Help SystemHelp Index |
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Help SystemHelp Index |
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When you click the top Header Panel 'Search' button you are taken to a general search page. The page has examples and instructions to help you create your search. The search input box acts in the same way as it does for Homepage Search. You can type in to the search box any words, or phrases you want to match. The search will match with the words in the search index (see below). The difference from Homepage Search is that this search does not offer you the opportunity to pick a District or Parish. See Homepage search if you want that option.
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Figure: Simple Search |
In the middle of the Main Panel on the Homepage you will see the Homepage Search. You can enter any word or phrase you are searching for and press the search button. You can include in your search a District or Parish selected from the droplists.
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Figure:: Homepage Search |
In the Main Panel below the Homepage Search. You can see the two pre-set Category Searches. In the Primary Category you can click on any Topic to see what items have been classified as related to that Topic.
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Figure: Category Topic Search |
In the second set of pre-set Category Searches. In the Beneficiary Category you can click on any class of people who benefit from community improvements. The results will show you what items have been classified as related to these Beneficiaries.
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Figure: Category Beneficiary Search |
The results will appear in the Main Panel (NB the right panel (of website links) vanishes it is only seen on the homepage). The search results are returned as a 'hit-list' shown here. The search is based on the system's index.
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Figure: Search Results ~ Hit List |
Note that the cost and status columns only have values for the Action stage item. Remember the system uses the 4 stage Community Planning Model, and some information is only available in the later stages. You will notice that your search can return 'hits' from all 4 stages, as you have only specified a keyword(s) and perhaps a geography (District or Parish). If you want to restrict your search to just finding; Issues, or Proposals or just Actions, you need to use the 'Advanced Search'. Advanced search lets you set filters to find what you want.
Depending on the features of your browser you may find that the search entry field keeps a list of your recent searches and you can re-run a search from the list.
The index is built from the words that are entered into the fields that describe each item in the system. This description of each item is called the item metadata. The index includes all the words that the User types in to describe the item. All the words the user types in are stored in the metadata fields of the item. There are 4 types of item, one at each stage; Plan, Issue, Proposal, Action. N.B. In the 4 Stage Model you can upload documents and pictures on items at each stage. The words (if any) within these files are NOT included in the search index. So remember that the better i.e. richer and more accurate, your metadata words, then the better and more useful will be your searches. It is worth taking time to input a good, distinguishing description of your item at each stage. The 'Title' and 'Description' fields are especially important to this.
In this system there are a number of metadata description fields for each item. A few fields are common to all items e.g. title, description (introduction). However other fields are associated with specific stage items e.g. priority, cost, or timescale.
Relevance scores are assigned per-search, so the same hits in different searches will have different relevance scores. Searches when logged in will have different relevance scores from anonymous (not logged in) searches, as the search owner's permissions are incorporated into the search in the former case.
The system awards a score based on how associated the content of an item is
to the content of the terms in the search string. Therefore if two search strings
are not identical the relevance scores can not be expected to be identical.
The effect of logging in is to append permission terms to the search strings
therefore the relevance scores when logged in and not logged in will not and
can not be ‘fixed’ to be the same.
Here are some example word searches that you can try for yourself:
| Devon | Just type the word devon and press the search button to see how many hits you get. |
| devon | The search index is not case sensitive |
| Devon* | Now type the word and without leaving a blank space immediately type a star. This search should find any metadata describing Devonport, devonshire etc. |
| Tourist* OR Vacation* OR Holiday* | If you are looking for anything related to tourism you can put a number of words or words followed by * into the search box. |
| (Tourist* OR Vacation* OR Holiday*) AND Devon | If you then want to restrict all the items found by the ORs so that you only see items that also have the word Devon you will need to use brackets around all the ORs as a group. Otherwise only Holiday* is acutally being assessed and restricted for combinations with Devon. |
| Warning! The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, this search is wrong. | |
Warning! You cannot use a * symbol as the first character of a search. |
You will see from the above examples that you can use boolean logic in setting
up your search, as well as using the wild card character i.e. the star *. It
is important to note that the boolean operators AND OR NOT
must be in capitals otherwise the search agent will treat them as just words
you are looking for in the metadata describing any item. You can test this by just
typing them in, in small letters and seeing what results you get.
As has already been mentioned you can also search for phrases:
| "Environment Agency" | Using double quotation marks around the words turns these words into a phrase. If you type in this search you are seeking to list any item that contains the whole phrase |
| Environment Agency | Try this alternative without the double quotation marks to compare the results. Note! This not a valid phrase. Here you are actually searching for any item that contains the word Environment or any item that contains the word Agency, so in this case the two words do not have to appear together! You may gather in items on economic environment, as well as items on agency services etc. |
| population south west | Note! This not a valid phrase. Written like this you are searching for: population OR south OR west Any of these words in the description of an item will make the item part of your hit list. This could produce a very long list! |
| population AND "south west" | Now try this alternative. Here you are using a word and a phrase in the same search where you want to find items that have both the word and the phrase in their description. "south west" is a valid phrase. This search is narrower and more targeted! |
Note! Single quotation marks do not create a phrase only double quotation marks enclose a phrase.