Search

The search box in the header looks through your workspace. Type a few words and press Enter. Results are grouped by kind of record (for example Issue, Project or Initiative), with the best matches first in each group and the matching words highlighted.

How words match

• Every word you type must match; a record that matches only some of them is left out.
• Each word matches as the start of a word: shore buff finds "Shoreline … buffers".
• English word forms match each other: hearings finds "hearing".
• Only letters and digits count. Punctuation, quotes and symbols such as -, | or * are ignored, so there is no special syntax to learn.
• The first eight different words are used; a query can be up to 200 characters.

A match in a title or name ranks above a match in a summary or description. Each group shows up to ten results.

What search covers

Search covers only the workspace you are in. A record in another workspace is never returned, even when its words match exactly; this is enforced in the database, not just hidden on the page.

Today search covers:

• issues: title and summary;
• projects: name and description; archived projects are left out.

Other parts of the app add their own records when they are in your plan, such as meetings, decisions, research notes and initiatives. Public records, such as a council's published agendas, are shared by every workspace and appear in each one's search.

Narrowing to a location

When a location is chosen in the header, search narrows records tied to a place to the governments and districts of that location: its city, county, state and so on, called its jurisdiction stack (see Locations). The narrowing happens before results are ranked or counted, so a record about somewhere else can never fill a slot.

• A record tied to a place appears when it belongs to a government or district in the stack, or when it was scoped to that saved location itself. It is marked In this location.
• Place-bound records tied to no place are left out while a location is chosen. Choose All locations to see them.
• Records that are not about a place, such as projects, are not narrowed.

Issues are place-bound. To make an issue show up for a location, open it with Scope to location (Issues).

If nothing matches, the page says so, and suggests clearing the location when one is chosen.