Search in the Admin Portal

FileCloud's Federated Search

In the Admin Portal, FileCloud includes a federated search that looks for matches in file names, folder names, file content, and metadata. It is also capable of searching for complex strings using regular expressions.

The ability to search the entire FileCloud system for files and folders is available in FileCloud Server version 17.3 and later.

The PCRE search is available in FileCloud Version 21.1 and higher.

As an administrator, you may need to find a file or folder quickly in a large data set.
  • FileCloud supports searching the entire FileCloud system for files and folders with the Federated Search feature. 
  • The search may be a basic file or folder name search.
  • Search results may contain matches from both managed storage and network folders.
  • Search results can be downloaded, and if applicable, previewed.
  • Search results cannot be copied, moved or deleted.



A basic search searches for the search term in file and folder names, and if content search is enabled, in the content of files.

The following procedure assumes that you have enabled full content search for documents.

To perform a basic search on the entire site:

  1. From the left navigation panel of the Admin Portal, under Misc., click Federated Search.
  2. On the search screen, in the search box, type the search term and press enter.
    Files and folders with the search term in their names as well as files containing text that contains the search term are listed as search results. Text in files containing the search terms is shown.

An advanced search lets you search on the search term and any of the options shown and listed below:

Advanced search boxSearch options

Term - (required) The string to search for.

Scope - Which content to search.

All - File and folder names if content search is not enabled. File and folder names and content in files when content search is enabled. See All search, below.

Name Only - File and folder names only. See Name only search, below.

Content Only - Content in files only. See Content only search, below.

Metadata - Content stored in metadata fields only. You must define conditions to search for instead of entering a search term. See Metadata search, below. 

PII - Personally identifiable information in content only. You must select a PII type instead of entering a search term. See PII and PCRE searches, below.

PCRE - Only appears when the PCRE mode setting is enabled. Searches on regular expressions. See PII and PCRE searches, below.

Search Type - Options are All files/folders, Files Only, and Folders Only. Not applicable for Metadata search.

Path Selection - Either All or Selected. If Selected is chosen, Selected Path is enabled for you to enter a path. 

Selected Path - When Selected is chosen for Path Selection, this is enabled. Enter the path to search on.

Date - Range of Last Modified dates to search on.

Results Count - Number of results to return. Choose Limit 50 or All. Use Limit 50 to reduce lengthy search times. 

Use Cache Results - When checked, this returns any saved results of the same search instead of performing the search again. This gives you faster results but does not take into account changes since the previous search.

All search

All is selected by default. This search looks for matches in file and folder names when content search is not enabled. It looks for matches in file and folder names and in the content of files when content search is enabled.


Name Only search 

When Name Only is selected, the search only looks for matches in file and/or folder names.

Content Only search

When Content Only is selected, the search only looks for matches in the text of files.

To perform this search, your system must have full content search capability.

Content search hits are returned with the matching string highlighted except in the case of lengthy search results, where omitting highlighting achieves quicker response time.


Metadata search

To perform a metadata search, select Metadata and define a condition specifying the metadata field value that you are searching for. In the example below, the search is configured to look for content with the image orientation field set to horizontal.