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, CGI intranet web service returns all pages that have the three words anywhere in the page
• Optionally specify plus signs for AND search, like CGI intranet +web +service
• Enclose words in double quotes to form a literal search, like CGI "web service"
• Specify a minus sign to exclude a word, like CGI soap -shampoo
• Use double quotes if you want to search for a leading minus sign, like CGI "-nowarn"
• Stop words are excluded from a keyword search:
  • Stop words are common words and characters such as CGI "how" and CGI "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 CGI "SOAP", CGI "WSDL", a literal CGI "web service", but not CGI "shampoo",
  enter this: CGI 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 CGI !web service
• If you want to search for a semicolon or an exclamation point, escape them with a leading backslash, like CGI \!shampoo
• Example: To search for all topics that contain CGI "SOAP", CGI "WSDL", a literal CGI "web service", but not CGI "shampoo",
  enter this: CGI soap;wsdl;web service;!shampoo

Formatted Searches

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

Search Preferences

TWikiPreferences defines these search preferences:

• CGI SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE: Default search type for search forms which calls the CGI search script
  • Currently CGI keyword
• CGI SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE: Default search type for CGI %SEARCH{} variable
  • Currenty CGI literal
• CGI SEARCHSTOPWORDS: List of stop words (common words and characters to exclude from a keyword search)
  • Currently CGI 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