| Hit the 'Enter' key | |
| or | Click on the Search button |
|---|---|
| or | Select some other search criteria |
| or | Wait for the autosearch to be activated after 5 seconds |
By default, searching is on the combined fields of author, title, abstract and comments. These fields map to the creator, title and description Dublin Core metadata fields harvested from the repositories OJAX is searching. (Both abstract and comments map to description fields.)
In future versions,
it will be possible to restrict the search by deselecting unwanted fields.
However, this feature is not implemented in version 0.5.
You can improve your searches by adding operators to your search terms.
Search terms are case-insensitive but Boolean operators must be in upper case.| Operator | Example | Finds pages containing |
| Ajax web | Either the word Ajax or the word web or both. | |
| OR | Ajax OR web | Either the word Ajax or the word web or both. |
| || | Ajax || web | As OR |
| AND | Ajax AND web | The words Ajax and web |
| && | Ajax && web | As AND |
| + | +web Ajax | The word web must appear. The word Ajax may appear. |
| NOT | Ajax NOT web | The word but Ajax but not the word web |
| - | Ajax -web | As NOT |
| ! | Ajax !web | As NOT |
| " " | "graphical user interface" | The exact phrase "graphical user interface" |
| ? | Sm?th | Smith, Smyth etc [Single character wildcard search] |
| * | physic* | Any word beginning with physic [Multiple character wildcard search] |
| ~ | "boson muon"~10 | The words boson and muon within a specified number of words of each other, in this case 10 |
| ^ | Wusteman^4 AND library | The term Wusteman is a specified number of times more relevant than library, in this case 4 |
For further details of OJAX's query syntax, see the Apache Lucene Query Parser Syntax page.
You can search a specific Dublin Core metadata field by typing the field name followed by a colon ":" then the term you are looking for. For example, title:"Stars and planets" AND creator:Smith.
Search terms you enter in the search terms field (labelled Find) and the subject field (labelled in) are auto-completed. For example, if you type Smith into the search terms field, a list is automatically dropped down that itemises all matches to Smith and the number of their occurrences:
You select the term you want either by highlighting the term with the cursor keys and pressing return or by selecting with the mouse. The entire field is then automatically completed and a search is triggered. Your selection will replace the contents of the search terms field and the search is then triggered.
If you don't want to choose any of the auto-completion options, hitting the Escape key gets rid of the auto-completion menu. Entering a space character will trigger a search, as described in Auto-search.
Note: Auto-completion only completes the term you're currently entering. The number of matches refers to this current term, not the entire search phrase so far. For example, the following are auto-completions for the term "super", not the phrase "young super".
You can click the search button
whenever you want during your search - but you never have
to click it.
A search is automatically triggered whenever you select an entire option - for example,
whenever
While a search is in progress, the search button is greyed out and acquires a red border.
Your search results are displayed beneath the OJAX toolbar in one dynamically scrollable list - so you don't have to navigate between pages.
The dynamic information panel to the right of the scroll bar shows the current scroll position in relation to the beginning and end of the results set.
In the initial results display, only one line of each of the title, authors, subject, abstract and (optional) comments fields are shown for each item. To see any hidden detail, hover the cursor over the relevant field. To expand all display fields for an item, hover the cursor over the bar containing the resource identifier. Clicking on this bar causes a new window to open that points to the full record in the original repository.
You will know when OJAX has completed a search because the search button is no longer greyed out and the red border disappears. If your search has produced no results, the dynamic information panel to the right of the scroll bar will display 1-1-0, indicating that the results set is empty.
Because OJAX makes results available so quickly, and sorts results so rapidly, you don't need to choose your preferred sort options before the search is performed. Once the results list has appeared, simply select a field to sort on from the Sort by bar immediately above the results list.
Clicking one of these options sorts the results in ascending order; an upward pointing arrow appears to the right of the sort option chosen:
Clicking on the option again sorts in descending order and reverses the direction of the arrow.
Clicking on the arrow removes the sort; the results revert to their original order.
Note: Lucene sorts capital letters before lower case letters. For example, JONES will appear before James.
See Using Ajax to Empower Dynamic
Searching by Judith Wusteman and Pádraig O'hIceadha.
To appear in Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) 2006.