Search for an entry

Find information on how to perform basic and advanced searches in the application.

The search bar is appropriate to use in most cases, to lookup directory listings by name, job responsibilities, e-mail address, or telephone number. There is also an advanced search form described later, however, that provides a few more search options.

To perform a simple search, perform the following steps:

  1. Access the IBM® Telephone Directory application by entering the following URL in your Web browser:
    http://your.server.name:port/ibm-bizApps/welcome/home.do

    where your.server.name is the name of the server where IBM Telephone Directory V5.2 is installed and port is the port number that was specified during installation.

  2. Click IBM Telephone Directory.
  3. Specify your user ID and password, if applicable.
  4. Click Search.
  5. Enter criteria to search for in the Search on and Search for fields.
  6. Click Search.

Examples of simple search provided below. Remember that search text for name searches must always be entered with the last name first. Also, searches are never case sensitive, so it doesn't matter if uppercase or lowercase characters are used.

Related tasks
Work with additional functions

Using the wildcard character (*)

You may use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard character anywhere in your search text (IE. Dund*,C). The wildcard character represents a substring of zero or more characters. Note that using the wildcard character at the beginning of search text (IE. *dee,C) may cause longer response times.

More on searching by name

The last name must be specified first, optionally followed by a first name. If you use a comma (",") to separate the last name from the first name, then the last name is assumed to be the full last name (e.g. McDonald,R). If you want to specify only part of the last name, then either use a blank space to separate the last name from the first name (e.g. McDon R), or use a wildcard character in the last name before specifying the "," (e.g. McDon*,R).

For example, suppose you want to search for an employee by the name of Frank Santiago.

  • Any of the following will find him:
    • santiago,f
    • santiago
    • sant
    • sant F
    • sant*,F
  • The following will not find him:
    • sant,f

Advanced search

The advanced search form allows you more control, allows you more options to search by, and allows you to search on multiple fields simultaneously. However, note that what you type is used explicitly for an exact match. This means that if you want to do a wildcard search you must add the wildcards (*s). For example, if you just put a "D" in the "Last name" field, it will not find anyone named John Doe. This is different from the search bar where "D" would have found John Doe. With advanced search, you must explicitly type "D*" to find someone named John Doe.

Example of an advanced search:

  • Last name: doe
  • First name: j*
  • Email: jdoe@us.ibm.com

Viewing the results

IBM Telephone Directory will return a listing of all matches to your search, provided the list does not exceed the maximum search size set up by the application administrator. If a search returns more than one match, select the one that most closely matches the listing you are looking for. Click on the person's name to lookup all of that individual's directory information. You can send the individual a note by clicking on their e-mail address, assuming your browser is properly configured to send e-mail. Some browsers do not have an e-mail client so this function will not work on such browsers.

For more information on search entries, see Work with additional functions.