Overview

SmartSearch is an alpha feature designed for clients managing large datasets. It enables near real-time search capabilities, significantly speeding up list view performance across high volumes of data. This guide covers what SmartSearch is, how to enable it, and what to expect once it's active.

Note: SmartSearch is still under active development and will change as we move toward a beta release. Currently, it supports only Level 1 list views, and the list view rendering options differ from standard options. We plan to add support for Organizations and Users, Level 2 and 3s records as well as Reports in a future release.

What is SmartSearch?

When SmartSearch is enabled, a flattened version of your Level 1 data is indexed in a cluster. The data is divided into shards and distributed across multiple nodes for horizontal scalability. This architecture enables users to search hundreds of thousands of records within seconds.

As records are updated in your system, changes are synced and reindexed periodically in the SmartSearch cluster.

How to Enable SmartSearch

Note: SmartSearch must be enabled by the SmartSimple team. It is only available to select clients with large volumes of data currently. After SmartSearch is enabled within your system by the SmartSimple team, you must also enable it using a single system-wide toggle.

Once Enabled

Go to Global Settings > System tab.
Under System Performance Options, toggle on Enable SmartSearch for List Views.
Click the Reindex button that appears.

Clicking the Reindex button triggers the initial indexing of your data to the SmartSearch cluster. The time required depends on the volume of data. Once clicked, the button will become disabled (greyed out).

Note:

Do not reindex repeatedly. Only reindex if the initial process was interrupted (example, server became unavailable).

Data updates are automatically indexed. If updates don’t appear after some time, perform a batch update on affected records to re-trigger indexing.

You should exclude specific fields from indexing, specifically fields with large data volumes. Specifically fields of type Special - JSON.

What to Expect with SmartSearch Enabled

Supported List Views: Only the main UTA Level 1 list view page and portal list views of level 1 records are supported. Support for other areas where a Level 1 list view may be rendered such as the consumer provider sub-list is not supported. Other record list views not currently supported include Level 2, Level 3, Organizations, and Users.

Changes in List View Behavior

Appearance & Layout

The View Style is fixed to List and other options are not supported.

The following options are not supported View Style including Grid and Tree Options, Card View Style (Mobile/Grid), Card View Image Field, Fit Image to Frame and List View Options. These configuration options will be hidden and ignored when SmartSearch is enabled.

The status pill and navigation buttons have a new look.

The view style of list views will be updated. All list views will now appear in the List style. The look of pagination buttons will be updated, and if the color-coded status column is enabled, its appearance will also be updated.

Default Buttons, Open and Quick Edit

The Open and Quick Edit buttons are always visible in the first column (after the checkbox and count). The Default Buttons option is toggled on and hidden, and the Open button is enabled by default.
The Quick Edit button will need to be reconfigured after SmartSearch is enabled in order to use that feature.

Default buttons are required, and an Open button will appear in the first column, regardless of the original list view configuration. If you want to include a Quick Edit button, it will need to be reconfigured using the default button settings.

Record Counts

Record counts are controlled by the new “Index Column” toggle in list view settings.

Any custom configuration in the Columns tab is ignored.

The visibility of record counts is now managed by a toggle in the list view settings and will always be displayed in the first column

Type Colors

The Type icon will display its defined color, and the left color bar will display the defined Status color for each record. . The Color Code Based On setting is hidden.

The color bar will display the Status color and the Type icon will be displayed in the Type color.

Data Display

Only Level 1 data is shown.

Data from related or associated records will not appear.

Display Text and Variable fields are not supported in SmartSearch list views.

Media Library

Fields using Multiple File Upload with Media Library will render like regular multiple file upload fields.

Proximity Search

Proximity search is not supported. Map-based record rendering and searching are unavailable with SmartSearch. The Proximity Search tab is hidden.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why don’t I see all my data in the list view?

SmartSearch only supports Level 1 records. Fields like display text or variable fields are not included.

Why is some of my data not up to date?

Data is updated near real-time, but may take a few minutes. If changes don’t appear after 10 minutes, try a batch update to trigger reindexing for affected records. Do not click Reindex as it will index your entire system again.

Why didn’t all my data get indexed?

Check for fields with large content (e.g. Special - JSON) and exclude them from SmartSearch before reindexing. These fields can prevent complete indexing due to the amount of data.