Linked Queries

Orbital allows you to create Linked Queries.

Linked queries are queries that can be connected or linked to one or more existing queries.  By linking a new query to one or more existing queries, the new query can use the endpoint list from the existing query, provided that the existing query returns results that are not empty.  Essentially, this means that the linked query will only act on those endpoints that the existing query identifies as meeting its criteria.

It might be tempting to think of linked queries as something akin to a pipe. However, this would be incorrect, as pipes treat the total output of one command as the input of another command.

It would actually be correct to think of a linked query as a results-based endpoint selector. The overview concept is much like old, multilevel boolean searches, where you are using the outcome of a previous search to drill down into more detailed results. It can also be thought of as a type of filter.

Linked queries will only supply the list of endpoints that met the first query’s criteria to the second query to run its criteria against.  Linked queries do not perform any actions on the actual data returned from the first query’s criteria match.

Secondly, a linked query is not only a container for sending a list of nodes from one query to the next query.  It can also contain search criteria itself.

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Using Linked Queries

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