Use the Search Center to search for documents.
You can use the Search Center to search and retrieve internal documents.
Depending on what your administrator has set, you might also be able
to search documents from intranet sources of your organization or
from additional sources.
Searching for content
To
submit your search query, use the Search box that is available at
the side of the portal theme bar.
Note: Depending on your installation
and its customization, search might be available by other than the
default means.
- Click the arrow near Search text input field, and select a scope
to search from the drop-down list of available scopes. The Search
field displays the name of scope you picked. If you do not pick a
scope, All Sources (the default) will be searched. For details about
search scopes refer to Searching by scopes.
- To enter a search query, type your search string over the name
of the selected scope in the entry field. For details about the search
syntax refer to Search syntax.
- Click the Search icon (magnifying glass)
to launch your query. Search displays the items that match your search
terms on the Search Center tab page. The information about the search
results appears grouped by columns for relevance, title, owner, and
date. For details refer to Search result list details.
- Change or refine your search using one of the following methods:
- Refine your search by typing additional words in the Search text
entry field. For details about the search syntax refer to Search syntax.
- Launch a search to a different content location by selecting the
search scope as required. For details refer to Searching by scopes.
- Optional: if your administrator has enabled search on metadata,
you can narrow your search by specifying metadata of the searched
documents. For example, you can search for documents by their title
or description.
- Click Close Search to leave the search
results.
Searching by scopes
- Scope
- Search scopes are used to group or limit searches to one or multiple
content locations or document types or a combination of both. You
can select scopes from the pull-down list next to the search text
entry field.
The following search scopes are available by default:
| Search collection |
Contents of Result List |
|---|
| All Sources |
Documents from Managed Web Content, from any indexed content
that you have access to, and from any custom third-party links that
have been configured by an administrator display in the same list.
This does not pertain to external search services. |
| Managed Web Content |
Documents originating from the Managed Web Content source.
This scope is available only if you have a Managed Web Content site. |
| Custom links |
Custom links are displayed in the pull-down selection list
next to the search text entry field. They are typically third-party
search facilities configured by your administrator |
Search syntax
To improve
the effectiveness of your search queries, follow these guidelines:
- Use more than one word in your search queries.
The search engine
employs a free-text ranking mechanism to locate the best matches for
your query. Documents containing more query terms and in close proximity
to each other, will receive a higher score.
- Use quotation marks (" ") to retrieve an exact match for your
search string.
When you use quotation marks, Search checks the position
of words in the quoted phrase to make sure they are next to each other
and in the order entered, for example:
- Entering the phrase stock discount can
be less precise since it will find results with the word stock or the word discount.
- Entering the phrase "stock discount" returns
results where this phrase appears exactly as you entered it.
When using quotation marks, the following rules apply:
- If you forget to use the closing quotation mark, Portal Search
supplements the closing quotation mark and treats your search as a
phrase search.
- If you search for strings with special query characters, such
as a blank or a colon ( : ), you must enclose the whole search string
within the quotation marks.
- Single quotation marks (') are not valid operators. Always use
double quotation marks (").
- Use the plus sign (+) or minus sign (-) symbolic operators to
help narrow the search. A plus sign (+) in front of a term guarantees
that every document contains that term. A minus sign (-) in front
of a term ensures that every document returned excludes that term,
for example:
"status reports" -weekly +monthly
The minus sign eliminates or rejects the weekly status reports
from the returned result set while the plus sign narrows the search
to monthly reports.
Note: Do not use the minus sign (-) symbolic operator
with a one-word search query alone. The minus sign (-) works only
in combination with other search terms. For example, the following
queries return the same results:
- -weekly +monthly
- -weekly monthly
- +monthly -weekly
- monthly -weekly
- Use an asterisk (*) as a trailing wildcard at the end of
a search term, in the format wildcar*, but
not *ildcard or wil*card.
- The Did You Mean? feature is now included
in WebSphere® Portal v8.5 or later. If your search query has a typographical
error, the Did You Mean? feature suggests different
search results other than the search terms that you entered. The Did You Mean? feature works by recognizing and retrieving
similar terms that are used in the indexed data. Since the Did You Mean? feature is based on indexed terms, the use
of "AND" in your search query may return fewer suggested search
results.
Search has the following limitations:
- Search is not case-sensitive.
For example, if you search for
content about the country
China, the result set might include
other documents associated with china (of the pottery kind) unless
you include or exclude certain words using symbolic operators.
+china -pottery +asia
- Search ignores punctuation, such as periods or commas, unless
they are enclosed in a quoted phrase.
- Search does not support the use of the logical operators AND,
OR, and NOT.
- The less than ( < ) and greater than ( > ) symbols
are special HTML characters that Search cannot handle.
Search result list details
The following additional information about the search results is
shown:
| Data |
Description |
|---|
| Relevance |
A graphical representation indicates the relevance rank of
each item returned in the result set. |
| Title |
This displays the item title. Results typically display the
file type icon, or the source icon, if the result is not a file, with
the returned result title as a link. Clicking the result title leaves
Search and takes you to that search result. |
| Person |
This shows the name of the person most recently associated
with the result, such as owner, contributor, sender, or directory
listing. |
| Date |
This shows when an item was last updated. |
| Summary |
This shows a summary of a returned result item if one has
been created by the owner of the returned item. |