Document Repository Users' Guide:
Chapter 4
Searching the database

Searching the database is as easy as we can make it, provided we want to hide the underlying SQL sructures from casual view. To perform a search, perform the following steps:

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Performing a search

1. Select all the desired criteria from the menus:

   	CT Authors--The past and current members, in alphabetical order by last name; some may have strange-looking data because of how the information is stored in the back-end table
   	Ex- and Non-CT Authors--The ex-CT and non-CT authors, in alphabetical order by last name
   	Practice--The CT practices
   	Class--The five classes
   	State--One of Approved, Frozen and blessed, Frozen and not blessed, Locked, or New or modified
   	Class/Subclass--The combined class/subclass codes

   You can select multiple criteria for each menu.

2. Enter any text criteria in the Keywords field. The text criteria will search keywords, titles, descriptions, and URL components in the database. Use double quotes (the " character) to search for multiple-word phrases, like "Solaris 2.6."

   The URL search does not correctly match wildcards (such as period, .; question mark, ?; and asterisk, *) or special meta-characters (such as tilde, ~).

3. Select one of the three search buttons:

   	Or Search--Perform a search doing a Boolean OR on all criteria and values. For example, "(author is taylor OR jeff) OR (practice is backup OR database)." This matches any document with any one of the four criteria -- author is taylor, author is jeff, practice is backup, or practice is database -- in the repository.
   	And Search--Perform a search doing a Boolean AND on all criteria and values. For example, "(author is taylor AND jeff) AND (practice is backup AND database)." This matches any document with ALL of the four criteria -- author is taylor, author is jeff, practice is backup, and practice is database -- in the repository.
   	Joint Search--Perform a search doing a Boolean AND between categories but a Boolean OR within categories. For example, "(author is taylor OR jeff) AND (practice is backup or database)." This matches any document with the author being either taylor or jeff AND the practice being backup or database.

Note that you will see Edit and Delete buttons on the search results pages only for those document records which you own.

 

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Analyzing the results

The results of the search are displayed in one large table. If the search has many results it may take a long time for the table to render, depending on your browser software and computer hardware.

If the search does not match any documents, the results page informs you "Sorry, no documents match the specified search criteria." Go back to the search page and try again, or click on the "Search the CI" link to go to the Collective Intellect.

By default, the search results are sorted by title. The results browser provides the following columns:

	ID--The document ID in the database; clicking the ID will bring up the detailed document record.
	Title--The document title; clicking the title will jump to or download the document itself, depending on the document type and your browser settings.
	Author--The author or authors of the document. If the author is a CT member, clicking the author name will bring up a mailto: window, and clicking the "i" icon will bring up the PSADB (Resources) entry for that member. If the author is not a CT member, the name will not be a mailto: link and the "i" icon will not appear.
	Revision--The revision number of the document.
	Class--The document class, one of CIMRX. Click the "?" icon for help with document class codes.
	Subclass--The document subclass, one of ACDEHIJLOPRSTX. Click the "?" icon for help with document subclass codes.
	Practice--The practice or practices to which this document relates, zero or more of BDMNSW. Click the "?" icon for help with document practice codes.
	State--The state of the document, based on the permission and status bits: Approved--The document is approved for general release. Frozen--The document is frozen and can no longer be changed. This is probably because it is already released to a client or has been superceded by another document. Frozen and Blessed--The document is both Frozen and Approved. Locked--The document has been locked or checked out by the author, probably so it can be updated. New or modified--The document has either just been added to the repository or has been modified since it was added. It is not yet flagged as Approved.
	Admin--If you have administrative rights to the document record the Admin column appears with Edit, Delete, or both. Clicking Edit edits the document record in the database, as discussed in Chapter 2, "Editing records." Clicking Delete deletes the document record from the database, as discussed in Chapter 2, "Deleting records," in the Document Repository Administrators' Guide. If you do not have administrative rights to the record you will not see the Admin column. Only database administrators have administrative access to all records; only document authors have administrative access to their own records. Documents that are in a Frozen state (the Frozen bit is set) cannot be deleted and will not have the Delete link.

Back to "Contents"

Back to Chapter 3, "Editing records"

On to Chapter 5, "Other functions"

Back to the repository

Back to CLINK

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