Search functionality

[JenniferMiklasz]

Hi, Can anyone or Workfront tell me why the search functionality stopped performing at 100% and why it won't be correct until Early 2020? Before users could search for a document and they could find it without a problem, and now that doesn't always work. This is a bit challenging for our users. We do have possible workarounds, but they're not perfect. Any ideas or solutions would be appreciated. thanks Jennifer Jennifer Miklasz

[RobertDy]

I would like to know this too. The search functionality seems to be completely unreliable at the moment. After speaking with our customer reps, we are hearing that there is no ETA on a fix at the moment. It has really shocked me that such a vital part of Workfront is no longer working and it doesn't seem a major priority to fix it. It's really making life difficult for us. This is making adoption of Workfront impossible. Robert Dyson

[ljanz]

We have just noticed how it isn't working for us either. I didn't realize it was widespread and that it won't be fixed until next year. I did make up a way to search for projects using a report for prompts. It works for our needs. Leah Janz Metro Transit

[AmyPa]

Leah, would you be willing to share this work around that you're using? Amy Pasqualucci Olympus OSSA

[ljanz]

Well I learned of another one this morning. You can use the 'Advanced Search' as that still works. The work around is just a request report that I made that has prompts for Project Owner, Entry date, Project Name, Department, Completion Date, and reference number. Pretty simple, but let me know if you need more info.

[AmyPa]

This is definitely helpful. I've relayed this workaround to my team. Thank you! Amy Pasqualucci Olympus OSSA

[DavidCo3]

Hi @Dustin Martin - perhaps you can share this thread with some of the Customer Experience managers at Workfront. I'm not personally experiencing these search issues right now (though we have in the past) but it seems concerning that a number of customers are losing faith in what is a pretty core part of any system. Perhaps this problem hasn't been prioritised correctly at Workfront's end? Regards, David David Cornwell

[EXP_-_DustinMa]

Hi David, Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I've conferred with our internal folks, and found there is an escalated request in for some customers on cluster 3. We are working on fixing the issues for those that have reported search problems, and are also finishing up building our new search. I do not have an ETA on either, though I know the search problems are being fixed as quickly as we can. I personally hope to see the new Search rolled out within the first half of 2020, hopefully the first quarter of 2020, and am excited to see where it takes us. If anyone has problems with search, I'd ask you to confirm that you can find the object via going to Advanced Search, or even specifying the object type (select the magnifying glass and choose Task for example) and then opening a support request with a screenshow showing the results page, the query, and the actual object itself (with the URL so we can get the ID from it.) Thanks! Dustin Martin Assigned Support Engineer Workfront

[VicAl]

I hope I'm wrong but I fail to see the urgency. Feels like the general attitude from WF is – "here's your workaround, see you sometime in 2020". That doesn't seem acceptable. This is a big deal. While it's easy for us to say use the Advanced Search, there are two problems with this workaround: It forces you to specify an object. Sometimes they don't know the object. Sometimes they want to see all objects related to the search. Some of our users don't know what an object is. And that's intentional. We're trying to keep it as simple as possible in some of the workflows we've given them. Simply put the product is broken and giving inaccurate and even false results. The integrity of the system is compromised which impacts our customers and their view of your product for adoption or expansion. It's difficult to champion a broken product.

[EXP_-_DustinMa]

Hey Vic, Thanks for the thorough response. I get it, it's not ideal. I might be jumping a bit too far out of my circle, so keep in mind this is the information that I have at this point in time, and is not reflective of Workfront as a whole. The main source of this issue is based on those customers on cluster 3. We had a problem that was found after we migrated from our legacy datacenters (DCs) to the new cloud hosting platform (Amazon Web Services, AKA AWS.) The fix is that we have to go through and re-index every object, every detail, everything in Workfront, for cluster 3. This unfortunately takes time. I'm not sure who was telling people wait until next year, as that's not entirely accurate. We've been working through the reindex since before Thanksgiving. We're still working through reindexing data. There is a massive amount of data on cl03, and it uses Encryption At Rest, which does impact the performance there, but is more secure. I do not as of right now have an ETA on when the entire server cluster will be reindexed. I know we're going in batches so we can keep an eye on the process and make sure we correct any issues we see along the way. We just had a batch start a reindex around 10am MST this morning. Now, as for why I say that waiting until next year isn't entirely accurate... we are building our new search. Right now it's waiting on 2 core components to be completed before we can start beta testing it. Internal tests though? Amazing. Much better than the current search, and much more reliable. I would guess that we'll likely see beta for the new search just prior to the 20.1 release early next year. That however, doesn't mean that we won't continue to work on making sure that the current search works, but because each scenario may be slightly different, we ask that anyone seeing problems with search submit a support request. To make your request go faster, please include the search term, a screenshot of the results, who the user searching for the object is, and a direct link to the object. This helps us ensure that we have everything we need to escalate if necessary, or link it to an existing escalated ticket. Thanks for you understanding! Dustin Martin Assigned Support Engineer Workfront

[VicAl]

Thank Dustin. That does help. There were several posts (including yours) that seemed to indicate we'd have to wait for the new one because the fix was too large. Based on your description here I can understand how people would think that. I'm relieved that WF is working on a solution and not just waiting on the new search. Thank you again [stepping away from the ledge 😊 ].

[EXP_-_DustinMa]

Hey Vic, Quick update on my guesstimated timelines for the new search. We might not actually be ready for 20.1 since the ETA is Q1 of 2020... it might be after. Again, nothing set in stone, and we don't want to release something half-baked.. we want search to work . Thanks again! Dustin Martin Assigned Support Engineer Workfront

[VicAl]

Thanks Dustin. Yeah I'm not worried about rushing the new search. I'd prefer to get the old search working, then you can take your time with the new search 😊 .

[Ryan_McGee]

Am I dreaming, or did it suddenly start working again? Ryan McGee

[VicAl]

No you're not dreaming, they fixed it (mostly). It's much better. I did just discovered an issue when you filter by a date range. It basically ignores the date range (so you get everything ). They know about it and asked if we can wait for the new search functionality which they expect to come out in a few months. I was ok with that since at least we're getting results now. And we don't use the date range filter all that often.

[JenniferMiklasz]

This does't seem to be working for my users. If they are searching for a reference #, it doesn't show up for them. A real hindrance when they are trying to find previous documents so they update them. Jennifer Jennifer Miklasz

[VicAl]

Hi Jennifer, Sorry to hear that. I haven't heard that from my users lately, so I was assuming it was fixed. I know the workaround is supposed to be to have them use the Advanced Search, which last I knew was working pretty well. They might try that for the time being.