NEW: Full text search function

[russellw]

Good afternoon
We have implemented full text natural language searching on AFF.

In simple terms this means:

1. Searches can now be performed on any word (or phrase) of more than two characters except for a list of default words that are excluded such as "if" "so" "to etc.

2. Searches can now be performed using Boolean search functions - thus:

A search for P5 would return all results for P5 Model LTD/Landau but -

A search for P5 + Coupe (or P5 AND Coupe) would only return those results where both search terms were present.

You could also use P5 - Coupe (or P5 NOT Coupe) to exclude the results for Coupes.

3. Wild card operators (*) can be used in both plain and Boolean searches.

e.g: a search for P* would return P5 and P6 models - be careful using wild cards on such short phrases as you are likely to have a slow search and a lot of irrelevant results. Better to use something like P* AND LTD

4. A phrase that is enclosed within double quote (") characters matches only rows that contain the phrase literally, as it was typed.

e.g: a search for "1975 P5 LTD" would only return a result for that exact phrase.

5. Results are still capped at 500 while we gauge the server load from this search function.

6. Please Note: some searches may take a little longer than they have in the past but this will improve with each search as the indices are refined.

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Some further examples from the manual:

• apple banana
  Find rows that contain at least one of the two words
  
  
• +apple juice
  Find rows that contain both words
  
  
• +apple macintosh
  Find rows that contain the word “apple”, but rank rows higher if they also contain “macintosh”
  
  
• +apple -macintosh
  Find rows that contain the word “apple” but not “macintosh"
  
  
• apple*
  Find rows that contain words such as “apple”, “apples”, “applesauce”, or “applet”
  
  
• "some words"
  Find rows that contain the exact phrase “some words” (for example, rows that contain “some words of wisdom” but not “some noise words”)

[gcg2503]

Thanks Russ

Really appreciate the effort involved in doing this

Funnily enough I will be researching P5 related material later tonight!

[russellw]

Let us know how you go with it - I used those terms in my testing and the results were about what I expected.

Cheers
Russ

[gcg2503]

Awesome Russ.

Just did a quick search and have heaps of results which i will pour through

I now have quite a lot of material which I couldnt have found without this added functionality.

Looking at adding one to the stable....lots of reading to do tonight

EDIT: just found the greatest thread P5 related which I will use for redoing my Landau (and hopefully P5) 9 inch differential . Already a positive outcome for me

[Geez Louise]

I have tried to do a search for "Xb Wiring Harness" and it brings up thread with just the word wiring in it.

What would I need to type in if I just wanted to see threads that have posts relating to Xb wiring harness? or will it just search for all three words?

Cheers
Col

P.S I have tried it all the ways suggested in the first post and can not find posts with exact match. I must be doing it wrong...

[russellw]

Hi Col

There probably aren't a lot of results anyway. I used +xb +wiring (the use of the + sign forces the search to rank the results that contain both terms highest and this thread was at the top. There will be a lot of irrelevant ones as it looks for both terms. You could equally go +"xb wiring" as it would also force the phrase to be ranked higher.

Cheers
Russ

[Geez Louise]

Thanks Russ. I know there probably are not too many results on that exact phrasing but even trying it both ways you suggested, it still pulls up close to 500 threads.

Is this because it is now full word search capable?

[russellw]

That is correct. I'll see if there are other methods that can be used.

Cheers
Russ

[russellw]

A more technical explanation of the Boolean functions is enclosed below:

+ A leading plus sign indicates that this word must be present in every result returned

- A leading minus sign indicates that this word must not be present in any result returned.

< > These two operators are used to change a word's contribution to the relevance value that is assigned to a result. The < operator decreases the contribution and the > operator increases it.

( ) Parentheses are put round sub-expressions to give them higher precedence in the search.

[Geez Louise]

Thanks for that Russ.

One other question, I noticed that when I do a search and put in some of the parameters, the word in the completed search is not bolded?

For an example:

If I search Airbag - the end search results show the word Airbag bolded in the thread/post in red.

If I search for Airbag like this >Airbag or like this, (airbag) it is not highlighted in red.

Just curious as to why it doesn't highlight it when you search a different way.

Cheers
Col