There are two different types of searches available: Global Search and Community Search. In this article you will learn how to perform searches using both and the differences between the two.
Global Search
As the name implies “Global Search” allows you to search the entirety of Aruba for content, not just the community. You can search the Aruba Support Center, Aruba Networks Corporate Website, and Airheads Social Community using global search. In addition, you will be able to narrow your search to one content source at a time.
The Global Search Box (found on the upper right hand corner of the page) searches for technical content across the following resources:
- Aruba Support Center & Knowledge Base> TAC documentation, tools, software downloads, and Support Knowledge Base articles
- Aruba Networks Corporate Website> validated reference designs, data sheets, user guides
- Airheads Social Community> peer-to-peer forums, blogs, technical articles, and Airheads event content
Example: Performing a “Global Search” for “documentation” returns the following:
In the above example, you’ll see the Global Search returned results for both the forum and the Aruba Support Center webpage where you can view the various documentation found within.
On the right of the search page, you are given options to narrow your search further.
You can narrow your search by “Product” or “Source”. To the right of the available search types, you can see how many results were found for each.
Narrowing Your Global Search by Product
1) Selecting “Mobility Controller” under “Product” will narrow your search to display the 15 related results for this particular product. The URL’s highlighted above show that the search returned results from both the community and corporate resources found on the Aruba website.
2) You can navigate back to your previous search by clicking on the small (x) next to the active search term.
3) “Source” indicates the available sources where you can find information based on the narrowed product search, including how many results can be found in each of the sources in the list.
You can further narrow your search by selecting a source in conjunction with the product. Note in the image above we selected “Aruba Corporate Resources”. As noted by the highlighted URL’s, all the results listed in this search are now from the Aruba website only.
Narrowing Your Global Search by Source
Alternatively, you can narrow your initial search by the contents “Source” location.
Example: Narrowing the search based on the source titled “Aruba Support Knowledge Base” returns only results mentioning documentation from the Support Knowledge Base.
Community Search
The Community Search Box (found on top of the right hand navigation column) searches for only content from the Airheads Social Community. Using the drop down box you can search the following:
- Community> Community wide discussions and content within the peer-to-peer forums
- Category> Discussions and content related to a particular forum category found within the peer-to-peer forums
- Knowledge Base> Only KB articles created within the community
- Users> Used to search for a particular users forum profile
Example: Performing a “Community Search” for “Conferences” returns the following:
In the above example, you’ll see the Community Search returned results for group posts, forum posts and Blog Articles created within the community. You can tell at a glance what type of post was found by looking at the icon to the left of each post.
- Forum Post – Bubble Icon
- Blog Post – Speaker Icon
- Idea Exchange Post – Light Bulb Icon
- Knowledge Base Article – Book Icon
- Groups Post – Person Icon
Narrowing Your Community Search
On the left of the search page, you are given options to narrow your search further, based on location, author, date, metadata (solved or kudoed), post type ( forums, blog, ideas, knowledge bases or groups), and by content (images, videos or attachments).
1) Location: Allows you to narrow your search by category, board, idea exchange, blog, group (event) or Community Knowledge Base. Select the right arrow icons to expand the grouping.
2) Author: Allows you to search for an item by the author.
3) Date: Narrow your search based on a date range of All, a day ago, a week ago, a month ago or a year ago.
4) Metadata: Allows you to pull only results that have been marked as the accepted solution or kudoed depending on which option you select. Topics that are marked as an Accepted Solution will have a green checkmark to the left of the subject title.
5) Post Type: Allows you to narrow your search based on the type of post, such as: forum, blog, idea, knowledge base, or groups.
6) Content: Allows you to narrow the scope of your search to only return items containing images, videos or attachments.
Summary
Global Search vs. Community Search:
- Global Search is used to find content within the Aruba Support Center, Aruba Networks Corporate Website, and Airheads Social Community, providing the broadest search options available.
- Community Search is used to search only the Airheads Social Community for content. These results will not contain direct search results for anything in the Aruba Support Center or the Aruba Networks Corporate Website. You can however find content from these areas if it was mentioned in a post on the community.
Credit: Additional Sources:
From the Community Matters Blog: New Search Capabilities