Search
The Search product gives users the ability to perform simple searches upon data displayed on a Pl@za web site. The searchable data associated with a Pl@za service (eg IBC information, Discussion Group text) is stored within a corresponding Search Index.
The search field situated upon the main menu performs a search upon the whole web-site (i.e. all available Indexes). The link named "General Search" upon the menu allows the user to selectively search just one or more of the available Indexes.
Index
General search on one or more indexes
It is possible to perform a search query on one or more of the available Search Indexes. The General Search page lists all the available Search Indexes. To access this page, follow the link General Search on the Main Menu.
To selectively search one or more Indexes:
Within the General Search page, type a search query in the search field situated at the bottom of the page. (To view further information on writing a search query, follow the link to the tips page).
Select the scope of the search by selecting one or more of the Search Indexes. Note that if no indexes are specifically selected, the system will search ALL indexes by default.
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Click the Search button. Search presents the results of the search as a list of links to the Pl@za pages that contains the term(s) searched for. See the section Viewing the search results for more information.
!Note: The query searches only the 'Content' of the indexed information, for example it does not try to match against information stored for 'Date last modified'.
The link situated to the right of each Index allows the user to perform a more specific search upon a single Index, for example, to search for all IBC interests cards for the word 'tennis'. See the section Detailed search on a single index for more details.
Detailed search on a single Index
To optimise the returned list of search hits, it is possible to further restrict a query to search just one or more of the data fields associated with a single Index. To access this page, follow the link General Search on the Main Menu, then follow the required Detailed Search link associated with the index to be searched.
To perform a detailed search on one Index:
Within the Detailed Search page, type a search query into one or more of the displayed data fields. (To view further information on writing a search query, follow the link to the tips page.)
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Select the appropriate Search logical operator 'AND' or 'OR' :
Select Match all criteria (AND operator) to search for information matching all of the given search criteria.
Select Match any criteria (OR operator) to search for information matching at least one of the given search criteria.
Click the Search button. Search presents the results of the search as a list of links to the Pl@za pages that contains the term(s) within the specified field(s) searched for. See the section Viewing the search results for more information.
To reset field values
Clicking the Reset button will erase all query text from all fields, thereby allowing a new query to be entered.
To exit from the Detailed Search page
Clicking the Cancel button will display the 'General Search' page once more.
Viewing the Search Results
The Search results page is automatically displayed after performing a search query.
The Search results are displayed with the most relevant hit displayed at the top of the list, followed by other hits listed in decreasing relevance order. Each hit displays some or all of the following information :
Link: The link name reflects the title of the web page. Select this link to view the web page which contains the query text searched for.
Author: If applicable, this is the person who created/updated the web page information. (Note that this field may not be recorded for all web pages).
Score: Measure of the relevance of the link to the search query. The search results are presented in decreasing score order.
Last Modified: Date the information on the web page was last updated.
Summary/Extract: Short extract of the text displayed on the web page.
If the number of hits is greater than 10, then the additional hits may be accessed by following the links at the top and bottom of the page to the additional hit result pages
The search facility displayed within the results page provides the ability to perform a new query upon the same Index(es) that were last searched (either All Indexes or just those previously selected)
If the results of a Detailed Search are displayed, it is possible to follow the 'Back' hyper-link to return to the original search single Index page to edit the query and perform a further search.
To access further information on writing queries, follow the link to the tips page.