Searching and Browsing the Demo Database
The demo database contains a few thousand items that have been imported to the database from files found in the COMSOL Application Libraries. These are files you can use, for example, to learn how to build models in the COMSOL Desktop modeling environment or use as templates for your own simulation models and applications. This tutorial shows how to use these models and data files as an example of a larger database in which the Model Manager tools for browsing, searching, and organizing items become useful.
The Application Libraries Window in the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual
The Model Manager window lists these models and data files in a table. If you scroll down the table, you will notice that the table only contains the first 100 items in the database sorted alphabetically on their titles. This cutoff is an optimization to not cause unnecessary data traffic between the COMSOL Desktop and the database — something that may be especially important when connected to a Model Manager server over the network.
Click the Show More button () in the toolbar to append the next 100 items to the bottom of the table. You can repeat this as many times as you like until all items found in the database have been appended to the table.
You use the Model Manager window to find models and data files in the database by writing search terms in the text field above the table.
1
Write busbar and click Search. You can also press Enter.
The table is updated to only show the items whose title, description, assigned tags, or filename fields match the word busbar. In this case, the number of search results is less than 100 so the Show More button () is disabled.
2
Write bus and click Search.
The search terms you write in the text field will only match complete words by default. In this case, you get zero results as there are no items with the word bus in the searched fields. You can append a wildcard asterisk character to match words that start with a search term. Write for example bus* to get back the same search result as before.
3
Write electrical heating and click Search.
When you write multiple search terms separated by spaces, the search will match on all terms using Boolean AND-logic. In this case, you find all items for which both the word electrical and the word heating is found in the searched item fields.
Select the Thermal Analysis of a Bipolar Transistor model () in the table. The Settings window updates to show various metadata fields for this model. You will find that the Description field for the model contains the two search words electrical and heating, although not next to each other.
You can require that all search terms must match as a sentence by enclosing the search terms with quotations. Write "electrical heating" in the text field and click Search. The Thermal Analysis of a Bipolar Transistor model () is now no longer present in the search result.
Click the Reset button () to clear the text field and restore the search to match all models and data files in the database.
The Model Manager Window
The default behavior in the Model Manager window is to search the latest versions of items. This is also the version shown in the Settings window when you select a model or data file in the search result table. From the Settings window, you can, for example, see the point in time when the version was saved in the Saved field, the name of the user that saved the version in the Saved by field, and the title of the version in the Title field.
1
Write busbar in the text field again and click Search.
2
Select the Atmospheric Corrosion of a Busbar model () in the search result table.
In the Contents section in the Settings window, you can explore the model tree of the model as it looked when the version was saved to the database. Expand some of the nodes in the tree to discover that this is a model with a 3D component node containing three material nodes and two physics interface nodes.
From the Contents tree, you can insert components, geometry parts, materials, parameters, and many other nodes into the model currently opened in the COMSOL Desktop using the Insert into Model button (). You can also select a node and click Open Node () to open the model with the node selected in the Model Builder window.
3
Select the atmospheric_corrosion_busbar_parameters.txt file () in the search result table.
This is a file containing parameters that can be used in a Parameters node in the Model Builder window. You can double-click the table row in the Model Manager window to preview the data file with the default application used for a text file on your computer. The Settings window shows, for example, the file size when the file is stored on a file system.
4
In the Description field in the Settings window, write Parameters for modeling atmospheric corrosion of a busbar. Click the Save button ().
The Save File dialog box is opened with a suggested save comment.
5
Change the suggested save comment to Updated the file description.
6
Click OK to save the changed description in a new version of the data file.
The Saved and Saved by field are updated in the Settings window to reflect the new latest version. The Model Manager window is, however, not automatically updated. Click the link text informing you that the current search result is out of date at the bottom of the window to refresh the search result.
7
Select busbar_assembly.iam () in the search result table.
This is a fileset, an item containing multiple data files that are version controlled as a collective whole. In this case, the data is a CAD assembly containing a main assembly file and several component files. You can see the file contents of the fileset in the Contents section in the Settings window.
8
Click the Reset button () to reset the search result.
The Settings window is where you primarily view and update items in a Model Manager database. When you click the Save button () in the top toolbar, a new version is saved using the current values found in the various fields in the window. You can, for example, change the title or description of an item, update a model from an MPH-file on your computer, or update the contents of a file or fileset using data files on your computer. The Settings window is also where you update other types of objects found in a database.
The Settings Window
Applying Basic Filters
Writing search terms in the text field in the Model Manager window is often the quickest way of finding a particular model or data file given that you know, for example, its title. As a complement to this, you can apply separate search filters.
1
Click the Add Filter button () in the toolbar of the Model Manager window and select Filename ().
The Filter dialog box is opened enabling you to apply a filter on the filename used by a model or data file when exported to the file system.
2
In the Keyword field, write busbar.mph. Click OK.
The search result contains a single model. Select the model and verify that the Filename field in the Settings window indeed has the expected value.
A filter on a filename must include the file extension to return any matches in the search result. Alternatively, you can use a wildcard in the filter:
1
Click on the busbar.mph filter pill () and select Edit ().
2
In the Keyword field, change to busbar.
3
Select Prefix Match under Options to automatically append a wildcard asterisk character to the searched value. Click OK.
The search result contains multiple models and data files, all with a filename starting with busbar.
4
Click on the busbar* filter pill () and select Remove () to remove the filter.
As you may have previously noticed, writing busbar in the text field and clicking Search () led to a search result containing items that did not have that particular word in their titles. Instead the word busbar was found in the description or assigned tags of the items. You can address this by applying an explicit filter on the title field. Click the Add Filter button () and select Title (). In the Filter dialog box, write busbar in the Text field. Click OK. The search result now only contains models and data files with the word busbar in their titles.
You can add as many filters as you like. Click the Add Filter button () in the toolbar again and select Item Version Type (). Select the File and Fileset check boxes. Click OK. The search result is further reduced to only contain data files.
Click the Reset button () to reset the search result.