Reference search

The reference search searches the references between model objects.

You can use the reference search for the following scenarios, for example:

To find all subentries of an object.
To find all subentries and again their subentries of an object (recursively).
To recursively find all employees in specific organizational units.
To find objects that use an employee object.
To find organizational units to which a specific employee is assigned.

For deep search of objects you can set the Recursive (Deep search) option in a reference search. The search should be limited as far as possible by the attributes Target categories, Searched attributes and Searched categories.

As a result, in addition to the objects actually found, the attributes and objects in which it was found are also returned as results.

Note: Depending on the configuration, the reference search returns many objects from the database. Note, that when using the reference search, it can be very time-consuming and memory intensive under certain circumstances.

Configuration:

Property	Description
Queries	The Queries property displays the query components that have been configured for the query. The result of the queries is used as input for the execution of this query. If no queries are created, the result is obtained directly from the current context. You also have the option here to configure new queries via the text box or the buttons to the right of the text box.
Main assignment	This property is used to search only for objects that are mainly assigned to the object found in the searched attributes.
Usage (bottom-up search)	With this property the attributes are searched inversely. I.e. it is searched under which objects the current object is referenced in the configured attributes.
Recursive (deep search)	This property is used to search the selected objects for their references and all found references for their references, etc. The objects are searched recursively until the lowest level is reached.
Consider parent categories	With this property an object is also returned if its category has the searched category as parent. The searched category can be configured both in the Target Category property and in the Searched Category property. Example: When searching for the Task category, the Function category is also searched for, since it is derived from the Task category.
Searched attributes	Reference here the attributes to be searched for referenced objects. If no attributes are selected here, only category-specific attributes are searched. General attributes are not searched. The following general attributes, which all model objects in each category have, are searched only if they are referenced here: ACL Owner Parent object Existence dependent from Category path, parent path, scope path, additional object categories Copy of Creator Last modifier Comments Ratings Category Valid for Not valid for Query or report component attributes are never searched.
Target categories	Reference here the categories you want to narrow the search to. If no categories are referenced here, all categories will be searched for.
Searched categories	Reference the categories of the searched objects here. The attribute Searched categories is only useful in conjunction with a recursive search. The repeated (recursive) search on the objects found in the previous step is limited to certain categories.
Search visible attributes in tree only	This property is used to search only those attributes that are displayed in the tree (e.g. in the model overview) at the time the reference search is executed.
Include relationship objects	This property also searches the attributed relations of an attribute for attribution objects (see also Create inverse attribute).
Recursion mode	This setting influences the sorting of the reference search results. Tree structure: The evaluated model objects are sorted analogously to the structure in the model overview. Level by level: First, the model objects of the first level are evaluated. The following levels are then evaluated in descending order. Recursion mode has an effect only if the Recursive (Deep Search) property is enabled.
Variables	You can activate the enabled attributes of a query and condition in the Variables property so that they can be changed by users at the time of execution. See also: Chapter Variables.