Ascendix Search Update: OR, NOT IN, Dependent Picklists

Updated on July 16, 2020 New Ascendix Search release is here and we have lots of great features to increase your productivity and help you perform even more advanced searches of your Salesforce data. Now we support OR conditions, Not IN searches, Salesforce dependent picklists and introduced new features for Admins to help them stay in control of all data searches within their Org.

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Let’s dive in and see new features in action:

In this Update:

• Search for records using OR conditions between operators
• Search by related record with NOT IN option
• Support for dependent picklists
• Use Shift/Ctrl keys to select multiple records
• Configure map popup for Google Maps
• Decide which fields are searchable
• Prevent users from adding/removing search criteria

Search for Salesforce Records Using OR Conditions Between Operators

A long awaiting feature is now available! Starting this release, you can use OR conditions between operators.

Before this release, Ascendix Search users could filter results for any criteria with a value specified using an AND condition.

While in single fields we supported the OR condition via our IN operator, there was no way to have an OR condition between different fields or different values for the same field.  

Now, you can group criteria together to indicate an OR condition between the fields instead of always assuming an AND condition.

Ascendix Search: OR Condition

To illustrate what’s changing, let’s compare the below search queries:

Before:

Criteria 1. City equals Dallas

 and

Criteria 2. State equals Oklahoma

 and

Criteria 3. Industry equals Healthcare

This would query based on all criteria and return no results (because there is no city Dallas in Oklahoma).

Now:

Now you can use OR condition if you want to get a list of all records either from Dallas or from the State Oklahoma:

[Criteria 1. City equals Dallas

 or

Criteria 2. State equals Oklahoma]

 and

Criteria 3. Industry equals Healthcare

Step 1. Click Apply Filter Logic button. You’ll notice that all search criteria were enumerated and the new text box Filter Logic was added at the bottom of the section.

Step 2. Type (1 OR 2) AND 3 to define the required filter logic and click Search to get your results.

(1 OR 2) AND 3 means (City OR State/Province) AND Industry

1 – CITY

2 – State/Province

3 – Industry

How Does Filter Logic Work?

Ascendix Search follows Salesforce Filter Logic that governs how and when filters apply to your search results.

Use AND and OR operators to fine-tune your results by entering each criteria line number, separated by a filter logic operator.

For example, in our example above (1 OR 2) AND 3 finds records that match either Filter 1 or Filter 2, and Filter 3, i.e. City OR State AND Industry.

Once you click the Add Filter Logic button, Ascendix Search will enumerate all search criteria in the section starting with #1.

Good to Know:

• If you reorder fields or add a new field, the numbers are reapplied always in numeric order. So make sure to correct your filter logic to get the results you want.
• Grouping of criteria fields will only be supported within a section (not across relationships).
• A user can add the same field more than once, allowing for an “OR” condition for multiple values, e.g., Industry equals Healthcare OR Industry equals Biotechnology.

Learn more about Salesforce Filter Logic

Search by Related Record with NOT IN Option

How to find accounts without contacts in Salesforce? We solve this task with our new NOT IN option.

Other сommon use cases where NOT IN feature helps:

• Find all accounts without opportunities
• Find all accounts without cases
• Find leads without activities
• Find all contacts with the status “Prospect” I haven’t emailed in 6 months
• Find all contacts associated with a tenant rep deal who hasn’t had a property tour appointment in the last 30 days

How to perform such searches in Salesforce with Ascendix Search:

Ascendix Search: Finding All Contacts that we called today, but didn’t reach

• Select the object you want to Search For
• Define the needed criteria for this object
• Add child object and enter your criteria
• Click on the button ‘Exclude records matching the selected criteria’

Note, that when the “Not In” mode is enabled, records matching the specified criteria for the child relationship will be omitted from search results.

That’s why you need to enter search criteria that are negative to what you want to achieve.

To make it more straightforward for you, let’s find all accounts without contacts:

Ascendix Search: finding all Accounts without contacts in your Salesforce

1. Select Account in Search For (because we want to get a list of accounts)
2. We don’t have any other criteria for accounts that’s why we won’t enter any criteria this time.
3. Click Add Section and Add Contacts
4. Select a field that can’t be empty for your contacts, e.g., Last Name
5. Set Last Name is not blank
6. Click on the button ‘Exclude records matching the selected criteria’

In our example, we set first Set Last Name is not blank to get a list of contacts with last name, i.e. existing contacts. Then we clicked “Exclude records matching the selected criteria’ to activate NOT IN option.

What is more, Ascendix Search lets you save this list to monitor new accounts without contacts in the future.

Good to know:

• The “Not In” mode is only available for child relationships
• It applies to the entire section, not individual fields
• It applies only to specified criteria; blank criteria are not included in the search

Support for Dependent Picklists Salesforce

This enhancement will be handy for those organizations that have the State and Country/Territory Picklists feature enabled in an organization or that have other Salesforce dependent picklists, e.g. Availability Type and Sub Type in our AscendixRE CRM for commercial real estate companies.

Ascendix Search: an example of dependent picklist

Now, for your dependent picklists,  you’ll see two dropdown fields and you should first specify the parent filter for the dependent picklists, e.g., for State and County/Territory Picklists or Availability Type and Sub Type.  This prevents Ascendix Search from showing you unwanted values.

Use Shift/Ctrl keys to select multiple records

Small enhancements might save quite some time. In this release, we let you select multiple records using the shift/ctrl keys as with most Windows applications.

Pair this with our Salesforce mass edit and mass actions feature and you’ll unleash even more time.

How to use it:

To select a record for preview > Click a row. It will work both for checked and unchecked records.

To select a record for preview and check it > Click a row, and use the Ctrl or shift keys. Keep using ctrl key and click other rows to check them. To select multiple rows, use the shift key, click the first and the last row of your list. Everything works with most Windows applications.

Configure Map Popup for Google Maps

As you might now, Ascendix Search supports two geocoding providers – Google Maps and OpenStreetMaps. A few months ago we let users configure the displayed information on the pushpins for OpenStreetMaps.

Ascendix Search: Google Maps Configuration

This time, we added the ability to define what details your users can see when they click on pushpins on a map for Google Maps.

Define what fields to display and their order for each record and choose to display the primary image of the record.

Decide Which Fields are Searchable

In the schema, there can be many fields not relevant to users or fields admins don’t want users to search against.  

Ascendix Search Admins now can optionally configure which fields are available to be used as search criteria and as result columns, by selecting a subset of fields on an object-by-object basis.

Ascendix Search: configuring searchable fields

By default, all Salesforce fields are available to be used as search criteria and as result columns.

Here is how to configure this:

1. Open Ascendix Search Setup (click the gear icon ⚙️ on the right top corner of Ascendix Search).
2. Select Object Manager Tab
3. Select the Object you want to configure and click the icon to configure fields
4. Check the Apply a filter (unchecked by default)
5. Select fields that should be searchable and viewable in your search results
6. Save

If you want to make all fields available for search again, simply uncheck the Apply a filter. Ascendix Search will remember your previous choices so it will be a matter of one click to come back to your settings later on.

Ascendix Search: Customize Fields

When checked, the list displays a list of all available fields with the following columns:

• NAME – Displays the field label with the field schema name shown as a tool-tip
• SEARCHABLE – Checkbox indicating if the field can be used in search criteria
• VIEWABLE – Checkbox indicating if the field can be used as a result column
  

Prevent Users from Adding & Removing Search Criteria

With this feature, Admins can define saved searches which are shared to all users. Users can select criteria values but are not permitted to select which criteria fields are available to search against.

To enable this feature:

Ascendix Search: Enable Modifying Search Criteria only for Admins

• Open Ascendix Search Setup (click the gear icon ⚙️ on the right top corner of Ascendix Search).
• Navigate to Options
• Modify Search Criteria > Set ‘Enabled only for Ascendix Search Administrators’ in the Modify Search Criteria
• Save

If the admin has configured Modify Search Criteria as Enabled only for Ascendix Search Administrators and the user is not an admin, the following features are not available:

• Add Search Criteria
• Add Search Section
• Delete Search Criteria
• Delete Search Section
• Create New Search

The users will be able to perform saved searched, use the defined fields to search for their Data and can save them as their custom search. Also, they will be able to export search results, mass edit records and perform mass actions (e.g., add notes in bulk, schedule events).

That’s it for today. Happy Searching!

Need Help? Have Questions?

• • All Ascendix Search Release Notes
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