This guide will help you get familiar with common search use cases commonly seen in Slack. Need help finding specific channels or direct messages by a particular user? We've got your back. We recommend getting familiar with our search capabilities to get the most out of your search experience in Onna.

• Basic Search

• Search Modifiers

• Advanced Search

Download/View search templates
Here's a list of useful templates that you can add to Onna. Although they are specific to Slack, you may find these helpful for any source you are searching across.

• [Template] - Custodian(s) - all messages within date range

• [Template] - Custodian and all private messages

• [Template] - Single Custodian, all messages

• [Template] - Terms across archive

Save it as a template
If you’re frequently running searches using the same metadata fields, consider creating templates that can be reused and modified as needed.

Common Advanced Search Questions

Below are some of the more common questions/use cases we get asked when searching across a Slack instance. As mentioned previously, although these are specific to Slack, you'll find these templates helpful for any source you're performing a search.

For a short video overview of the common advanced search use cases, please see below:

How do I search for all conversations between custodians with a specified date range while including attachments?

To search for all conversations between custodians between a given date range, you would require the following metadata fields.

• Related Usernames (Only conversations where the user was active will be returned)

• Conversation Type

• Parent Workspace Name

• File Creation Date

Configuration

• Set  Related User Names to contains the user(s) you wish to include. For multiple users, you must set each one as a separate line as pictured above.

• Set Conversation type to Is Set to include all conversation types found in Slack. 

• Set Parent Workspace Name  to contains  the workspace(s) you'd like to search across or leave blank if you're searching across your entire instance.

• Set the File Creation Date to before or after a specified date. If you would like to search between two dates, then you would need to have two file creation date criteria with each.

We will collect all data from related users where the user in question has participated or mentioned in the conversation.

How do I search for all private conversations between custodians (active) while capturing dates and attachments?

To search for all private conversations between custodians, you will require the following metadata fields.

• Related Usernames (Only conversations where the user was active will be returned)

• Conversation Type

• Parent Workspace Name

Configuration

• Set  Related User Names to contains the user you wish to include.

• Set Conversation type to contains to only private conversations you would like to include. For Slack, this would be DMS and if applicable, mpim, groups, and channels.

• Set Parent Workspace Name to contains the workspace(s) you'd like to search across or leave blank if you're searching across your entire instance.

We will collect all data from related users where the user in question has participated or mentioned in the conversation.

How do I search for all private and channel conversations made by a single custodian (active) while capturing attachments?

To search for all private and channel messages made by a single custodian, you would require the following metadata fields.

• Related Usernames (Only conversations where the user was active will be returned)

• Conversation Type

• Parent Workspace Name

Configuration

• Set  Related User Names to contains the user you wish to include.

• Set Conversation type  to Is Set to include all conversation types found in Slack. 

• Set Parent Workspace Name to contains  the workspace(s) you'd like to search across or leave blank if you're searching across your entire instance.

We will collect all data from related users where the user in question has participated or mentioned in the conversation.

How do I search for a specific term(s) across all private and public messages?

To search for a specific term(s) across your entire Slack instance, you would require the following metadata fields.

• Extracted Text

• Conversation Type

• Parent Workspace Name

Configuration

• Set Extracted Text to contains the terms you are looking for separated by a comma. Alternatively, you can take advantage of our wildcard search using Regular Expression instead of contains as the operator, and placing a period and the asterisk (.*) at the beginning, middle or end of a word to look for all results that include the specified term plus any letters for any number of times in place of the wildcard. You can also perform a proximity search to find words within a certain distance of each other as a criterion. You can learn more about wildcard and proximity search through our how-to advanced search article.

• Set Conversation type to Is Set to include all conversation types found in Slack. 

• Set Parent Workspace Name to contains the workspace(s) you'd like to search across or leave blank if you're searching across your entire instance.

Learn more about search capabilities in Onna through our Help Center, or contact support if you have a specific use case you'd like to inquire about.