Searching Your History

Overview
Creative Commons License: CC-BY Questions:
  • How can you find your datasets?

  • How to search by file type?

  • What filters are available to you?

Objectives:
  • Feel confident in searching your history

Time estimation: 5 minutes
Level: Introductory Introductory
Supporting Materials:
Published: Jul 15, 2020
Last modification: Nov 16, 2023
License: Tutorial Content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The GTN Framework is licensed under MIT
purl PURL: https://gxy.io/GTN:T00158
rating Rating: 4.0 (0 recent ratings, 1 all time)
version Revision: 4

Basic Searching

You can filter what datasets are shown and search for datasets using the search bar at the top of the panel. Enter any text that a dataset you’d be looking for would contain, including:

  • the name or part of the name
  • any text (or partial text) from the info field
  • the file format or reference database
  • any text or partial text from the annotation or tags of a dataset

For example:

  • To find all vcf files you might enter: vcf alone.
  • To find all files whose names contain data 1, you can enter: data 1
  • To search for a VCF file named ‘VCF filter on data 1’ and tagged with ‘experiment_1’, you could enter: vcf filter on data 1 experiment_1

You can clear a search and show all visible datasets by clicking the ‘X’ button in the right end of the search bar or - while entering text in the search bar - hitting the escape key (‘Esc’).

Advanced Searching

You can also specify dataset properties that you want to filter on. If you search with multiple properties, these are connected with ANDs, so datasets must match all provided attributes. Here are some examples of filters you can use:

Query Results
name:'FASTQC on' Any datasets with “FASTQC on” in the title, but avoids items which have “FASTQC on” in other fields like the description or annotation.
extension:vcf Datasets with a specific format. Some formats are hierarchical, e.g. searching for fastq will find fastq files but also fastqsanger and fastqillumina files. You can see more formats in the upload dialogue.
tag:experiment1 tag:to_publish for searching on (a partial) dataset tag. You can repeat to search for more tags.
hid:4 The specific item with history item ID 4 (based on the ordering in the history) (This is also a ranged filter, so hid>4 will return all history items with ID greater than 4)
related:10 Datasets “related to” (inputs/outputs for) a dataset with specific history item ID (based on the ordering in the history)
state:error To show only datasets in a given state. Other options include ok, running, paused, new, etc. (Click on the dropdown to see all options)

If you find normal searching is showing too many datasets, and not what you’re looking for, try the advanced search! Just use the galaxy-advanced-search button next to the search field to show the advanced selector.