Efficient Searching Techniques Through Modern Search in Model-Driven Apps

With the publishing of the Power Platform 2021 Release Wave 2 plan, we learned that Modern Search (Relevance Search) will be the only global search option for users in a production environment. This is expected to be automatically enabled by default for all production environments with the release of the Wave 2 updates.

The experience between Modern Search and the existing Categorized Search is different, which could be a potential impact for organizations that have not yet adopted Modern Search. In this post, we will cover the basics of Modern Search and go over some simple searching tips that could improve the experience of a user new to Modern Search.

What is Modern Search?

Modern Search for model-driven apps is the latest search feature for Dynamics 365. It provides fast and comprehensive search results. Searching occurs across multiple tables and results are sorted by relevance. Modern Search will be located at the top of the screen once its enabled.

Results are Now Sorted by Relevance

Results are displayed horizontally by order of relevance. The top results tab (red) will include the top 20 results from the first three tables next to top results (orange, these would be the most relevant results by table relevance). Followed by the rest of matched table types (yellow), ordered by number of records matching the search terms.

Adding Filters to the Search Results

A user can still refine their search results by utilizing filters (located on the right side of the screen) and expanding that panel. Details on filtering will change depending on which tab of the results the user is currently on. (i.e. Top Results Tab only allows ownership, modified on, created on filters)

Using Operators to Refine Search Results

With operators, a user can create an even more precise query that can return tailored results to their searches.

And (+)

Using the ‘plus’ symbol will show results that have ALL of the terms searched (i.e. Show all results that include Rafael and Contoso)

Or ( | )

Using the ‘pipe’ symbol will show results that have EITHER of the terms searched (i.e. Show all results that include Rafael or Contoso)

Not ( - )

 Using the ‘minus’ symbol will show results that DO NOT have the term that follows the ‘minus’ sign (i.e. Show all results that include Contoso but not Rafael)

Wild Cards and Exact Match Search

Wild cards are used for operators such as begins-with and ends-with. Use the asterisk (*) symbol to declare a wildcard (i.e. Show results for all records associated with a keyword that begins with ‘Con’)

To improve matching, the usage of double quotation marks (“) will force the search for an exact match (i.e. Show results for records that match exactly to ‘Send Client Contracts’)

Hopefully these quick tips on how to get around Modern Search (Relevance Search) are helpful to you and your organization if you still haven’t adopted it. This feature will be automatically enabled for all users in a production environment as the 2021 Wave 2 updates start to rollout in October. Reach out to us if you require any assistance regarding the 2021 Wave 2 updates.