Finding an Entity

The Find Entities panel is where you can search or browse for entities to add to an Excel® worksheet.

You can find entities two ways:

• Navigating within the Data Dictionary hierarchy (Entities tab)
• Searching by tag name (Tag Search tab)

Note: Prior to version 3.3, users were able to view all entities in the Data Dictionary, but could not view the value of or write to entities for which they didn't have permission. From Version 3.3 onwards (with WebAPI v1.5 or later if using P2 Explorer 2.6), users can no longer see the entities which they don't have permission to. Additionally, if users have permission to view the entities, but not the underlying tags, then they won't be able to view the value of or write to those entities.

Navigating within the Data Dictionary

If you know where an entity exists in the Data Dictionary hierarchy, you can browse for it using the entity explorer. To do this:

1. Click the Entities tab.
2. Select a Hierarchy from the drop-down list.
   The task pane is populated with the hierarchies that exist on the P2 Explorer server that you are connected to.
3. Expand the hierarchy to find the entity you're looking for.
4. You can choose a single entity by selecting only one check box, or you can choose multiple entities by selecting several check boxes.

You can also click the Refresh  button to repopulate the list.

Note: If there are no hierarchies found, then it's possible that Security is restricting access to the hierarchies.

Tag Search

You can search for an entity by either clicking on the Tag Search tab in the task pane, or using the Quick Search box on the ribbon.

1. In the search box, type part or all of the name of the entity that you want to search for.
2. Press Enter to start the search.
   A list of entities that match your search string is displayed in the task pane.
3. Select the entities you are interested in. P2 Excel Add-in will retain the selected entities while you search for additional ones.

For example, you may be interested in two entities: Calc.Random.Large and InfiniteLoop.e1. You might first search for "calc" and select the required entity (Calc.Random.Large) from the results. Next, you might search for "infinite". P2 Excel Add-in will remember the selection for Calc.Random.Large, and add the results of the second search underneath the selected entity.

Note: By default, the search is done in "startswith" mode. Specify an asterisk * to the beginning of the search to switch to "contains" mode.