Project and Task Search

What is project / task search?

Perform an advanced Project or Task search on the Search panel by choosing some filters. Save your search filters so you can quickly apply those filters again in the future. Saved searches may be shared with other BLUE users and groups. Also, export your search results to Microsoft Excel.

Who can use project / task search?

Anyone who has access to the Projects page or Tasks page can apply filters and perform an advanced search. Any user who performs a search can save their search. When performing a search, you will only see results you have access to. Any user can export their search results.

Exploring the project / task search

Default Project Searches

There are two default project searches: All Active Projects and My Active Projects.

All Active Projects
View all in-progress projects that you have access to.

My Active Projects
View all in-progress projects that you own.

Choose some filters or choose a saved search to get started.

Project Search

  • Search for projects that you have access to using the general free text search box, as well as Status, Owner Group, Project Owner, Start Date, Due Date, Due Within, Template, and Attribute filters.
  • General free text search box: Searches project name.
  • Status: Search for projects by status and timeliness options (Late, At Risk, On Time).
    • When the system is configured to automatically suspend cycles when a new cycle is created due to a rejection, there will be an option to search for projects with Automatically Suspended Cycles.
    • Note: When searching for Automatically Suspended Cycles, if only that status option is selected, projects with all timeliness statuses will be returned in the results. To narrow the search results, add additional status filters such as In Progress to narrow the results and find in-progress projects with automatically suspended cycles.
  • Owner: Search Any, My Projects, My Invited Projects, Owner Group, or by named Project Owner.
  • Date filters have control options for On, On or Before, On, On or After, After a selected date. Choose a month and type a year in the input box. The year input box supports year values from 1970 to 9999.
  • Due Within: Search for projects that are due within a certain number of days.
  • Template: Search for projects created with a particular template. When choosing a template with project level attributes, those filters are shown on the Search panel.
  • Attributes: Choose a template or click the Edit link to manage your project attribute filters. You can search on string, note and date fields.

Default Task Searches

There are two default task searches: All Active Tasks and My Active Tasks.

All Active Tasks
View all in-progress tasks that belong to your groups.

My Active Tasks
View all in-progress tasks that you own.

Task Search

  • Search using general free text, as well as Type, Status, Owner, Start Date, Due Date, Due Within, Template, and Attribute filters.
  • General free text search box: searches task, sub-process, and project name.
  • Type: Search Tasks or Sub-Processes.
  • Status: Search by status and timeliness options (Late, At Risk, On Time).
    • When the system is configured to automatically suspend cycles when a new cycle is created due to a rejection, sub-process searches will have an option to search for Automatically Suspended Cycles. In this case, choose the Type “Sub-Processes” and the Status “Automatically Suspended Cycles”.
    • Note: When searching for Automatically Suspended Cycles, if only that status option is selected, sub-processes with all timeliness statuses will be returned in the results. To narrow the search results, add additional status filters such as In Progress to find in-progress sub-processes with automatically suspended cycles.
  • Owner: Search tasks owned by My Groups, My Tasks, Unassigned Tasks, Owner Group, or by named Task Owner.
  • Date filters have control options for On, On or Before, On, On or After, or After a selected date. Choose a month and type a year in the input box. The year input box supports year values from 1970 to 9999.
  • Due Within: Search for tasks that are due within a certain number of days.
  • Template: Search for tasks created with a particular template. When choosing a template with task level attributes, those filters are shown on the Search panel.
  • Attributes: Choose a template or click the Edit link to manage your task attribute filters.  You can search on string, note and date fields.

Saved Searches

A saved search allows any user to choose some search filters (string, note and date) and save the criteria with a name so that filter criteria can be quickly applied again in the future.

Who can use saved search?

Anyone can apply search filters and save their criteria with a name (task performers, sub-process owners, project owners). No additional permissions are required to perform and save a search. The saved search owner can share and update the saved search, even after it has been shared with others. However, if the person who creates a saved search shares with other users who do not have access to the items (projects, tasks) in the search, then those users will not be able to see the contents of the search.

Exploring the saved search

On the Projects or Tasks page, choose some search filters to find items then save your search criteria so you can quickly apply the same search again.

Projects: Saved Searches

Tasks: Saved Searches

 

Sharing and modifying saved searches

The owner of a saved search can share it with other BLUE system users and groups, rename, delete or update its search criteria.

Share a Saved Search
Choose the saved search and then choose Share. Choose some users or groups that you wish to share it with.
Note: Depending on the filters you choose for your saved search, sharing it with others does not automatically give them access to the saved search. The users you choose to share with must be a primary or secondary owner to one or more of the project items in the saved search results.

Unshare a Saved Search
Choose the saved search and then choose Share. Clear the users and groups to remove their access to the Saved Search.

Update a Saved Search
Choose the saved search and then change the search filters. Click Save.

 

Rename or Delete a Saved Search
Choose the saved search and then click Rename or Delete.

Exporting results to Microsoft Excel

After choosing some filters or a saved search, export the results to Microsoft Excel. In order to do this, you will need to choose a Template. Once a template has been selected and the search has been applied, you will be able to export the results. If the results are sorted, the same order will be maintained in the exported file.

Note: When exporting the results to excel, only the first 19,999 records will be exported.

Performing a project or task search

Choose some filters and click Apply to perform an advanced search. Or, choose a saved search from the Saved Search drop down. The results shown will be those that meet the saved search criteria. You will only see items that you have access to. When a template is selected, export the results to Microsoft Excel.

Project / task search

Limitations for attribute filters

  • Not all types of attributes are supported as project and task search filters. Supported attribute types include string (free text, single and multi-select value lists), date and note. Other attribute types such as integer, numeric and boolean are not searchable.
  • Constraint sets (containing string attributes) are not supported, but each custom field that makes up the constraint set is supported if used alone.
  • Searches project level attributes in project and task searches

Limitations for Saved Searches

  • Project Search: Saving Owner Group and My Invited Projects filters is not supported.
  • Task Search: Saving Start Date and Due Date filters is not supported.

Project and Task search tips

Searchable drop downs

  • Some drop downs become searchable when there are lots of items, allowing you to search long lists.

Searching for Automatically Suspended Cycles: Projects Page

  • The site must be configured to automatically suspend cycles when a new cycle is created because of a rejection.
  • Perform a project search and choose Status = Automatically Suspended Cycles.
  • With this search criteria, project owners can quickly find the projects in which cycles have been automatically suspended due to a rejection.
  • The results will only show projects that contain automatically suspended cycles. Project owners can quickly find these cycles, review the reasons why the cycles were rejected, modify reviewers, and resume the new cycle.

Searching for Automatically Suspended Cycles: Tasks Page

  • The site must be configured to automatically suspend cycles when a new cycle is created because of a rejection.
  • On the Tasks page, perform a sub-process type search and choose the Status “Automatically Suspended Cycles” and “In Progress”.
  • With this search criteria, project owners can quickly find the sub-processes in which cycles have been automatically suspended due to a rejection.
  • The results will only show sub-processes that contain automatically suspended cycles. Project and sub-processes owners can quickly find these sub-processes, review the reasons why the cycles were rejected, modify reviewers, and resume the new cycle.

Searching for My Invited Projects

  • Find projects that you’ve been invited to using the Project Owner > My Invited Projects filter.