External Searches and Bookmarks

iConsole Search Definition Reference Guide › Reference Information › External Searches and Bookmarks

External Searches and Bookmarks

The iConsole provides mechanisms for accessing a search using a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).

The iConsole bookmark facility automatically generates a URI to execute or customize the currently selected search
An external search facility provides a means of running a search with custom parameters which could for example, be used to provide drilldown capability in a report.

A typical iConsole URI has the form:

http://<server>/CA/Default.aspx?external="<type>"&parameters="<request>"

where <server> is the name of the iConsole Server <type> is the type of external request and <request> contains details for the request.

For a bookmark:

<type> = bookmark

<request> = <CMS>, <bookmark_type>, <search name>, <major>, <minor>, <section>,<category>, <version>, <target>, <timezone>

where:

<CMS>

The name of the CMS that the iConsole is to connect to.

<bookmark_type>

'search' to run the search or 'customize' to customize the search

<search name>

The name of the iConsole search

<major>

The major version number of the search

<minor>

The minor version number of the search (-1 for latest, -2 for derived)

<section>

The section containing the search (e.g. 'published' or 'custom' for a saved search)

<category>

The category folder containing the search (e.g. Reports)

<version>

The URI format version number (current values are 3 for bookmarks and 2 for external searches)

<target>

The target page for the search (usually blank)

<timezone>

The time zone information to be used for the search (from bookmark version 3).

This takes the form tzoffset:dst where:

tzoffset: Is the offset (in minutes) from UTC for the time zone on 21 December (for example -300 for EST)
dst: Is the difference in the offset on 21 June due to DST corrections (for example 60 for EST)

Note: The time zone definition was different for bookmark version 2. The values had the opposite sign and It took the form todayoffset: tzoffset: dst where:

todayoffset: Is the number of minutes from UTC today
tzoffset: Is the number of minutes from UTC on 21 December (for example 300 for EST)
dst: Is the number of minutes for DST (for example -60 for EST)

For example, this bookmark would run the latest version 2 standard search on 'myserver' connecting to CMS 'myCMS' in the EST time zone.

http://myserver/CA/Default.aspx?external=%22bookmark%22&parameters=%22myCMS,
Search,Standard%20Search,2,-1,published,,3,,-300:-300:60%22

Note: Here, the special characters quotes(") and space have been URL Encoded as %22 and %20 respectively.

For an external search:

<type> = search

<request> = <search name>, <major>, <minor>, <section>, <category>, <timezone>, <version>

The external search is more powerful because search parameters can be specified by appending them to the end of the URI in the form &<name>=<value> e.g. &chkEE=true for the standard search would search for email events. If the name is enclosed in square brackets the value is interpreted as the parameter attributes. This is useful for date ranges e.g. &[dateRange]=2;1;2;1 would set the date range to 'All Dates'.

Note: To specify time zone information, the external search version must be set to 2.

No CMS is specified with an external search; if more than one CMS is available the user would be expected select an appropriate CMS when logging on, or to be authenticated by SSO.