Search, archive, and recover documents
This guide covers the everyday library after documents have been admitted and filed. You will narrow a search, apply a safe bulk edit, move a sample through Archive and Bin, restore it, and identify the irreversible boundary.
Search with a question in mind
Start with a word a household member is likely to remember. Jiandu searches filing metadata and available indexed document text, then returns one result per document.
The query box supports a small, predictable language:
| Query | Meaning |
|---|---|
tax notice | Match at least one positive term; positive clauses use OR, not implicit AND |
"property notice" | Match the exact phrase |
tax "property notice" -draft | Match tax or the phrase, but exclude draft |
insurance -"old policy" | Exclude an exact phrase |
The final unfinished positive clause uses prefix matching, which makes typing ahead useful. Earlier clauses are complete tokens. CJK text uses Jiandu's indexed fallback rather than requiring space-delimited words. If precision matters, use a quoted phrase or add the filters below; do not assume every unquoted word must match.
Narrow only when the broad result is noisy:
- Tags for reusable household topics;
- From for a correspondent or organization;
- Kind for a document type;
- Year for the document date; and
- Best match, Recently changed, Document date, Title A–Z, or Oldest first for ordering.
When an API client repeats the tag parameter, every requested tag is required. Server-side relevance and facet counts require a non-empty text query; the browser can additionally facet the corpus it has already cached. Treat an opaque result cursor as bound to the exact query, filters, caller, and authorization scope—never reuse it after any of those change.
The active query and filters are part of the page URL, so browser Back and a copied link can restore the same view. A recipient still needs their own authorization; the URL does not grant access.
If a result says its text is still being added to search, the original is already stored but content indexing has not completed. If indexing failed, preserve the original and use the offered retry rather than uploading a duplicate.
Organize several records
Select the intended results, choose Organize, and build an ordered sequence of operations. The current bulk editor can add or remove tags, set or clear the sender, and set or clear the kind.
Review the operation order before choosing Apply. Jiandu uses revision-safe document edits; if a record changed after selection, the operation reports a conflict instead of silently overwriting the newer revision. Re-run the search and review that record before trying again.
Archive without deleting
Use Archive for documents you want to keep but rarely need in the active library. Archived records remain durable and appear on the Archived shelf. Use Unarchive or Restore to return an archived record to active use.
Use the Bin as a recovery window
Move to bin removes a document from the ordinary and archived views without immediately performing permanent deletion. Open the Bin shelf and choose Restore if the move was a mistake.
Treat the Bin as an application workflow, not a backup. Retention policy and physical bytes in remote storage may have different timing, and a complete recovery backup may still contain an earlier version of the record.
Understand permanent deletion
Delete for good is the irreversible product action. Jiandu asks for confirmation and warns that the original cannot be recovered through the application. Before confirming:
- verify the exact selected documents;
- decide whether policy requires a retained backup or export;
- understand the selected blob backend's versioning, trash, snapshot, or retention behavior; and
- make sure the next backup reflects the intended state.
Never delete files directly from the database or blob namespace to imitate this workflow. That can leave records and stored objects inconsistent.
Verification
With a non-sensitive sample, prove that search finds the active record, Archive removes it from the active shelf, Bin retains a restorable record, and Restore returns it. Stop before permanent deletion unless the sample is deliberately disposable.