[Technical Preview] Searching for items in API Manager

Use the search feature in IBM® API Connect API Manager to easily locate items such as APIs, Catalogs, applications, and subscriptions.

Search is available from any page in API Manager and can be accessed by typing in the search field in the page banner, or by clicking Search icon Search in the navigation list.

This feature is provided as a Technical Preview

As such, the feature might not be fully functional in your environment and support is limited. In addition, the feature’s appearance and functionality are subject to change both in this release (V2018) and in later releases of API Connect. Review the following disclaimer before enabling the Search technical preview:

Notice: Technology Preview Code (TPC) may be included or distributed with the Program or updates to it but are not part of the Program. TPC is licensed under the same terms as the Program, except as provided below. TPC will be identified as such in the Notices File (or in an updated Notices File accompanying the updates). Some or all of the TPC may not be made generally available by IBM as or in a product. Licensee is permitted to use TPC only for internal use for evaluation purposes and not for use in a production environment. The Notices File may limit this evaluation use to an evaluation period. If so, at the end of such evaluation period Licensee must cease using and uninstall the TPC. IBM provides the TPC without obligation of support and "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTY OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT OR NON-INTERFERENCE AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Enabling Search

Enable Search for your API Connect user account by completing the following steps:

  1. Log in to API Manager.

  2. In the browser’s address bar, append /ff to the URL and press Enter to display the Feature Flags page.

    For example: https://example.com/my-org/ff

  3. On the Feature Flags page, click the Off - On toggle for the "Catalog Search" option to set it to On.

  4. When the "Enable Catalog Search" message displays, click Confirm.

  5. Verify that the Search field displays in the banner and the Search icon displays in the navigation panel.
    The Search field and Search icon display when Search is enabled

Using Search

The Search feature is available on all pages of the API Manager. To start searching, just type a string into the Search field and press Enter. Whenever you press Enter in the Search field, the Search page displays with results and additional options. If you press Enter in an empty Search field, or click Search icon Search in the navigation list, then the Search page displays a list all items. If you type a string before pressing Enter, the page displays the results from the corresponding search.

Search results include all items that contain the search string in a text field. For example, suppose you searched for "Crafted". The results might look like the following image, with items that don't match the search string exactly, but do include the string in a text field such as a title or a name:

Results of search for "Crafted"

By default, the search returns all types of items that contain the string. Sort results on a particular column by clicking the column header.

Sort results by column

When you find an item you want to work with, click the . . . actions menu next to the item's "Modified" date to see what you can do. The list of possible actions depends on the item's type.

Possible actions for an item

You can limit the search results by selecting an item type from the list that displays before the results. Click More to view additional types. If you select a type from the More menu, it replaces a type in the list.

In the following example, the results of the search for "Crafted" are filtered with the Subscriptions type.

Selectt an item type to filter the results

Notice that "Subscriptions" now displays in the default list, and that "Consumer Organizations" moved to More menu.

Filtering results by item type

If you want to refine the search further, click Options. On the Options panel, click Catalogs to Search and select which catalogs to search (the default is all catalogs). You can select up to 5 catalogs for a limited search.

You can also choose whether only exact matches (the complete string) are included in results, or items containing similar strings are also included.