appear. This allows you to add new filters, or edit or delete the existing filters.
Click the X next to a filter to remove it
Click the filter itself which puts the filter into edit mode, where you can edit it
Click the + icon to add a new filter
The filters are applied to the result set, but are not saved (to the database) unless you choose Save from the menu.
Rename It
Want to change the name of a query, or fix a typo? Use the Rename menu option.
Delete It
Want to completely remove a query? Choose Delete from the query menu.
Copy It
Want to make a copy of an existing query?
From the menu, choose Save As, give it a new name, and you now have a copy of the original query.
View It
Click on the Query list icon in the sidebar again, which will take you to your Queries page.
The query we just created is now available on the My Queries tab. This makes it easy to get back to this query and run it in the future.
Favorite It
Next to the query title you’ll see an unfilled star icon.
Clicking that start will make this query a favorite.
It will now show up in your sidebar under Queries.
Favorite queries are queries that you run frequently, or want easily accessible.
From the sidebar, results for a favorite query and now just a click away.
Download It
You’ll notice that query results are shown one page at a time. The page size is determined by the size of your browser window.
You may want to get all pages of the results, and do something with that data. For example, I may want to pull that result set into Excel, and do some analysis and perhaps create a chart based on this data.
From the menu, choose Download As
Then select either CSV or Excel, and you’ll get a file containing all of the results in the format you selected.
Share It
If you’ve created a super cool query that you want to share with others – choose Share from the query menu.
You have 3 options for sharing. Share to:
- Share with an employee – type in an employee name, and the query will be shared with that employee.
- Share with a workgroup – select a workgroup from the list, and the query will be shared with all members of that workgroup.
- Share with everyone – um, share with everyone.
Shared To Me
If a query has been shared to a user, it will show up on the Shared Queries tab of the Queries page.
This tab is basically an Inbox of queries that are available to you.
It shows who created it, when it was created, and when it was last modified.
You can choose to Ignore a shared query, which will hide it from the list, or Subscribe to it, which moves it to your Subscriptions tab.
You can also favorite a query that’s been shared to you.
Subscribe to It
Subscriptions are queries that were shared to you that you’re interested in.
These are queries that you may run occasionally, but aren’t quite to the level of a favorite.
You can also Unsubscribe from a query which will remove it from this list and put it back in the Shared Queries list.
Ignore It
You can choose to Ignore a shared query, which will hide it from the list
You can get back to an ignored query by checking the Show Ignored checkbox.
Prompt For Value
Often we have a query where we know we want to change the values every time we run it.
For example, I may want to look at all of the open cases for a particular user.
Rather than creating a separate query with a different filter for each user, I can have just one query, and setup the filter to Prompt for Value.
This will have the application prompt me for those values before the query runs.
For example, I can create a query with 3 filters:
- Owner login name is equal to change me, prompt for value = on
- Condition starts with Open, prompt for value = off
- Item Type is equal to case, prompt for value = off
When I run this query, the application will prompt me to fill in a value for the owner login name
I can fill in the value (or values if I have multiple promptable filters), then click Run Query
My query is run using the value I just supplied.
I can run that same query again, and enter a different value for the owner login name.
Dynamic Values
In some instances, it makes sense to use a dynamic value in a filter, especially with a shared query.
For example, lets say I create a query for all open items owned by my workgroup.
If my workgroup is “Support”, then my filter would look like:
Workgroup Is Equal To Support
Now, this would work fine for me, but wouldn’t work if I shared this query to someone in a different workgroup.
This is where dynamic values come into play.
Rather than using “Support” as the filter value, I can use “{{MyWorkgroup}}”. (The double curly brackets indicate that it’s a dynamic value)
When this query runs, {{MyWorkgroup}} will get replaced with the actual workgroup name of the current user.
Now the query can be shared to everyone, and this filter will get evaluated dynamically at query run time, and the query will work for everyone.
Similarly, the dynamic value of {{MyLoginName}} can be used for Owner Login or Originator Login filters.
Summary
So that’s a quick overview of the query functionality that’s been enhanced for Dovetail Agent 5.6.
Often we discuss getting information *into* the system, but we also want to be able to find and extract information *from* the system as well.
Between querying and searching, I think we’ve made it easy to do just that.
Hope you find this useful.
