About the Advanced Search Page

Contents:

• Advanced Search Page
• Menus and Search Boxes
• The Search In Menu
• The Search Specification Rows
• More or Fewer Query Specifications
• Example Search
• Search Page Fields and Operators
• Document Field Choices
• Operator Choices
• Search Syntax

Menus and Search Boxes

The Advanced Search page is composed of pull-down menus and search boxes:
 

• Pull-down menus already have a default value entered for you. To select a different value, click the down-arrow to the right of the box and choose the value you want to use. There are three menu types:
  • Search-in menu. There is one at the top of the page.

  • Field selection menu. There is one at the left of each search row. See Document Field Choices for the fields you can search.

  • Operator selection menu. There is one in the middle of each search row. The available operators vary depending on the kind of field you select. See Operator Choices for the operators you can use.

• Search boxes are blank. Fill in the criteria you want to search for. You can use wildcards, but not operators. (There is one search box at the right of each search row.)

The top menu is the Search-in menu. Use this menu to specify where your search will be conducted. The choices are:

• Any category: iPlanet Compass Server will search the entire index.
  
• Current category: iPlanet Compass Server will only search in the current category and its sub-categories. (The current category is identified above the menu.)

A typical search specification row looks like this:

By default, two search rows are displayed. You must use the first row. Additional rows are optional, you can use them or not as you choose. If a row's search box is left empty, that row is not used. You can use the More and Fewer buttons to add or subtract rows.

Each row contains a:

• Field selection menu for specifying which field to search. See Document Field Choices for the fields you can search.

• Operator selection menu for specifying which query operator to use. See Operator Choices for the operators you can use.

• Search box for specifying the criteria to search for.

The field and operator menu choices you select are applied to the criteria you enter in that row's search box. For example, if you chose the Author field, the Contains operator, and enter the criteria Lincoln in the search box, iPlanet Compass Server will find all documents written by anyone with Lincoln as any part of their name.

If you use more than one row to specify your search criteria, documents will only be listed if they meet all your criteria from each row you use. If a document matches the criteria of one row but not another, it will not be listed. (You can add more rows as explained below.)

More or Fewer Search Rows

To add or delete search rows, click on the More or Fewer buttons.

For example, suppose you want to find documents in any category that were written by someone named Angelou, after January 15, 1996, and that do not have the keyword fiction.

1. On the Advanced Search page, select "any category" from the Search-in menu.
   
2. Click the More button to display three search rows.
   
3. Select Author in the top-row field menu.
   
4. Select Contains in the top-row operator menu.
   
5. Enter Angelou in the top-row search box.
   
6. Select Last-Modified in the second-row field menu.
   
7. Select Is after in the second-row operator menu.
   
8. Enter 1/15/96 in the second-row search box.
   
9. Select Keywords in the third-row field menu.
   
10. Select Doesn't contain in the third-row operator menu.
    
11. Enter fiction in the third-row search box.
    
12. Click the Search button.

Your query should look like this:

The field choices and query operators that you can select are listed below:

The first pull-down menu in a search row is for selecting that field that you want to search. The choices are:

• Document. This choice specifies that your search cover all fields including whatever actual document content is included in the index (if any). This is the default selection.

• Author. The person, persons, or organization that originally created the document. For more information on document authors and the Author field, see Using the <Author> META Tag. (If a document does not contain an <Author> META tag, no author is listed in the index for that document, and searching by author's name will not find it.)

• Expires. The date on which the document is to be dropped from the index. Unless an expiration date is set with an <Expire> META tag, the document will be dropped from the server index after 90 days.

• Keywords. Important words describing the document's content. Some keywords are automatically generated from the documents headings and content, additional keywords can be specified by the document creator. For more information on document keywords and the Keyword field, see About Keywords.

• Last-Modified. The date that the document was last revised or originally created if it has never been changed. (This date is automatically generated from the file system of the server where the document is stored.)

• Title. The search title of the document that has been specified with a <Title> META tag. (If a document does not have a <title> META tag, no title is listed in the index for that document, and searching by title will not find it.)

• URL. The Uniform Resource Locator (web address) of the document. By default, Keep in mind the following points when specifying URLs:
  
  • The http:// portion of the address must be entered if you are using the Is or Begins with operators.
    
  • The slash (/) at the end of an address is significant. For example, searching for http://www.test.com/soft/ will search all documents at that address and also all of its subdirectories, but if you omit the slash and specify just <http://www.test.com/soft you will not only search the documents at that address, but all other addresses that start with those characters such as: test.com/software, test.com/softest and so on.

Operator Choices

The middle pull-down menu is for selecting the operator to use in your search. Which operators are available depend on the type of field you selected from the Field menu.

The following operators are available for the Document, Author, Keywords, and Title fields:

• Contains. Use this operator to search for whatever you enter in the search box to the right. Note that the server searches for the text string that you enter regardless of whether or not it is a whole word. For example, if you specify net, you find documents containing words like net, iPlanet, internet and so on.

• Doesn't contain. Use this operator to find all documents that do not contain whatever you enter in the search box to the right. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean <NOT> operator.)

The following operators are available for the Expires and Last-Modified fields:

• Is. Use this operator to search for documents with the exact date you enter in the search box to the right. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean = operator.)

• Is not. Use this operator to search for all documents that have dates different from the date you enter in the search box to the right. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean <NOT> operator.)

• Is before. Use this operator to search for documents whose dates are earlier than the date you enter in the search box to the right. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean < operator.)

• Is after. Use this operator to search for documents whose dates are later than the date you enter in the search box to the right. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean > operator.)

The following operators are available for the URL field:

• Contains. Use this operator to search the URL that you enter in the search box to the right. Note that iPlanet Compass Server searches URLs containing the text string that you enter regardless of whether or not it is an entire or complete address. For example, if you specify net.com you will search sites such as: www.iplanet.com and internet.com.
  
• Doesn't contain. Use this operator to search all URLs that do not contain whatever you enter in the search box to the right. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean <NOT> operator.)
  
• Begins with. Use this operator to search all URLs that begin with the text string that you enter to the right. Note that you must enter the http:// portion of the address when using this operator. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean <STARTS> operator.)
  
• Ends with. Use this operator to search all URLs that end with the text string that you enter to the right. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean <ENDS> operator.)
  
• Is. Use this operator to search the exact URL that you enter in the search box to the right. Note that you must enter the http:// portion of the address when using this operator. (In technical terms, this is equivilent to the Boolean = operator.)