When the search is run by com.lightminds.search.alerts.AlertCache.compare(), rather than getLatestLogEntries or searchLogEntries - the search criteria is interpreted differently. The getLatestLogEntries and searchLogEntries methods uses sql like to compare, thus you can use wildcards like % and _ , an these methods are also able to compare strings using > and <. The AlertCache.compare() is only matching equal strings, while it should also match strings that are partially equal from the beginning, just as the viewer. The AlertCache.compare() should also be able to compare strings having > and < in the criteria. The value should only be parsed to a number (Double) when the MetaData is defined as numeric.