Logbook Search Help Reference

This document details the search capabilities supported by the Olog logbook service. Users are encouraged to familiarize themselves with this content in order to be able to construct efficient queries.

The query as edited in the logbook clients consists of a list of key/value pairs separated by an ampersand (&) character. Keys identify the various elements - i.e. text and meta-data - of a log entry. Key names are case-insensitive.

How to use search parameter keys

start and end

These are used to search for log entries created in the date/time range start - end. There are several ways to specify a date/time value:

• Date/time on any of the following formats:
  • yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS
  • yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
  • yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm
  • yyyy-MM-dd - the time portion will be set to 00:00:00
  • HH:mm:ss - the date portion will be set to current date
• A relative time specifier using any of the following case-insensitive formats:
  • X w - i.e. X weeks
  • X d - i.e. X days
  • X h - i.e. X hours
  • X m - i.e. X minutes
  • X s - i.e. X seconds
  • now - i.e. the current date/time
  For the sake of clarity user may specify the full wording, e.g. weeks, days etc. It is also possible to combine w(eeks) and d(ays), e.g. 10 w 4 d, but any additional elements will be ignored.

If a time specifier cannot be parsed, or if it is omitted, the start date/time defaults to 1970-01-01 00:00:00, while the end date/time defaults to now.
An invalid time range - e.g. start date/time after end date/time - will trigger an error. In such cases no search is performed, i.e. the service will not fall back to a default time range.
To help user compose a valid date/time string for a time range search, the advanced search view of the clients offers a date/time picker tool. NOTE: An absolute time specifier is ambiguous if within the hour when a time zone switches from daylight saving time (DST). For instance, if:

• The switch takes place at 03:00, setting back the time to 02:00
• User specifies start time 02:30
• Search is performed after switch away from DST

then the search result will contain entries created after 01:30 in the non-DST time. If on the other hand the 02:30 timestamp is specified as end time, the search result will not contain entries after 01:30 in the non-DST time.

owner

This is the author element of the log entry. The value for this key is case-insensitive, and wildcards can be used, e.g. owner=John*.

title

This is the title of the log entry. Semantics for this is same as the desc key, see below.

desc

This is the body of the log entry. A body text is not mandatory for a log entry, i.e. it may be empty. The value for this key is case-insensitive.
Wildcards need not be used for a substring match, e.g. desc=increased will match a log entry with the body text Temperature increased in tank X.
In some cases one may need to quote a string in order to get the wanted search result. For instance, to search for a string like foo-bar one must use desc="foo-bar". Mixing quoted and non-quoted values is supported, e.g. desc="foo-bar",other.

To enclose a term in quotes, one must use double the double quote character (").

Limitations when using quoted search terms:

• Performance may be affected, i.e. the search process may take longer time to complete.
• Search will fail if quote characters are not balanced, i.e. search terms string must contain even number of quote characters.
• No leading or trailing characters other than a comma separator may appear together with a quoted term. For instance, foo,"bar",other is valid, but foo,"bar"*,other is not.
• Searching for occurrence of quote characters is not possible.

NOTE: log entries with an empty body will not match queries containing the desc key. In other words, to match all log entries irrespective of body text length, the desc key must not be present in the query.

logbooks

This is the logbooks meta-data of a log entry. A log entry is contained in one or multiple logbooks. The value for this key is case-insensitive, and wildcards can be used, e.g. logbooks=operation*.

tags

This is the tags meta-data of a log entry. A log entry may contain zero or multiple tags. The value for this key is case-insensitive, and wildcards can be used, e.g. tags=cavity*.

properties

This is the properties meta-data of a log entry. A log entry may contain zero or multiple properties.
A property is a named list of attributes, where each attribute is a key/value pair. Consequently, the value for this search key must be specified using a dot (.) separated string corresponding to the structure of a property like so:
<property name>.<attribute name>.<attribute value>
Example: assume some log entries contain a property named Shift Info, which in turn contains an attribute named Shift Lead. A search query for log entries where the Shift Lead is John Doe would then use: properties=Shift Info.Shift Lead.John Doe. All three, dot-separated, elements of the value string for the properties key are case-insensitive, and wildcards can be used.
Not all elements need to be specified. A query like properties=Shift Info will match all log entries containing such a property, irrespective of the attribute list it contains.

attachments

Search related to attachments supports two distinct use cases:

1. Search for log entries containing at least one attachment, irrespective of type. This is done by omitting a value, i.e. by adding only the keyword attachments to the query.
2. Search for log entries where attachments match on file name. This is done by adding attachments=some_file_name. Here some_file_name is case-insensitive, but must otherwise match exactly. Wildcards can be used, e.g. attachments=*_file*. To search for attachments with a particular file name extension, one may use something like attachments=*plt or attachments=*xls*. As image file name extensions vary by type one may need to specify multiple extensions, e.g. attachments=*png,*jpeg.

NOTE: Since the space character is treated in a special manner by the underlying search engine, a search for file name cannot contain space characters. For instance, to find entries with an attachment file name like "proton electron neutron", one should instead use attachments=proton* or attachments=*electron*.

NOTE: Search for occurrence of text within an attachment is not supported.

Multiple keys

If multiple keys are used in a search query, the service will consider all (valid) keys and return log entries matching all criteria. In other words, the search keys are and:ed.

Multiple values

One may specify multiple values for a key using a comma (,) separator. This will then find entries matching any of the values. However, for the desc and title keys the search will instead apply an "and" strategy, i.e. only entries containing all the values will match the search query.

Examples:

• user=John*,Jane* will match entries created by users named "John" or "Jane".
• desc=magnet,current will match entries containing "magnet" and "current".
• user=John*,Jane*&desc=magnet,current will find entries created by users named "John" or "Jane", and that contain both "magnet" and "current".