How to Configure Search in SugarCRM

Highland Senior CRM Specialist Patty Leeper shows you how to configure search across your CRM or in a specific Accounts, Targets, or Leads module to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

Watch the video to see exactly how to do it:

Video transcript and step-by-step instructions below:

Welcome! My name is Patty Leeper and I am a CRM Specialist at Highland Solutions. Today we are going to be talking about searching within SugarCRM.

There are two ways to search within the System: the Global Search and the Module List View Search. In this video, I’ll show you how to configure Sugar to return the results you want in the Global Search, how to make your Module List View searches more effective by using filters, and ways to boost what shows in a Global Search. I will also discuss the difference between the two searches and the best use for each.

Let’s get started.

Most fields can be searched in the CRM, depending on what you want to search for. You can search Globally to search the entire system, or by a specific Module to only search the records within that module.

To perform a Global Search, you click inside the search box in the upper right corner of your browser screen, type the value you wish to search, and the system begins to return results.

To perform a Module List View search you select the module you wish to search within, click within the box directly above the list view of the records, and begin to type the value you wish to search on.

Now that we know how to perform the two searches, let’s look at how to configure both of them.

To configure the Global Search you need to be a system administrator and have access to the admin panel. When I am looking at the admin panel, I can see a section titled System, and within that section, you’ll see a link for Search.

Clicking this link takes me to a screen where I can select which modules I want to be enabled or disabled for the Global Search. I can drag and drop the modules between the enabled and disabled boxes.

Let’s move the module ‘Manufacturers’ over to the enabled box and the module ‘Projects’ to the disabled box. I then press Save to keep these settings.

To complete this step I need to select Search again from the main Admin panel and schedule a system index. This will trigger Sugar to index the records within those newly selected modules and make them available.

You may also check to see that individual fields are searchable and boost the visibility of those fields within a search. This is done at the field level within Studio. Again, you must be a system admin and have access to the admin panel to perform this step.

Looking at the admin panel I scroll to the Developer Tools section, within that section is the Studio link. I select the module I wish to work on and then the fields I want to update.

Not all fields have the search turned on by default (name, etc. do) when you are looking at the field detail in Studio you will see ‘Full Text Searchable’ and ‘Boost Value.’

Boosting is the process of enhancing the relevancy of a record’s fields.

We will modify these sections to make the field available to be searched. Let’s open the ‘Billing Address City’ field and configure it to be searchable. Once I’ve made my changes, I save.

Once you’ve completed this step, you can search for your records in the system using the Global Search.

The Module List View search allows you to search within a specific module, and you can immediately search by the name or subject of the record. But what if you want to segment your list based on another field in the record, other than name or subject? Perhaps you’d like to search by the city or the state the account is located in. You can do this by creating a filter.

To create a new filter, you press the ‘Create’ button and make your selection. However, ‘Billing State’ and ‘Billing Country’ are not automatically available for me to create a filter on at this time. In order for a field to show up in the filter search, you need to configure that in Studio.

As an admin, scroll to the Developer Tools section, within that section is the Studio link. Select the module in Studio you wish to configure. In the Layout section, you will see the Search folder. Once you select Search you will see two columns, Default and Hidden. To make a field available to be used in creating a filter drag and drop it from the Hidden to the Default. I am going to select Billing City and Billing State. I press Save and Deploy to commit my changes.

Navigate back to the module you want to search for. When you are creating your filter you will now see the fields you indicated you wanted to search with. Continue to build your filter through the next two steps. Sugar will automatically begin to sort the list view results for you.

So, what are the differences between Global and List View searches and the best use of both?

The Global Search will search all the fields within the record and anywhere within those fields. The Module List View only searches the beginning of the fields. For example, if I know I am looking for an account called “Calm Sailing” in the Account Module, I can type the word ‘calm’ and quickly find the record. This is the fastest way to use the Module List View search—when you know what you’re looking for.

But perhaps I just know the word ‘calm’ appears in some of my records — I’m not sure if it’s an account, a meeting, or a lead. If I want to see all records that have the word ‘calm’ in them, I would use the Global Search, type in the word ‘calm,’ and it will return all of the records that have the word calm anywhere I’ve have told the system to look.

I hope this demonstration was helpful to you!

Need more SugarCRM help? Here’s our video on How to Configure Tile View in SugarCRM: