Patent ID: 7634486

Claim:
A method comprising: indexing computing-based managed items which are managed in a systems management environment, such that a unique identifier is respectively associated with each one of the computing-based managed items in an index, wherein: the indexing includes associating values that respectively describe each one of the computing-based managed items with field names that categorize the values by type; and one or more of the values are used as part of the search request; receiving a search request to locate one or more of the computing-based managed items from among the computing-based managed items which have been indexed, the search request comprising at least one value that is not included in the index and at least one value that is included in the index; searching the systems management environment to locate the one or more computing-based managed items based on the search request, wherein the searching to locate the one or more computer-based managed items is based on the at least one value that is included in the index; and collecting the one or more located computer-based managed items through a user selecting one or more unique identifiers into a focus collection, each of the one or more unique identifiers associating with the one or more located computer-based managed items, wherein the focus collection is configured to: collect incrementally, based on a plurality of different search requests, the selected one or more located computer-based items; and at least temporarily maintain all of the selected one or more computer-based items within the focus collection such that all of the selected one or more located computer-based managed items in the focus collection are not lost when the plurality of different search requests are conducted within the systems management environment.