Pass data to another Polymer component - polymer

Question

I am working on a dashboard, in which I have a search panel at the top (let's call it component A), where users can enter a query. The value of this input will change a lot of other components in the dashboard (not only components that are its direct descendants or siblings). I want to send the search value from component A to component B, which should then respond by performing some action with the input value.
I have tried a few things:
Directly calling the function in component B. Haven't been able to get that to work at all.
Manually setting B's local property value and using an observer to trigger a function call. I manager to set the value, but the observer does not trigger.
Using a global variable, which I can easily access across components, but I still can't trigger functions in specific components.
How can I best do this?
I'm relatively new to Polymer, so forgive me if my ideas aren't completely 'Polymerised' :)
Approach 1
<dom-module id="component-B">
<template>
</template>
<script>
Polymer({
is: 'component-B',
properties: {
id: '',
observer: '_idUpdate'
},
_idUpdate: function(){
console.log("HELLO");
}
});
</script>
</dom-module>
<dom-module id="component-A">
<template>
</template>
<script>
Polymer({
is: 'component-A',
idSearch: function() {
var id = this.$.search.value;
document.querySelector('component-B').properties.id = id;
},
});
</script>
</dom-module>

Answer 1

As you want to send data to multiple elements (which might not be siblings of the firing element) you can use any of these two methods
Use iron-signal to fire the signal and then in all the elements where you want the data use iron-signal tag to listen to the signal
<iron-signals on-iron-signal-<signal-name>="<function>"></iron-signals>
You can also use standard HTML method dispatchEvent to fire a signal and then add eventListeners in all the element where you want data.