The Advanced Search app

Plan requirement

Subscription Any plan
Access Admin

A tool for building complex search queries against tickets by filling in a form rather than writing search syntax. Results come back as a table, and you can choose which columns are shown or export the lot as a CSV file.

Use it

  1. Install the app and restrict it to the groups that need it.
  2. Open it from the agent interface.
  3. If your account has a lot of groups or organisations, wait about 20 seconds after opening before you search.
  4. Build the query in the form, pick your columns, and read the table or export it.

That waiting step is documented rather than folklore: the app loads those lists first, and searching too early is why a colleague gets no results from a query that works for you.

What it can search

Ticket fields, plus custom user fields and custom organisation fields addressed by the key that identifies them. Custom fields are searchable by keywords only, so a query that needs an exact value on a custom field is not what this is for.

Saving a search is not part of this app

Zendesk's own search does that: you can save up to 20 searches on the Search page in Support, and they are stored in your browser. Being stored in the browser means they do not follow the person to another machine and they are not shared with anybody.

Which leads to the distinction that matters. A saved search is a lookup you repeat; a view is a shared, ordered work queue. Using a saved search where a view belongs means the work exists only on one person's screen, and nobody else can see whether it is being done.

Restrict it, and learn the syntax anyway

Agents who do not need it get another panel on their screen, so this is a good example of an app to install for one group rather than the account. Second line, escalations and anybody handling recurring customers benefit; somebody working a single view all day does not.

And the search syntax is still worth learning. The form is faster for the queries it covers, and the syntax is the only route to the ones it does not.

See also

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