Getting Acquainted with OmniSearch

Fullstory captures everything*

*That is, Fullstory captures everything except sensitive data that you exclude from capturing. It’s important to note that when the simple piece of Fullstory JavaScript loads, every object, page event and interaction is automatically captured and indexed for search. This means you can ask any question about any button or form field without having to add additional code to identify or tag anything.

Getting started with search

Virtually anything about a user session is indexed, making search one of Fullstory’s most powerful features. Fullstory captures all the granular data that exists on the periphery of a session (for example: browser, IP location, time of visit, referrer URL, UTM parameters, etc.) and allows you to search for any combination of those attributes. We also capture everything that renders in the browser and events therein, such as clicks, page navigations, field changes, typed text, and more. 

To begin asking questions of your data, simply start typing in the OmniSearch box in your left-hand sidebar. 

Once you click in the search field, you'll see links that enable you to jump straight to your most recently viewed segments, dashboards, and metrics. You'll also see a quick launch search menu of different user and event filters available for segmenting your data.

Try typing anything and you'll instantly be given suggestions that match your typed characters. For example, if you'd like information about your Checkout page, start typing `C h e...` . We'll intelligently surface the top search hits for various fields that contain those characters, and then you can click on the one that matches your intent. 

Key features of OmniSearch

Once you select a filter from OmniSearch, you can further refine your filter using a scoped query. Scoped queries let you get precisely the result you want. If you are looking for "Rage Clicks" you may want to be more specific, such as looking for frustrated users in your checkout flow. Use the refine event icon to add a scope to your query.  In this example, we've constrained our search to only those Rage Clicks that occurred on the Cart page:

URL search allows you to narrow down the sessions where a user visited a specific URL. Using an event filter allows you to specify different components of the URL such as host, path, query, and fragment. You also have the option to adjust the criteria using filters like “is," “starts with,” or "matches" if you want to broaden your search. 

Here’s an example URL with each component specified: 

URL: https://www.fullstory.com/path/example?query=123#section-fragment

• host: https://www.fullstory.com

• path: /path/example

• query: query=123

• fragment: section-fragment

Referrer URL is also available as an additional criteria to add a scope to your query. For example, you may be interested in sessions where your users arrived on a product page from a search. Each of these additional options allows you to search for and discover sessions that are most relevant to what you’re interested in. 

Date & Time constraints let you narrow down your custom search to a particular period of time, such as only results from last week, or the day you introduced a new feature. You can also add time constraints to the custom date fields using the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM. Note that we'll always respect your account's retention settings when displaying results. 

If you are creating Segment using User Filters and Event Filters, each time you add a new constraint, Fullstory will update the user count below your search. User count shows you the percentage of users who match your search out of the total number of visitors to your site or mobile application. This number will show at the bottom of the search query–right above your session playlist–and will update each time you modify your search.

CSS selectors

One of Fullstory’s most powerful features is its ability to automatically index every resource that loads in the browser, making those elements searchable based on their CSS selector.

Every element on your page has a CSS selector (either an object type, class or ID) that identifies that object in the Document Object Model (or “DOM”). If you're unsure what a CSS selector is or how to find it, the best way is to use our Inspect tool. 

Using Segments to Save a Search

Save a segment

Once you've zeroed in on your desired sessions, save your search by using the 'Save segment...' button. You'll get a pop up menu that asks you to enter a name for your segment. 

Once you have saved a segment, you will then have access to the segment options at the top right. This menu bar will allow you to rename a segment, duplicate a segment so you don't have to start from scratch, or archive an old segment. You can also add the selected segment to your e-mail digest or create an alert.

Your Segments and Team Segments

Your segments will be saved in the Library, and you can find them by clicking Library > Segments in your sidebar. "Star" any important segments so you can easily find them again later. Some convenient segments have already been created and starred for you by default.