New global search function to allow contract users the ability to perform a search for all notifications within a contract e.g. across multiple workflows. This search function allows users to search notice IDs and “Subject” titles of notices, from the top navigation panel without leaving the notice that they are on.
The search results will display on screen without taking the users away from the page that they are currently on. This will allow the user to use the search function to look up a reference number or title of another contract notice whilst drafting a new notice without having to leave the notice they is drafting.
This onscreen preview of search results provides:-
- A preview of the first five search results, which shows the notice ID, subject line and date of notice
- A hyperlink of the notices which takes the user away from their current page if clicked
- A “More…” button to a separate page list all search results for the search term
The preview feature works in a similar way to the search function in reachback (see screenshot below).
If the users clicks the more details they will be taken to a new search results page which will provide a tabular view of the results displayed by default in order of relevance. The users can toggle the search results in the tabular view by date order, alphabetically and by relevance. The page will shows a reminder of the top of the page that the page is displaying search results for a specific search term the users entered eg "Search for [search term] and the number of results. If there are more than 50 results it will only display the first 50 results and state the number of search results is 50+.
This search function supports searches via the API so that search can be triggered by another system or software via the API with a security token and display the search into another system like PowerBI.
This features must be backwards compatible to support future improvements such as search options to limit search results for notices in specific workflows, by date range, by party, by action owner and by status. This will allow users in the future users with lots of notifications on large projects to narrow their search results to a specific timeframe or workflow. This will also be necessary if we wish to allow users to search across entire portfolios or programmes of contracts in an aggregated manner.