Keyword Queries

OWL Keyword Searches

Keyword search in OWL enables users to query the entire organizational OWL database using a single keyword. This includes all record types—documents, extracted and imported data, structured and unstructured query data—ensuring a comprehensive search across the system. When a keyword is entered, OWL scans the database and retrieves all matching records and relevant information, significantly reducing investigation time and enhancing accuracy. 

Example: If a user inputs a phone number like “5123334444,” OWL intelligently analyzes it and returns associated products or records linked to that keyword. 

Steps to perform a keyword search: 

1. Go to the Home Page.
2. Click on Query Data located in the header. A menu will appear displaying all available search types. 
3. Click on the Keyword search. 

You will be redirected to the keyword search page. 

You can also come directly to the keyword page from the Home page by entering the criteria in the Keyword field on the keyword search box, and click on the Search button. 

4. Enter the keyword that you want to search against the OWL Datasource. The keyword could be any data that can be associated with the organization's attributes. 

For example, 

• Name 

• SSN 

• Phone Number 

• Address 

• Date of Birth 

• Social media username 

• Email Address 

Once you have entered your keyword into the keyword field. The Submit button will be enabled. 

5. Click on the Submit button. Now, the OWL system will analyze the submitted keyword and attempt to map it first with the OWL attributes. For example, if you have entered a person's name. 

Let's say “Jon Doe”. Now this will map with attributes like FirstName: Jon and LastName: Doe. Keyword: Jon Doe 

Keyword: jon.doe@gmail.com 

If the mapped attribute or suggested attribute by OWL does not match your expectation, then there is an option to edit and change the attribute manually from the available list. To do that, click on the edit icon next to the Search variables and select a new attribute or value. 

You can manually add more attributes to your keyword search by clicking on the Add More Attributes button. This will allow you to select new attributes from the list of available attributes. 

Once you have selected the attributes and the respective keywords, click on the Resubmit button to fetch the available OWL products and enable the Search. 

6. Now, select/unselect the OWL products from the list. Whatever products you select here will go under a deep keyword search based on the attributes selected. 

7. To view the OWL search response after performing a keyword search, you need to select the appropriate result screen views from the available options in OWL. These views determine how the search results are displayed and what type of data is emphasized. 

8. As per the compliance guideline defined by your organization admins, select the compliance that are required or optional, such as Retention Policy, Data Access Rights, and/or industry-specific regulations such as 28 CFR part 23.

9. If you are working under multiple departments in an organization, then you need to select a Department from the department dropdown from where you want this search to happen. 

Once you select a department, all cases and subjects either created by you or shared with you will appear in the respective dropdown menus. Choose the Case and Subject you want to associate with the search. If you select a Subject before choosing a Case, the search will be linked to a subject that isn’t tied to any case. If you select a Case first, the Subject dropdown will update to show only the subjects associated with that case. The Collaborators and Case Name fields will be automatically populated based on the selected case. 

• Alternatively, you can choose not to associate this search with an existing record. These are referred to as orphan searches (see below).

When you select search compliance and also select Case/Subject, then before searching, there is a checkbox to give precedence to the search compliance over Case/Subject compliance. 

Once you have selected all the mandatory fields that are required for the search, the search button will be enabled. 

10. Click on the Search button to initiate the keyword search. Once the search completes, you will see the search results on the result screen view with whatever views you have selected previously. 

Keyword search in OWL functions by combining all the attributes you've selected as search variables into a single query. For instance, if you choose First Name, Last Name, and SSN, OWL will merge these into one keyword string and search accordingly. 

Example: 

• First Name: Jon 

• Last Name: Doe 

• SSN: 777-22-4444 

• Keyword: Jon + Doe + 777-22-4444 

OWL will then look for records that match this exact combination. If a record contains only partial matches—such as just the first name or last name—it will not appear in the results. Only complete matches across all selected attributes are considered valid and displayed on the result screen.

Wildcard & Range Searches

Wildcard and range searches are powerful forms of keyword search that enable users to locate partial matches when the exact term is unknown. These search methods allow for flexible and precise querying by leveraging pattern recognition and value intervals, significantly improving the scope and accuracy of results. 

OWL supports wildcard and range searches across various data types, using both partial and exact match techniques: 

• Text: Exact match, prefix, suffix, and contains 

• Boolean: Exact match 

• Date: Exact match, before, after, and date range 

• Time: Exact match, before, after, and time range 

• Date-Time: Exact match, before, after, and range

• Number: Equals, less than, greater than, and range 

• Amount: Equals, less than, greater than, and range 

• Duration: Exact time, before, after, and time range These capabilities make OWL searches highly adaptable to diverse data formats and investigative needs. 

Steps to perform wildcard & range search: 

1. Go to the Home Page. 

2. Click on “Query Data” located in the header. A menu will appear displaying all available search types. 

3. Click on the Keyword search. You will be redirected to the keyword search page.

4. Select the Wildcard & Range tab. You will see the wildcard & range search page. 

5. In the Add Attribute section, click the Attribute dropdown and select or search for the attribute you want to use in your search. 

Based on the attribute data type, OWL decided what kind of wildcard or range search is allowed. For example, if you have selected the First Name attribute, then only the data type that can be searched is “Text”. So, for text, the searches that will be possible are “Exact match, prefix, suffix, and contains”.

6. Select the type of search you want to do by selecting the radio button from all the options. OWL supports multiple keyword matching techniques to enhance search flexibility and accuracy: 

• Exact Match: The full keyword is searched exactly as entered. Example: Searching for Full Name: Jon Doe will look for records containing the exact phrase “Jon Doe” across selected products. 

• Prefix Search: Matches records where the beginning of a field aligns with the keyword. Example: Searching First Name: Jon will return results where the first name starts with “Jon,” such as “Jonathan” or “Jonas.” 

• Suffix Search: Matches records where the end of a field aligns with the keyword. Example: Searching Last Name: Doe will return results where the last name ends with “Doe,” such as “McDoe” or “Doe.” 

• Wildcard (Contains) Search: Matches any record that contains the keyword anywhere within the field. Example: Searching Middle Name: Jon will return results where “Jon” appears anywhere in the middle name, such as “Aljon” or “Jonas.” 

7. After selecting the search type, enter the value that you want to search for in the Attribute Value field. 

8. Click on the Add button to add this attribute to the search attribute. 

9. If you want to add new attributes, click on the Add Attribute button. This will open new attribute fields to be selected. Select an attribute: Age from the person category. Here, the attribute data type is number. 

Search Types available are – 

• Equal To: Searches for records that exactly match the specified value. Example: Age = 50 will return records where age is exactly 50. 

• Less Than: Retrieves records where the attribute value is lower than the specified input. Example: Age < 50 will match records with an age below 50. 

• Greater Than: Retrieves records where the attribute value exceeds the specified input. Example: Age > 50 will match records with an age above 50. 

• Range: Requires two boundary values; records falling within this interval will be matched. Example: Age: [45 TO 60] will extract records. 

For example, if you select an attribute having a Data type category of Date. Now you will see that the search options have changed. 

• Exact Date: Searches for records that exactly match the specified date. 

• Before: Searches for records that happened before the specified date. 

• After: Searches for records that happened after the specified date. 

• Date Range: Searches for records that happened between the specified dates. 

10. When you have selected multiple attributes for the wildcard & range search, you have to select another option, whether you need to do an OR or AND operation between the attributes selected. To do that, you need to select the toggle button present on the top right corner of the selected attributes. 

The AND operation generates a query that combines all selected attributes. A record in OWL will only be retrieved if it matches the complete set of attributes specified. This ensures precise results based on exact attribute combinations. 

In contrast, the OR operation treats each attribute independently. If any single attribute matches a record in OWL, that record will be included in the results. This approach supports broader searches based on individual attribute matches. 

• AND: Requires all selected attributes to match for a result to be returned. 

• OR: Returns results if any one of the selected attributes matches. 

11. Once the attributes are selected, you can select the OWL products that are available for the wildcard & range searches. So far, Docs and Vault products have been enabled for this search. 

Select these products for the search. Once you select the products, you will see the Datasource dropdown for OWLdocs & Vault products. You can select all data sources or any specific data sources from which the search should be conducted. 

12. Select the views from the view options that you need to see the data loaded on the result screen. 

13. As per the compliance guideline defined by your organization admins, select the compliance that are required or optional (Retention Policy, Data Access Rights, 28 CFR part 23, etc.)

14. If you are working under multiple departments in an organization, you will need to select a department from the department dropdown from where you want this search to happen. 

Once you select a department, all cases and subjects either created by you or shared with you will appear in the respective dropdown menus. If desired, choose the Case and Subject you want to associate with the search. If you select a Subject before choosing a Case, the search will be linked to a subject that isn’t tied to any case. If you select a Case first, the Subject dropdown will update to show only the subjects associated with that case. The Collaborators and Case Name fields will be automatically populated based on the selected case.

• Alternatively, you can choose not to associate this search with an existing record. These are referred to as orphan searches (see below).

When you select search compliance and also select Case/Subject, then before searching, there is a checkbox to give precedence to the search compliance over Case/Subject compliance. 

To initiate a wildcard search from a specific vault Datasource, click the “Select Template from OWLvault” button. This will reveal the Datasource field. 

Choose the desired Datasource template for your search. Once selected, all attributes associated with that vault template will automatically populate on the screen—initially without any values. 

15. Once you have selected all the mandatory fields that are required for the search, the Search button will be enabled. 

Click on the Search button to initiate the Wildcard search. Once the search completes, you will see the search results on the result screen view with whatever views you have selected previously. 

OWL Free Text Searches

Most searches in OWL utilize structured data in conjunction with keywords. However, OWL also allows you to perform a free-text search, which works on unstructured data, such as the data extracted by OWL. This type of search looks through both structured and unstructured data to find anything that contains the word or phrase you entered. 

For example, if you search for “Jon”, OWL will look for matches anywhere that word appears—whether it’s inside a sentence, a phrase, or even part of a larger text. 

OWL’s free-text search doesn’t just look for single words—it also supports conditional operators. This means you can combine multiple keywords in one search, separated by operators, to narrow down your results and make them more precise. 

For example, if you enter: 

Orange Theory + Austin 12, 2022 + Shooting in Austin 

OWL will search across both structured and unstructured data to find matches that contain all of those terms together. 

In short, free-text search lets you go beyond simple keywords by building more complex queries that help you find exactly what you’re looking for. 

Operators 

• AND 

• OR 

• + (plus) - considered as AND 

• | (pipe) - considered as OR 

Free Text Search Considerations 

• Words between double quotes (“) should be considered as a single word and should not be split. 

• Any spaces in the Free text should be trimmed (Spaces between words are not to be considered here). Spaces within double quotes should not be trimmed and should be considered as-is received. 

• Currently, only one SINGLE operator in the Free text is supported. e.g., Jon or Doe | Austin 

• Multiple operators in Free text are not supported currently. e.g., Jon and Doe | Austin → and Operator, pipe (which is OR) Operator 

Steps to perform Free Text Search in OWL:

1. Go to the Home Page. 

2. Click on “Query Data” located in the header. A menu will appear displaying all available search types. 

3. Click on the Keyword search. You will be redirected to the keyword search page. 

4. From the keyword page, enter the keyword that you want to search inside the keyword field. 

Once you enter the keyword into the keyword field, the “Free Text Search” checkbox below the keyword field will be enabled. 

5. Click the Free Text Search checkbox. Once selected, all keyword search attribute fields will disappear, and only the OWL product list will be shown. 

6. Choose the OWL products you want to include in your free-text search. 

If you select OWL Docs or Vault products, the Data Sources dropdown will become available. Pick the data sources you want to target. 

7. Select the views where you’d like your search results to appear on the results screen. 

8. Choose the compliance options required for your organization (e.g., Retention Policies, 28 CFR Part 23, Data Access Rights). 

9. From Case Management, select the Case and Subject to link your search to a specific investigation. If it’s not mandatory, you can also run the search without linking to a case/subject. These are referred to as orphan searches (see below).

10. Select the Retain the Search Compliance and Status checkbox to give more precedence to the search compliance over parent record compliances (Case/Subject). 

11. Once all selections are complete, click the Search button to start the free-text search in OWL. A loader will appear while the search runs. When it finishes, the matching information will automatically populate on the results screen. 

Keyword creation with operators: Supported and Unsupported keywords for free text search – 

• Jon (Supported) • “Jon Doe” (Supported) 

• Orange Theory + Austin 12, 2022 + Shooting in Austin (Supported) 

• Orange Theory AND Austin 12, 2022 AND shooting in Austin (Supported) 

• Orange Theory | Austin 12, 2022 | Shooting in Austin (Supported) 

• Orange Theory OR Austin 12, 2022 OR shooting in Austin (Supported) 

• Orange Theory OR Austin 12, 2022 AND shooting in Austin (Not Supported) 

• Orange Theory + Austin 12, 2022 | Shooting in Austin (Not Supported)