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  3. Submissions

Search Submitted Data in the Portal

Updated
Lauren Sunday
Community Manager
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Data submitted using GoCanvas is easily searchable in the portal.

Search Submitted Data

Users with the ability to view all submission data may use submission search for many different reasons.

  • Finding a completed invoice for a specific customer name,
  • Finding a work order associated with a specific address or date,
  • Pulling up a specific submission by its unique id.

How to Search

  1. Navigate to the Submissions page from the left navigation.
  2. Select the form you wish to search.
  3. On the top of your list of submissions is search box. Enter the term and type Enter.
  4. The results of the search will display the field the data was found in.

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2 comments

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  • Tommy Horvatich

    I'm not sure why this fresh help file was created, I would think the last 6 years for requests for a decent search function would have made you act, and it does not provide instruction for an Advanced Search.

    Field staff may not always enter data accurately, or in a format you expect and the inability to perform wildcard or partial searches is a significant problem, in my opinion. It's a feature of EVERYdatabase.. even 1980's MS DOS let you perform wildcard searches.

    Other members in this forum have recommended to download ALL the data stored with GoCanvas, then use Excel or almost any program that lets you perform a search. Is this the only solution for a partial search... get my data OFF, not use your platform for my searches?

    I have been trying to obtain a bulk download of our data.. without success, and I'm obviously getting frustrated. I know my collegues are very familiar with the serious limits in your search feature, this task was given to me because it was a problem that needed a solution. I need the answer to my databse query.. rather urgently, go figure >.<

    I request and require a timeline for partial/wildcard searching, please advise.

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  • Lauren Sunday
    Lauren Sunday Community Manager

    Hi Tommy Horvatich

    Thanks for posting to the Community!

    I completely understand your frustration when searching for submission data and have passed this concern along to our Product team. I welcome you to reach out as well by contacting beta@gocanvas.com if you would like to include your support for this request. The Product team immensely values feedback that comes directly from our users.

    In the meantime, below are several additional search options that are not specifically detailed in this article, although we appreciate the spotlight so this content can be improved!

    Firstly, it is important to note which Account View type that your account has. Both views have the Submissions page detailed in this article, accessible from the left navigation. The search function does have limitations, such as only searching within a specific form’s submissions.

    Given these limitations, the Advanced Search option may provide more specific results. Select the form you wish to search and click Advanced Search to reveal the following search parameters:

    • Choose a screen from your form,
    • No. (i.e. Submission Number),
    • Submission ID,
    • Submitter,
    • Group,
    • Submission Date Range,
    • Select the form version,
    • Select a submission status.

    Advanced Search does require a specific order of operations to yield results. 

    1. Enter the Submission Criteria that is relevant to the submission(s) you are trying to find. 
      • Crucially, the date range must be set to a valid date range that includes submissions even if no other fields are changed.
    2. Click Search.
    3. Once the results appear, expand the first drop down and select a screen within the form and the search parameters will be replaced with the fields within that screen. 
    4. Then search by more specific field values. 
      • Keep in mind that these fields are all text fields even if the field contains set choices or Reference Data in the form itself so be sure to type in a valid choice although it does not need to match perfectly to yield relevant results.
    5. Click Search again to narrow down your search results.

    Please note that more search criteria will result in more search results that fit the individual criteria instead of filtering down to only the submissions that fit all criteria queried. I have identified this to Product as it is inconsistent with expectations of the average user.

    If these parameters are too limiting, there are additional search options available and their locations vary based on your Account View type, as detailed below.

    If your account is in Core View, or the classic GoCanvas view, you can also search within the Submitted Tab in Work Hub, which is explained in the article, “Work Hub Search & Filter.” This will search across all submissions and I find it does yield better results for more specific queries.

    If you are in Projects View, navigate to the Project page from the left navigation and toggle to the Submitted tab to search and filter through submissions. This will work similarly to Work Hub so the above article may have some helpful tips, even if they don’t look exactly the same.

    Although I cannot guarantee that updates to the search function will be in an upcoming release, I hope that you are able to use one of the methods above and please let me know if you have any additional questions.

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