Enable or Disable Custom Field Search

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Applies from 2023.3

By default, Alation Search allows you to filter searches by the various fields associated with an object type. Instead of trying to remember the appropriate filters, you can enable custom field search that allows custom field values to be added to the search index. You can then search more naturally for the values you are interested in.

Alation Cloud Service customers can raise a support ticket to have custom field search enabled in their instances.

Note

Enabling custom field search overrides Field Permissions for most custom fields, allowing users to search for custom fields otherwise hidden from them. If you have restricted field visibility, we recommend keeping this feature disabled. However for RTF custom fields, content remains unsearchable if field permissions are set, even if custom field search is enabled.

You enable custom field search by setting the feature flag alation.search.enable_custom_field_search to True with alation_conf as follows:

1. Use SSH to connect to the Alation server.

2. Enter the Alation shell using the following command:

   sudo /etc/init.d/alation shell
   

1. Call alation_conf to set the feature flag:

   alation_conf alation.search.enable_custom_field_search -s True
   

You disable custom field search by setting the feature flag alation.search.enable_custom_field_search to False with alation_conf as follows:

1. Use SSH to connect to the Alation server.

2. Enter the Alation shell using the following command:

   sudo /etc/init.d/alation shell
   

1. Call alation_conf to set the feature flag:

   alation_conf alation.search.enable_custom_field_search -s False