Saturday, April 14, 2012

IBM ED Search for Android - Part 3

Shortcuts to starred search results

When the app is launched the list of starred search results is immediately visible. Touching one the entries in the list opens the search result view.

Yet, there is a quicker way to access your most often needed search result(s). This could be the list of members of a bluegroup you frequently need to access in order to call someone.

Android has the concept of shortcuts that can be placed directly on the launcher's home screen. Such a shortcut is able to launch into a specific activity in the app.

You can create a shortcut on the launcher's screen for any starred search result. Tapping the shortcut will immediately load the search result and save a little bit of time when looking up contacts.

To create a shortcut a search result must be starred and thus be available for offline use.

Each launcher has a different but similar method to create a shortcut. Usually, you can either use the menu or long press the launcher's home screen background to create a shortcut. On Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.x) shortcuts can also be created from the Widgets section in the app drawer.



So start to create a shortcut for the IBM ED Search app by dragging the widget to the launcher's home screen.


As soon as the widget is dropped the IBM ED Search app will open an activity to choose the starred search result for which the shortcut is to be created.

On this screen the name of the shortcut can be changed. By default, the value for the name is the same as it is shown in the list of starred search result.

There is also an option to force reloading of the search result when it is opened using the shortcut.



Customize the name if you like and decide whether the result should be reloaded and then tap on one of the entries in the list. This will create the shortcut.


For different kind of search results different icon overlays are used. A shortcut for the members of a bluegroup will have a different icon than the result for a management chain query.


Deleting a shortcut from the launcher will not in any way delete the app or the data that is stored for it.

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