Searching for a User
Almost everything you do with a researcher starts by finding their record: clearing a new registrant, checking why a request bounced, looking up a phone number before an appointment. The Users page is where you find them. Open it and you get the full list of users on the left; type a name or ID into the search box and the list narrows as you type. When you spot the right person, click them and their record opens in the detail pane beside the list.
Most lookups are that simple — a few letters of a last name or a barcode is usually enough. The filter and sort controls on this page are for the less common cases: when "Smith" returns forty people and you need the one in a particular department, or you want every uncleared user in one list, or you're hunting for a record by email or phone.
- A researcher is at the desk or on the phone — type their name or ID to pull up their record fast.
- A request or appointment names a username you don't recognize — search it to see who placed it.
- You need a group of users, not one person — e.g. "everyone awaiting clearance" or "all users in the History department" — use the filters.
- You half-remember someone's email or phone but not their name — search or filter on the contact field.
Opening the Users page
Go to Users from the top navigation (or jump straight there from the command palette — see below). The page opens in a split layout:
- Left: the user list. Each row shows the researcher's name and key details; the count at the top reads, for example, 30 of 4217 users, so you always know how much of the list you're looking at.
- Right: the detail pane. It stays empty (Search and select a user to view details) until you pick someone.
The list loads more users automatically as you scroll, so you never page through results manually.
The user list is also available as a spreadsheet-style Grid — use the Cards / Grid toggle at the top to switch to a grid where you can arrange columns and save layouts as named Views. See Using the Grid and Saved Views.
Quick search
The fastest way to find someone is the Search users… box at the top of the list.
- Open the Users page.
- Start typing in Search users… — a name, partial name, username, or email.
- The list filters as you type (after a brief pause so it isn't searching on every keystroke). The count updates to show how many matched.
- Click the matching row to open that user in the detail pane.
A quick search runs on the server, not in the browser, and checks your text against these fields:
- Username
- First Name
- Last Name
- Preferred Name
- ID
- Alternate ID
Matching is from the start of a word, so typing mart finds Martinez and Martha. Depending on how your site's search is set up, a quick search may also reach further into the record — phone, department, organization, address, research topics, and User Info 1 through 5. To clear the box and return to the full list, click the ✕ at the right of the search field.
Quick search only looks in the columns your role is allowed to see. If your role has a field restriction that hides one of these fields — for example, Email — quick search won't match on that field for you. Username is the exception: it identifies the record, so it can never be restricted and quick search always matches on it. (See Field Restriction Groups.)
Type as many words as you like — each word narrows the results, and the words don't have to be in the same field. Searching Jane Doe finds a user whose first name is "Jane" and last name is "Doe." To search for words that must appear together as one phrase, put them in double quotes: "Jane Doe".
Searching from the command palette
You don't have to be on the Users page to look someone up. Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) anywhere in Aeon to open the command palette, then type @ followed by a name or username to search users directly:
@martinez
Pick a result and Aeon takes you straight to that user's record. This is handy when you're in the middle of something else — a request, a queue, an appointment — and just need to glance at a researcher.
The @ user-search shortcut only appears if your role can view users. If you don't have that access, typing @ won't search for people.
Filtering for a precise match
When a plain text search casts too wide a net — or when you want a list of users rather than a single person — use the filter and sort controls just below the search box.
Adding a filter
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Click the Filter button.
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Choose a field to filter on. Fields are grouped to make them easy to find:
Group Fields Identity Username, Name, First Name, Last Name, Preferred Name, ID (any) Contact Email, Phone Affiliation Department, Organization, Billing Category Location City, State, Country Status Status, Cleared Dates Expiration Date, Creation Date User Info User Info 1 through 5 Custom Fields Any user custom fields your site has defined. This group appears only if your site has some. -
Pick how to match (for text fields: contains, does not contain, equals, not equals, starts with, ends with), enter a value, and apply.
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The filter appears as a chip below the controls — for example Department contains History. Add more chips to narrow further; remove one by clicking the ✕ on the chip.
Two filters are worth calling out because they search several columns at once, just like the old basic search:
- Name searches first name, last name, and preferred name together — use this to find someone by full name without the single-field limitation of the quick-search box.
- ID (any) searches both the primary ID and the alternate ID, so a single barcode or campus ID finds the user no matter which field it's stored in.
The Cleared filter is a dropdown of clearance states — including NEW (awaiting clearance), B (blocked), DIS (disavowed), EXP (expired), and others. Filtering on Cleared is NEW gives you everyone who still needs to be cleared. (For the day-to-day clearance queue with its own tools, see the User Clearance Workflow page.)
Sorting the results
Next to the Filter button, the sort control sets the list order. Click it to choose a field — Last Name, First Name, Username, Creation Date, Expiration Date, Department, Organization, Status, or Cleared — and click the arrow beside it to flip between ascending and descending. By default the list is sorted by Last Name, ascending.
To wipe all filters and sorting back to default in one click, use Clear all.
Sharing what you're looking at
The user you have open is part of the page's web address, so you can copy the address and send it to a colleague and it opens on the same record, on the same tab.
Your search text, filters, and sort are not. They live only in the page while you're on it, so reloading clears them and a bookmarked address won't bring them back. For a search you run often — say, "uncleared users in the Reading Room department" — save it as a View instead.
Opening a user from the results
Once you've found the right person:
- Click the row to open their record in the detail pane for viewing. Looking at a record doesn't lock it or affect anyone else.
- Double-click the row to open it for editing — Aeon claims the record for you so two staff don't edit the same user at once, and the status bar confirms Processing user jmartinez. If someone else already has it open for editing, you'll see User jmartinez locked by [name] instead.
See Opening and Locking a User Record for how that record lock works.
- Viewing the Users page and searching requires the View level (or higher) of the Users permission. If your role has no Users access, the page isn't available to you.
- Opening a record to edit (double-click) requires the Edit level. With View-only access you can still search and read every record you find.