# Find components based on their type

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/find-components-based-on-their-type/107533>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81, perspective\
**Created:** [June 18, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/find-components-based-on-their-type/107533 "2025-06-18T17:03:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Melby\_Miraval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Melby\_Miraval](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Melby_Miraval)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/find-components-based-on-their-type/107533/1 "2025-06-18T17:03:55Z")

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Is there a way to find say all "one-shot" buttons in a project?  
Provided that all button names were changed to match their function, so there is no common string shared by them.  
EDIT:  
I am looking for a way to do this from the Designer.

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**Author:** ![jlandwerlen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@jlandwerlen](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jlandwerlen)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/find-components-based-on-their-type/107533/2 "2025-06-18T20:05:45Z")

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Sure, views are saved as JSON in the filesystem so you can search for really anything. A one-shot button should look like `"type": "ia.input.oneshotbutton"`, but if you use embedded views this will just complicate matters.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Melby\_Miraval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Melby\_Miraval](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Melby_Miraval)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/find-components-based-on-their-type/107533/3 "2025-06-18T20:29:14Z")

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I am using embedded views indeed, so to find the buttons this way was cumbersome. I hadn't thought about this, though, so I appreciate the idea.  
Is there any way to do this from the Designer?

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**Author:** ![vtran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/779978/32.png) [@vtran](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/vtran)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/find-components-based-on-their-type/107533/4 "2025-06-18T21:25:20Z")

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If you named all your buttons to have a common string then you probably can use the Find/Replace window (Ctrl + F) and change it to `All Views`

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/d/f/df7f9e3635a1b36ffd007324e4c3b46e694cc89f.png)

Then you can sort by Property and find all the `meta.name` instances.

If out of designer is an option, you can export all your views out, unzip into a folder, then use something like Notepad++ that allows you to pick a directory and search all the files in there. Then you can actually search for `"type":"ia.input.oneshotbutton"`.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/b/4/b466680d77953117adc040e4d8ce604aabe09cc1.png)

A more advanced option is writing a script that walk through your project structure and read each view.json file and search there.