Search Help

Search Pages

There are two search pages; WebSearch offers basic search features, while WebSearchAdvanced offers more control over searches.

By default searches are keyword based like in a typical search engine:

• Specify word(s) you want to find
• Multiple words form an AND search, intranet web service returns all pages that have the three words anywhere in the page
• Optionally specify plus signs for AND search, like intranet +web +service
• Enclose words in double quotes to form a literal search, like "web service"
• Specify a minus sign to exclude a word, like soap -shampoo
• Use double quotes if you want to search for a leading minus sign, like "-nowarn"
• Stop words are excluded from a keyword search:
  • Stop words are common words and characters such as "how" and "where", defined in the SEARCHSTOPWORDS setting in the TWikiPreferences
  • If you want to search for a word in the stop word list, prefix the word with a plus sign
• Example: To search for all topics that contain "SOAP", "WSDL", a literal "web service", but not "shampoo",
  enter this: soap +wsdl "web service" -shampoo

Regular expression search searches for a set of regular expression patterns:

• Patterns are separated by semicolons
• An AND search is performed for the list of patterns
• An exclamation point preceeding a pattern indicates an AND NOT search; use it to exclude a pattern, like !web service
• If you want to search for a semicolon or an exclamation point, escape them with a leading backslash, like \!shampoo
• Example: To search for all topics that contain "SOAP", "WSDL", a literal "web service", but not "shampoo",
  enter this: soap;wsdl;web service;!shampoo

Formatted Searches

You can embed a nicely formatted search in a topic by using the %SEARCH{}% variable described in VarSEARCH.

Search Preferences

TWikiPreferences defines these search preferences:

• SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE: Default search type for search forms which calls the search script
  • Currently keyword
• SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE: Default search type for %SEARCH{} variable
  • Currenty literal
• SEARCHSTOPWORDS: List of stop words (common words and characters to exclude from a keyword search)
  • Currently =a, all, am, an, and, any, as, at, b, be, by, c, d, e, for, from, g, h, how, i, i'm, i.e., in, is, isn't, it, it's, its, j, k, l, m, n, o, of, on, or, p, q, r, s, t, that, that's, the, this, to, u, v, w, was, wasn't, what, what's, when, where, who, who's, will, with, x, y, z =

Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory