Flex Search
Introduction
Classic navigation is based on objects and documents. Navigating to a specific building reveals floors, floors reveal spaces etc. We can also see documents connected to each of the objects like floor plans.
This is perfect solution for a user knowing which object or document is needed. The object can be found in an intuitive structure even without using search.
The same applies to basic search - a user that knows name of the objects can find it quickly using classic search.
What happens if the user doesn't know which object is the one that he actually needs to select or see, whats the name of the object?
To the rescue comes the approach based on faceted classification scheme, that in HDC is simply called Flex Search.
About Flex Search
Flex Search provides analytical summary of available values for selected object properties.
When search is activated, system generates statistical values for each property.
It makes most sense to use properties that are based on dictionaries or do not contain too many distinct values.
Each value can be seen as a filter. By selecting one filter, other available options are adjusted automatically.
Standard object grid will automatically show objects that match selection made by the user in Flex Search window.
If the user selects an object in the grid, system will check if a hyper jump can be performed to graphical representation (a document containing this objects spot should be shown)
