What is a Search Field?

Search Fields transform how your team finds and analyzes integration data—empowering business users with self-service search capabilities across all your systems. No coding required. No waiting for developers. Just instant access to the information you need.

Imagine being able to:

• Find any order, invoice, or transaction across all your integration systems in seconds
• Track the complete journey of a business transaction from start to finish
• Click directly from logs into your business systems for deeper investigation
• Let business users search and troubleshoot without IT involvement
• Add new search criteria to existing data—even years after it was logged
• Group related messages (orders, invoices, shipments) together automatically

Search Fields make this possible by extracting searchable values from your integration messages—automatically, flexibly, and without requiring any changes to your existing systems.

A Search Field applies to Log Events in all Log Databases and selected Message Types.

Why Search Fields are a Game-Changer

Empower Your Business Users

Stop bottlenecking your IT team with data requests. With Search Fields, business users can:

• Search for customer orders, invoices, or any business entity instantly
• Filter and drill down using familiar business terms (Order ID, Customer Number, Invoice Date)
• Answer their own questions without technical knowledge or database access

Real-World Example: Your customer service team can instantly find all messages related to Order #12345 across SAP, your e-commerce platform, and shipping systems—without calling IT.

Complete End-to-End Tracking

See the full story of every business transaction:

• Track an order from placement → fulfillment → invoicing → shipping
• Correlate messages across different systems and formats (XML, EDI, JSON, flat files)
• Group related messages together, even if they came from completely different systems

Real-World Example: Track a purchase order that arrives as XML from a supplier, gets processed in your ERP as EDI, and triggers warehouse notifications in JSON—all connected by a single Order Number search field.

Jump to External Systems with Search Field Links

Bridge the gap between Nodinite and your business applications—Search Field Links let users click directly from integration data into external systems for deeper investigation. Turn extracted values into actionable hyperlinks.

How it works:

• Configure a Search Field with a URL template (e.g., your logistics system, CRM, or ERP)
• The extracted value (transport booking number, customer ID, order number) becomes a clickable link
• Users click to jump directly to the relevant record in the external system
• No manual copy-pasting, no switching contexts—instant navigation

Business Benefits:

• Faster problem resolution: From integration logs to business system details in one click
• Seamless workflows: No context switching between systems
• Empowered users: Business teams can self-serve without knowing system URLs or query syntax
• Reduced errors: Eliminate manual data entry when investigating issues

Real-World Example: A customer service rep finds a failed shipment notification in Nodinite. The transport booking number "TRN-2024-12345" is a clickable link. One click opens the logistics system showing full shipment details, carrier information, and tracking status—enabling immediate action without IT support.

Common Use Cases:

• Transport/Logistics: Link booking numbers to freight management systems
• E-commerce: Connect order numbers to order management or CRM systems
• Finance: Link invoice numbers to ERP or accounting systems
• Customer Service: Connect customer IDs to CRM platforms
• Warehouse: Link shipment IDs to warehouse management systems
• Supplier Management: Connect supplier codes to procurement portals

Search Field Links transform Nodinite from a monitoring tool into a business intelligence hub—connecting all your systems through intelligent, contextual navigation.

Add Search Criteria Anytime—Even Retroactively

You can add new Search Fields to existing historical data:

• Need to search by Customer ID? Add it now and apply it to all past messages
• Business process changed? Create new search criteria without re-logging data
• Compliance audit requires new reporting? Add fields retroactively

Real-World Example: Six months after go-live, finance needs to track VAT numbers. Add a VAT Number search field and re-index—now you can search all historical messages by VAT number.

How It Works (Simple Explanation)

Search Fields work in three simple steps:

1. Messages arrive from your integrations (XML, EDI, JSON, flat files, etc.)
2. Search Field Expressions automatically extract business values (Order ID, Customer Number, etc.)
3. Values are stored as searchable fields—available across all Log Views
4. Users search and filter using familiar business terms

No-Code Configuration

The best part? Setting up Search Fields is point-and-click simple:

• Choose a Message Type (e.g., "Purchase Orders")
• Select an extraction method (e.g., "XPath" for XML, "RegEx" for EDI)
• Define what to extract (e.g., "Order/OrderNumber")
• Done! The field is now searchable

12+ built-in Search Field Expression plugins for common formats—no coding required.

Example: One "Order Number" Search Field extracts from both XML (using XPath) and EDI (using RegEx) across different Message Types.

Key Concepts:

• The actual values come from Log Events (payload, context properties, or fields)
• Search Fields have one or more Search Field Expressions that extract values for matching Message Types
• Any number of Search Field Expressions can be set for a given Search Fields
• More than one value can be extracted from a Search Field Expression, which is useful for batches or messages with multiple entities (like multiple orders)
• Search Field Expressions are .NET plugins included as part of Core Services

Technical Capabilities

Flexible Value Extraction:

• Extract from Message Body (payload) or Context Properties (metadata)
• Multiple values per message (perfect for batch messages with multiple orders)
• Support for all common formats: XML, JSON, EDI, Flat Files, CSV, and more

Built-in Expression Types:

• XPath - Navigate XML documents
• RegEx - Pattern matching for any text format
• JSON Path - Query JSON structures
• Flat File parsers - CSV, fixed-width, delimited files
• Message Context - Extract from metadata/headers
• Formula - Combine multiple expressions

Test in Real-Time:

The Web Client provides a built-in test bench where you can:

• Test Search Field Expressions against real logged messages
• See extracted values instantly
• Validate before applying to production data

Tests are performed in real-time in the background by the Logging Service. This ensures your tests work with real data during processing and re-processing (re-indexing).

Re-Index Historical Data:

Any logged message can be reprocessed (re-indexed) at any time:

• Add new Search Fields to existing messages—even years old
• No need to re-log or re-process integrations
• Re-index by Message Type with a single click

If old data already exists and you want to search according to new Search Fields settings, a user-initiated re-index operation must be executed. The re-index operation is based on Message Type.

Support & Maintenance Benefit: Find messages based on new criteria—even at a very late stage. You don't need to know, design, or code in advance!

Key Takeaways

For Business Users:

• Search across all your integration systems using familiar business terms
• No technical knowledge required—just search like you would in Google
• Self-service access means faster answers and less waiting
• Click through to external systems—no manual copy-pasting or URL building

For IT Teams:

• No coding required for standard formats (XML, JSON, EDI, CSV)
• Add new search criteria anytime—even retroactively to old data
• Built-in test bench validates expressions before deployment
• Reduce support burden with self-service capabilities
• Configure Search Field Links to connect Nodinite with any business system

For the Organization:

• Better visibility into integration flows and business processes
• Faster troubleshooting and issue resolution
• Improved compliance and audit capabilities
• Future-proof—add new requirements without re-engineering
• Seamless system integration—Nodinite becomes your central hub connecting all applications

Next steps

Ready to create your first Search Field?

• Add or manage Search Field - Step-by-step guide to create Search Fields
• Add or manage Message Types - Define which message types to extract from
• Add or manage Log View - Configure views that use your Search Fields

Related topics

Learn more about Search Fields and related concepts:

• Search Field Expressions - Deep dive into extraction methods
• Search Fields Overview - Complete Search Fields documentation
• Repository Model - Understanding Message Types and configuration
• Message Type Overview - How message types work
• Logging Service - The engine behind Search Field processing

Search Fields power advanced features:

• Non-Events Monitoring - Uses Search Fields to track message volumes, thresholds, and patterns
• Business Process Modeling (BPM) - Uses Search Fields to correlate and track transactions across process steps
• Log Views - Uses Search Fields for filtering, grouping, and searching historical events