Overview

As you're moving through Kayako's agent and admin areas, you'll notice the search bar at the top of the page is a constant presence. In this article, we're going to lay out some best practices that can help you take full advantage of Kayako's powerful search capabilities.

From here, you can run powerful searches that can lurk through everything you have stored in Kayako, from conversations (tickets) and Help Center articles to users and organizations. Your searches will cover every nook and cranny, too, including titles, subjects, body content, names, identities, tags, priorities, statuses, attachments – even custom fields.

Although you can get going using the search bar right out of the gate, there's a lot you can do with it that might not be immediately obvious.

Information

Quick Guide to the Kayako Search Bar

The Kayako search bar works very similarly to Google search – type what you're looking for, and the results will start to appear immediately.

A glance at the icon to the left of each result will tell you what type of item it is — conversation, organization, user, or article — and color-coded flags will help you scan through conversation results by their status. The cheat sheet in the right-hand sidebar will also give you some quick suggestions for modifiers that you can use to narrow your search parameters.

If you're having trouble finding a result, click the See more in advanced search button to open a new tab with all of the results. From here, you can open multiple results in new tabs, which keeps your search open and available so you can refine it until you find what you're looking.

How to Refine Your Search Query Technique

Now that you know your way around the search bar, there are some small adjustments you can make to power up your searches with minimal effort quickly:

• Search for multiple keywords using AND. When you search for replacement AND parts or Subject: replacement parts Kayako will return content where both keywords are present, but not necessarily together or in that order.
• Search for multiple keywords using OR. When you search for replacement parts or Subject: replacement Subject: parts Kayako will return content where at least one of the keywords is present.
• Search for exact phrases. By enclosing your search terms in quotation marks, you can tell Kayako to only return results for those words in that precise order.
  Example: Searching for "replacement parts" will only return content where both words appear together.
• Exclude search terms. You can preface any search term with a minus sign to exclude any results that contain that term.
  Example: Searching for "replacement parts" -percolators will return any results about ordering parts as long as they're not for a percolator.
• Define your context. You can also tell Kayako to look in a particular context, like conversations, users, organizations, or articles.
  Example: Searching for "replacement parts" -percolators in:conversations will return only conversations about replacement parts that don't mention percolators.
• Use ranges. When you're searching by numerical values or dates, you can use the greater than or lesser than symbols to filter for a range of results.
  Example: Searching for "replacement parts" -percolators in:conversations created>2016-01-01 will return only your percolator-less replacement part conversations if they were created after January 1, 2016. Using < would limit it to conversations older than the date.
• Look for what's missing. Kayako can also filter your results according to whether a particular field is empty by using null as your search value.
  Example: Searching for "replacement parts" -percolators in:conversations created>2016-01-01 assignee:null will give you only those recent non-percolator parts conversations that have not yet been assigned.

The examples above are just the tip of the iceberg. Keep reading for a breakdown of all the different search modifiers available when building your search queries.

Search Modifiers to Narrow Your Results

To help you take full advantage of Kayako's search functionality, here's a list of all of the search modifiers available within the unified search bar. In the table below, you'll find definitions of what each modifier does, and examples of how to use it.

MODIFIER	DEFINITION	USAGE EXAMPLES
UNIVERSAL MODIFIERS (use these with any type of search query)
in	Limits your search to a particular type of result. Use it to specify whether you're looking for a match in conversations, users, organizations, or Help Center articles.	Permitted values: in:conversations in:users in:organizations in:articles
[field]:null	Searches for a null (or empty) value in the specified field.	assignee:null organization:null team: null
created	Searches based on the date the item was created.	created:2016-03-24 created>2016-02-28 created<=2016-04-01
updated	Searches based on the date the item was last updated.	updated:2016-03-24 updated>2016-02-28 updated<=2016-04-01
tag	Searches an item's tags.	tag:feedback tag:"feature request"
name	Searches the names of users and organizations.	name:tobias name:"atmosphere coffee"
[custom_field]	Searches any custom conversation, user, or organization field you've defined. You'll need to use the field's keyname, which you can find if you open the field for editing in the admin area.	Example custom fields: product:Rancilio serial_number:08632l32 under_warranty:no account_executive:"Bekki Park"
CONVERSATION-SPECIFIC MODIFIERS
id	Searches the Kayako conversation ID.	id:4362
assignee	Searches the names and identities of conversation assignees.	assignee:sienna
team	Searches conversations that have been assigned to a particular team.	team:sales
	Searches the names and identities of requesters.	requester:taylor requester:@atmospherecoffeeco.com
creator	Searches the names and identities of conversation creators.	creator:"tobias schroeter"
organization	Searches for matches in customer organizations.	organization:"atmosphere coffee"
subject	Searches the subject of conversations.	subject:"Logica coffee machine return"
body	Searches the body content of conversation posts, user notes, organization notes, and articles.	body:nespresso
status	Searches for conversations set to a particular status.	status:open status:pending status:completed
type	Searches for conversations set to a particular type.	type:issue type:null
priority	Searches for conversations with a particular priority.	priority:high priority>low priority:null
brand	Searches for conversations that belong to a particular brand.	brand:brewfictus
satisfaction	Searches for conversations that have a particular satisfaction rating.	Permitted values: satisfaction:good satisfaction:bad satisfaction:null
channel	Searches for conversations according to what channel(s) they've used.	Permitted values: channel:mail channel:twitter channel:facebook channel:messenger channel:helpcenter channel:system channel:api
completed	Searches for conversations according to the date on which they were completed.	completed>2016-01-01 completed<2016-01-28
attachment	Searches the names of any attachments to conversation posts.	attachment:"file_name.xlsx"
USER-SPECIFIC MODIFIERS
identity	Searches users identities, across all channels.	identity:@brewfictus identity:@atmospherecoffeeco.com
role	Searches for users belonging to a particular role.	role:administrator
organization	Searches for matches in the names of an organization a user belongs to.	organization:"atmosphere coffee"
ARTICLE-SPECIFIC MODIFIERS
title	Searches titles of Help Center articles.	title:"how do I order replacement parts"