DataparkSearch Engine 4.48: The Web searching software; Reference manual
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# Chapter 8. Searching documents

# 8.1. Using search front-ends

## 8.1.1. Performing search

Open your preferred front-end in Web browser:

    http://your.web.server/path/to/search.cgi

To find something just type words you want to find and press SUBMIT button. For example: `mysql odbc`. DataparkSearch will find all documents that contain word `mysql` and/or word `odbc`. Best documents having bigger weights will be displayed first.

To find a phrase, simple enclose it in quotas. For example: `"uncontrollable sphere"`.

## 8.1.2. Search parameters

DataparkSearch front-ends support the following parameters given in CGI query string. You may use them in HTML form on search page.

Table 8-1. Available search parameters

q | text parameter with search query
vq | text parameter with search query in the Verity Query Language (prefix variant), see Section 8.1.7. To use this parameter, you need to leave empty the q parameter.

s

characters sequence, specify results sorting order. Small caps specify ascendant sorting, upper caps - descendant. Following characters can be used: `R` or `r` - for sorting by relevance, `P` or `p` - for sorting by PopularityRank, `I` or `i` - for sorting by Importance (multiplication of relevance and PopularityRank), `A` or `a` - for sorting by sum of relevance and PopularityRank, `D` or `d` - for sorting by last modified date. Default value: `RP`.

ps | page size, number of search results displayed on one page, 20 by default. Maximum page size is 100. This value does not allow passing very big page sizes to avoid server overload and might be changed with MAX_PS definition in `search.c`.
np | page number, starting by 0, 0 by default (first page)
p | page number starting by 1. Suitable for use with OpenSearch
m | search mode. Currently "all","any", "near" and "bool" values are supported.
wm | word match. You may use this parameter to choose word match type. There are "wrd", "beg", "end" and "sub" values that respectively mean whole word, word beginning, word ending and word substring match.
t | Tag limit. Limits search through only documents with given tag. This parameter has the same effect with -t indexer option
c | Category limit. Take a look into Section 6.2 for details.

ul

URL limit, URL substring to limit search through subsection of database. It supports SQL % and _ LIKE wildcards. This parameter has the same effect with -u indexer option. If relative URL is specified `search.cgi` inserts % signs before and after "ul" value when compiled with SQL support. It allows to write URL substring in HTML from to limit search, for example <OPTION VALUE="/manual/"> instead of VALUE="%/manual/%". When full URL with schema is specified `search.cgi` adds % sign only after this value. For example for <OPTION VALUE="http://localhost/"> `search.cgi` will pass `http://localhost/%` in SQL LIKE comparison.

> Not supported for cache storage mode.

wf | Weight factors. It allows changing different document sections weights at a search time. Should be passed in the form of hex number. Check the explanation below.
g | Language limit. Language abbreviation to limit search results by url.lang field.
tmplt | Template filename (without path). To specify template file other standard `search.htm`.
type | Content-Type limit. Content-type to limit search results by url.content_type field. For cache mode storage this should be exact match. For SQL-modes it may be sql-like pattern.
sp | Words forms limit. =1, if you need search all forms (include spelling suggestions, if aspell support is enabled) for entered words. =0, if you need search only entered words. Default value is 1. You may switch it to 0 for faster search.
sy | Synonyms limit. =1, if you need add synonyms for entered words. =0, do not use synonyms. Default value is 1. You may switch it to 0 for faster search.
empty | Use limits to show results if no query words is entered (only for cache mode). =yes, to show results from limits, if no query words is entered (default). =no, do not show results from limits, if no query words is entered.

dt

Limit by time. Three types is supported.

If `dt` is set to `back`, that means you want to limit result to recent pages, and you should specify this recentness in variable `dp`.

If `dt` is set to `er`, that means the search will be limited to pages newer or older than date given. Variable `dx` is newer/older flag (1 means newer or after, -1 means older or before). Date is specified in variables `dm, dy, dd`.

If `dt` is set to `range`, that means search within given range of dates. Variables `db` and `de` are used here and stands for beginning and end date.

> All times in cache mode measured in a hour precision.

dp

Limit by recentness, if `dt` value is `back`. It should be specified in `xxxA[yyyB[zzzC]]` format. Spaces are allowed between xxx and A and yyy and so on). xxx, yyy, zzz are numbers (can be negative!), A, B, C can be one of the following (the letters are the same as in strptime/strftime functions): s - second, M - minute, h - hour, d - day, m - month, y - year. Examples:

      4h30m 	  - 2 hours and 30 minutes
      1Y6M-15d        - 1 year and six month minus 15 days
      1h-60m+1s       - 1 hour minus 60 minutes plus 1 second

dx | is newer/older flag (1 means newer or after, -1 means older or before), if `dt` value is `er`.
dm | Month, if `dt` value is `er`. 0 - January, 1 - February, ... 11 - December.
dy | Year, if `dt` value is `er`. Four digits. For example, 1999 or 2001.
dd | Day, if `dt` value is `er`. 1...31.
db | Beginning date, if `dt` value is `range`. Each date is string in the form dd/mm/yyyy, there dd is day, mm is month and yyyy is four-digits year.
de | End date, if `dt` value is `range`. Each date is string in the form dd/mm/yyyy, there dd is day, mm is month and yyyy is four-digits year.

## 8.1.3. Changing different document parts weights at search time

It is possible to pass "wf" HTML form variable to `search.cgi`. "wf" variable represents weight factors for specific document parts. Currently body,title,keywords,description,url parts, crosswords as well as user defined META and HTTP headers are supported. Take a look into "Section" part of `indexer.conf-dist`.

To be able use this feature it is recommended to set different sections IDs for different document parts in "Section" `indexer.conf` command. Currently up to 256 different sections are supported.

Imagine that we have these default sections in `indexer.conf`:

      Section body        1  256
      Section title       2  128
      Section keywords    3  128
      Section description 4  128

"wf" value is a string of hex digits ABCD. Each digit is a factor for corresponding section weight. The most right digit corresponds to section 1. For the given above sections configuration:

D is a factor for section 1 (body)
C is a factor for section 2 (title)
B is a factor for section 3 (keywords)
A is a factor for section 4 (description)

Examples:

wf=0001 will search through body only.
wf=1110 will search through title,keywords,description but not
through the body.
wf=F421 will search through:
Description with factor 15 (F hex)
Keywords with factor 4
Title with factor 2
Body with factor 1

By default, if "wf" variable is omitted in the query, all sections factors are 1, it means all sections have the same weight.

By default, DataparkSearch uses fast relevance calculation. In this case, only zero and non-zero values for "wf" variable takes an effect (this allows only include/exclude specified sections in search results). To enable full support for dynamic section weight, you need specify `--enable-fullrel` option for configure when configuring DataparkSearch.

## 8.1.4. Using front-end with an shtml page

When using a dynamic shtml page containing SSI that calls `search.cgi`, i.e. `search.cgi` is not called directly as a CGI program, it is necessary to override Apache's SCRIPT_NAME environment attribute so that all the links on search pages lead to the dynamic page and not to `search.cgi`.

For example, when a shtml page contains a line `<--#include virtual="search.cgi">`, SCRIPT_NAME variable will still point to `search.cgi`, but not to the shtml page.

To override SCRIPT_NAME variable we implemented a DPSEARCH_SELF variable that you may add to Apache's `httpd.conf` file. Thus `search.cgi` will check DPSEARCH_SELF variable first and then SCRIPT_NAME. Here is an example of using DPSEARCH_SELF environment variable with SetEnv/PassEnv Apache's `httpd.conf` command:

    SetEnv DPSEARCH_SELF /path/to/search.cgi
    PassEnv DPSEARCH_SELF

## 8.1.5. Using several templates

It is often required to use several templates with the same `search.cgi`. There are actually several ways to do it. They are given here in the order how `search.cgi` detects template name.

1. `search.cgi` checks environment variable DPSEARCH_TEMPLATE. So you can put a path to desired search template into this variable.

2. `search.cgi` checks path info part of URL available in the PATH_INFO environment variable. E.g. `http://localhost/cgi-bin/search.cgi/search1.html` uses `search1.htm` as its template, and `http://localhost/cgi-bin/search.cgi/search2.html` uses `search2.htm`, and so on.

3. `search.cgi` also supports Apache internal redirect. It checks REDIRECT_STATUS and REDIRECT_URL environment variables. To activate this way of template usage you may add these lines in Apache `srm.conf`:

       AddType text/html .zhtml
       AddHandler zhtml .zhtml
       Action zhtml /cgi-bin/search.cgi

   Put `search.cgi` into your `/cgi-bin/` directory. Then put HTML template into your site directory structure under any name with .zthml extension, for example template.zhtml. Now you may open search page: `http://www.site.com/path/to/template.zhtml` You may use any unused extension instead of .zthml of course.

4. If the above two ways fail, search.cgi opens a template which has the same name with the script being executed using SCRIPT_NAME environment variable. `search.cgi` will open a template `ETC/search.htm`, `search1.cgi` will open `ETC/search1.htm` and so on, where ETC is DataparkSearch `/etc` directory (usually `/usr/local/dpsearch/etc`). So, you can use the same `search.cgi` with different templates without having to recompile it. Just create one or several hard or symbolic links for `search.cgi` or copy it and put corresponding search templates into /etc directory of DataparkSearch installation.

   Take a look also into Making multi-language search pages section

## 8.1.6. Advanced boolean search

If you want more advanced results you may use query language. You should select "bool" search mode in the search from.

DataparkSearch understands the following boolean operators:

`AND` or `&` - logical AND. For example, "`mysql & odbc`" or "`mysql AND odbc`" - DataparkSearch will find any URLs that contain both "mysql" and "odbc".

`NEAR` - NEAR operator, identical to AND operator, but come true if both words are within 16 words of each other. For example, "`mysql NEAR odbc`" - DataparkSearch will find any URLs that contain both "mysql" and "odbc" within 16 words of each other.

`ANYWORD` or `*` - ANYWORD operator, identical to AND operator, but come true if both words have any one word between and left operand have lesser position than right operand. For example, "`mysql * odbc`" - DataparkSearch will find any URLs that contain both "mysql" and "odbc" within any word between, for example, any document with "mysql via odbc" phrase.

`OR` or `|` - logical OR. For example, "`mysql | odbc`" or "`mysql OR odbc`" - DataparkSearch will find any URLs that contain word "mysql" or word "odbc".

`NOT` or `~` - logical NOT. For example, "`mysql & ~ odbc`" or "`mysql AND NOT odbc`" - DataparkSearch will find URLs that contain word "mysql" and do not contain word "odbc" at the same time. Note that ~ just excludes given word from results. Query "~ odbc" will find nothing!

`()` - group command to compose more complex queries. For example "(mysql | msql) & ~ postgres". Query language is simple and powerful at the same time. Just consider query as usual boolean expression.

## 8.1.7. The Verity Query Language, VQL

Only the prefix variant of the Verity Query Language is supported by DataparkSearch.

Also, only the following subset of VQL operators is supported by DataparkSearch:

Table 8-2. VQL operators supported by DataparkSearch

<ACCRUE> | equal to `OR` operator in boolean mode.
<AND> | equal to `AND` operator in boolean mode.
<ANY> | equal to `OR` operator in boolean mode.
<NEAR> | equal to `NEAR` operator in boolean mode.
<NOT> | equal to `NOT` operator in boolean mode.
<OR> | equal to `OR` operator in boolean mode.
<PHRASE> | equal to a phrase in boolean mode.
<WORD> | is considered as an empty operator.

## 8.1.8. How search handles expired documents

Expired documents are still searchable with their old content.

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