Sage 100

v2018 - New feature in this release is the ability to do an ALE search based on ""full text"" (i.e. search all columns). So I thought I would try setting it as the default search display. Unfortunately, when I try to customize the ALE, this option does not appear. What am I overlooking or did Sage do the overlooking?

Technically I believe that feature was part of the v2017 release, but it looks like the same issue in v2017.

So is it a sleeper issue that no one has noticed the new feature (I didn't realize it was there until recently) and will we be told it is a WAD. I personally like it better that the ""super search"" feature that searches all fields when you start typing in the customer/vendor/item code field (that is very confusing). I liked it so much that I was going to make it the global default search when I stumbled across this limitation. Guess I will send a not to Linda Cade and ask that she put it in the 2020 queue. I don't feel like wasting my time on hold, then explaining to a lower level support person what the issue is.

Also note that ""full text"" isn't truly a 'contains' search as you might expect. For example, if you do a full text search for ""master"" as in Postmaster, it doesn't pick that up, but it does if you do a full text search for ""postmaster"".

Not quite what I am seeing. It is a ""contains"" search for the Name field (I am testing in AR maintenance). For all the other fields displayed, it seems to be a ""begins with"" search. Golly, just LOVE their consistency!! I love the concept, but wow they suck on consistency. If you search in the Sage dictionary for the word ""consistency"", the definition is ""whatever is easiest

Don't you need to Build Search Index for that to work properly?

It didn't help when I tried earlier, @KevinMoyes. Pretty sure Build Search Index is for the Auto-complete feature.

@JeffSchwenk, if I'm in Cust Maint and do a 'full text' search for ""ness"" (as in American Busi**ness** Futures), nothing comes up. But if I do a 'full text' search for ""bus"", ABF does come up. You're not experiencing that?

@JeffSchwenk maybe this video is helpful or is it not working as they describe? Though it does appear you must run the build search index under LM>utilities, if you do not (which I didn't before) the selection is available but it wont have any results.

Thanks @JeremyFox - Spent two minutes watching the video and I now have five minutes worth of questions. There was no mention that you HAD to build the search index in LM. I personally don't think you have to. The one example they presented gave no hint of being ""begins with"" or ""contains"". Will send a note off to support. Nice idea, but is typical Sage in that it lacks robustness.

@JeremyFox, it does appear it's working as described in the video, but they don't happen to mention that it only does a 'begins with' search on each field (as per my above examples). Ideally it should do a 'contains' search. Build Search Index didn't seem to help this issue, but I suppose it _may_ help with the general 'full text' search functionality - even though the documentation states it's specifically for the auto-complete feature.

@JeffSchwenk @BrettZimmerman interesting I ran the test in my 2018 again and sure enough as Brett mentioned its a beginning or end. Seems more like that Sage miss named the tool rather than a bug from what I'm seeing ie it searches all the fields for begins with or ends with. Honestly that's hardly a full text search, guess that's their flavor of the year. Also the rebuild index seems to give some of that in the vendor no field. I did a test in ABC vendor typed in pro and got airway.

I recall rebuilds was in the training, looks like it was in one of the videos:

That's the video ""Enhanced Auto-Complete"" I can upload that too if desired its 48.5MB

No need to for my benefit. That feature is even more confusing. While I understand the functionality, it returns items that don't make sense and is limited to 10 hits in the drop down. I think the ALE ""full test"" has greater potential.

I've had a case open with Sage for over two months now...one of the issues was exactly that....have a default view with FULL TEXT SEARCH as the default. Sage's answer...that is not possible. By the way, the case is that if you do a Full text search on one column and then immediately do another full search on another column, it doesn't resets itself and usually bring incorrect data....still waiting on a resolution...customer upset since they did upgrade because of this.....??

I am coming to the conclusion that this is a **totally** useless feature. In theory, it is a great improvement. If only it would work as advertised. The latest is this - the number of ""hits"" is limited to **ten**!!!! The same as if you are typing in a field and the possible items are displayed in the drop down window. When I use the ALE and name contains parameter, I get a total of 17 possibilities. When I use the ALE ""full text"" and enter the same search phrase, the first ten items are returned, NOT all 17! Not sure if this is the same as @LourdesSobrino issue, as it is now, I will not be showing this feature at all.