12.12 Search Parameters

The following table lists and describes all available search parameters. Each of these parameters can be used to extend or enhance the functionality of the search page templates or to create new search page templates.

For more information about how to implement parameters in an HTML document, see Section 13.0, Customizing Your Templates and Search Forms.

NOTE:If you use a parameter but leave its value blank, the default value for that parameter is used.

Table 12-24 Search Parameters

Name

Value

Description

basiclogin

Boolean

Displays the browser’s basic authentication dialog box.

Syntax: basiclogin=true|false

Options: True, False

Example: basiclogin=True

bbindex

String

Specifies which best bets index to use. Can be used multiple times to specify additional indexes. Overrides the default setting.

Syntax: bbindex=variable

Alternate Syntax: bbindex=indexname;indexname

Example: bbindex=myindex

Default: None (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

bbshow

Boolean

Specifies whether or not the best bets list should be shown on the search results page. Overrides the default setting.

Syntax: bbshow=true|false

Options: True, False

Example: bbshow=true

Default: True (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

bbnum

Integer

Specifies the number of best bets to show on the results page. Overrides the default setting.

Syntax: bbnum=variable

Options: Any positive number less than or equal to the maximum number specified in QuickFinder Server Manager.

Example: bbnum=5

Default: None (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

buttonpressed

String

A button clicked by the user. If this value is part of the query, then a response message should not be sent to the client.

Syntax: buttonpressed=button_name

Options: Yes, No, OK, Cancel, Continue, Ignore, Retry, Prev, Next, Help.

Example: buttonpressed=Cancel

context

String

Overrides the user’s default context for the current login.

Syntax: context=variable

Example: context=sales.novell

Default: None (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

country

String

Specifies your country using the two-character, uppercase country value derived from ISO 3166.

Syntax: country=country code

Example: country=TW

Default: As specified by Web browser language preferences.

date

Integer

Specifies a date range to be searched in milliseconds. If you pass a positive number such as 940457147873, then QuickFinder creates a date and time based on the number of milliseconds elapsed since January 1, 1970, 12:00 a.m. For example, the number 940457147873 produces the search start date of October 20, 1999, at 4:05:47 p.m.

The example shows the number of milliseconds spanning a three-month time frame. The minus sign (-) before the number indicates three months back in time.

Syntax: date=number

Example: date=-7905600000

encoding

String

Specifies the character set encoding used to encode the search request itself.

Syntax: encoding=value

Example: encoding=Shift_JIS

Default: UTF-8 (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

expandindex

String

Specifies an expanded search index. You can specify more than one index at a time. Overrides the default setting.

Syntax: expandindex=variable

Alternate Syntax: expandindex=indexname1;indexname2; indexname3

Example: expandindex=developerindex

Default: None (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

filefilter

String

Filters search results based on their path, domain, filename, or extension. Uses the same query syntax as the &query= parameter.

NOTE:If a primary &query= parameter is not provided, then QuickFinder automatically performs a filename-only search.

Syntax: filefilter=search_criteria

Example: filefilter=.exe

Example: filefilter=.com

filterquery_number

String

The &filter#= query parameter is used to send additional query details not specified by the user in order to help limit the scope of a search. Normally, these are included as hidden fields on an HTML form.

This parameter supports all of the same features and functionality as the &query= parameter. However, unlike the &query= parameter, this parameter can be sent multiple times for a single query item.

The individual filters associated with a single query item are joined using the value of the filteroperator parameter. The set of filters is logically joined with the rest of the query item by using the Boolean AND operator.

Syntax: filterquery_number=searchcriteria

Example: filter0=^product=GroupWise

See also filteroperatorquery_number.

filteroperatorquery_number

Number

Boolean conjunction to be used between multiple filters (several filters can be associated with a single query item). The complete set of filters is always associated with the corresponding query item using the Boolean AND operator.

Syntax: filteroperatorquery_number=number

Options: 0 (AND), 1 (OR), 2 (PHRASE)

Example: filteroperator0=1

Default: 1 (OR)

See also the query parameters operatorquery_number and filterquery_number.

gettotalhits

Boolean

Enables or disables the total number of hits calculation. For example, if you set the gettotalhits parameter to False, the Total Number of Hits label on the results page displays 0 (zero). Setting this parameter to True shows the total number of hits found during the search. In some complex situations, this can save valuable processing time.

Syntax: gettotalhits=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: gettotalhits=False

Default: True

idquery_number

String

Document ID that is used to narrow a search. You can specify more than one ID by using the same field name more than once.

Syntax: idquery_number=documentID

Example: &id0=z1.0010.&id0=z1.0020

Default: None

index

String

Restricts a search to one or more specified indexes. The index name you specify with this parameter must exactly match the name of an index defined at the server.

You can specify more than one index by either sending this parameter more than once or by separating the list of indexes with a semicolon (;).

Syntax: index=index_name1[;index_name2]

Example: index=GroupWise&index=Linux

Example: index=GroupWise;Linux

Default: All indexes or the list of default indexes specified in QuickFinder Server Manager.

lang

String

Specifies a language using the two-character, lowercase language value derived from ISO 639-1.

Syntax: lang=language_code

Example: lang=ja

Default: Browser language preference.

login

Boolean

When set to True, displays a form-based login rather than the standard browser-based login dialog box.

Syntax: login=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: login=True

logout

Boolean

When set to True, logs out the current user.

Syntax: logout=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: logout=True

noexpand

Boolean

When set to True, turns off search expansion.

Syntax: noexpand=variable

Options: True, False

Example: noexpand=True

noredirect

Boolean

When set to True, turns off URL redirection.

Syntax: noredirect=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: noredirect=True

numhits

Integer

Number of hits you want returned at one time in the search results page.

Syntax: numhits=number

Example: numhits=25

Default: 25 (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

operatorquery_number

Integer

Which operator to use between two or more words in a search.

Syntax: operatorquery_number=number

Options: 0 (AND), 1 (OR), 2 (PHRASE)

Example: operator0=1

Default: 0 (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

password

String

User’s password for form-based logins.

Syntax: password=variable

Example: password=novell

queryquery_number

String

Actual search criteria passed to the QuickFinder Server.

Because multiple queries can be defined in a single search request, the number variable lets you group various parameters together that apply to a specific query. Adding the same number to two or more parameters groups them together so they can be applied to the same query. For example, &query0=product+downloads&weight0=100 groups the &weight query parameter together with &query0.

This parameter is used most often with operatornumber, filternumber, filteroperatornumber, idnumber, weightnumber, and typenumber.

Syntax: queryquery_number=searchcriteria

Example: query0=novell+AND+groupwise

For more information, see Section 10.7, Weighted Queries.

relevance

String

Whether or not to sort the search results by relevance. Turning this feature off is a potential speed gain because the sort algorithm won’t run.

Syntax: relevance=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: relevance=False

Default: True

retencoding

String

Specifies the character set encoding to be used by the next results page returned to the user.

Syntax: retencoding=character_set_encoding

Example: retencoding=iso-8859-1

Default: UTF8 (specified using QuickFinder Server Manager)

resulttitle

String

Lets you select the search results by either title or URL. If you select the Result title or URL option, then the search result displays either title content or the URL. If you select the Result URL option, then the path or the URL is displayed as the result title.

Syntax: resulttitle=number

Example: resulttitle=2

retfield

String

Level of detail given about each result item. The fewer the details, the faster a search is returned to a user.

Field names include title, author, URL, changedate, language, summary, relevance, index, format, and filelength.

IMPORTANT:Type these fields exactly as they appear above.

To specify more than one field, separate them with an ampersand (&).

Syntax: retfield=field_name

Example: retfield=title

Example: retfield=title&retfield=author

server

String

Name of the virtual search server that is to receive this request. This query parameter is optional if the domain name of the request matches the name or alias of a registered virtual search server.

Syntax: server=virtual_search_server_name

Example: server=digitalairlines

Default: Domain name portion of search request

showfirsthit

Boolean

If set to True, this parameter automatically goes to the URL of the first hit on the current page rather than displaying the search results page.

Syntax: showfirsthit=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: showfirsthit=True

Default: False

sortbydate

String

Sorts the Total Search Results list by date, ignoring the normal relevance ordering.

Syntax: sortbydate=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: sortbydate=True

Default: False

sortfieldquery_number

String

Specifies the fields on which to sort the search results returned in a results page. Grouped together with the sortorder query parameter by adding a number to the end of the parameter name.

Field names include title, author, URL, changedate, language, summary, relevance, index, format, and filelength.

IMPORTANT:Type these fields exactly as they appear above.

Syntax: sortfieldquery_number=field_name

Example: sortfield1=title

sortkeys

Integer

Specifies the number of sort fields that should be used to sort the search results.

Syntax: sortkeys=number

Example: sortkeys=1

sortorderquery_number

Integer

Specifies the alphanumeric ordering of search result items (hits). Grouped together with the sortfield query parameter by adding a number to the end of the parameter name.

Syntax: sortorderquery_number=number

Options: 0 (Ascending), 1 (Descending), 2 (Default for each field)

Example: sortorder1=0

starthit

Integer

Hit number you want QuickFinder to begin searching from. If you specify a value of 35, QuickFinder returns hits beginning with hit number 35.

Syntax: starthit=number

Example: starthit=35

Default: 1

synflag

String

When set to False, turns off synonym-enhanced searching. Also overrides the default specified in QuickFinder Server Manager.

Syntax: synflag=True|False

Options: True, False

Example: synflag=False

Default: True

template

String

Specifies the results template you want your search results returned in. The following list includes the default templates included with the QuickFinder Server. However, your QuickFinder Server administrator might have created custom templates using different names. Check with your administrator if the default templates do not work for you. You must type the names of these templates exactly as they appear in this list:

  • ResultListTemplate.html

  • ResultListTerseTemplate.html

  • ResultListVerbose.html

  • PrintResultTemplate.html

  • SearchTemplate.html

  • HighlighterTemplate.html

Localized versions for multiple languages can also be used. See Section 14.1, Working with Multiple Languages.

HINT:A number of different file formats can be used as QuickFinder templates. For example, QuickFinder ships both HTML and XML templates. QuickFinder uses the current template filename extension to determine which template filename to use next. For example, if a user specifies the ResultListTerseTemplate.xml file for the current query, but the search produces a Not Found condition, QuickFinder automatically tries to find a template named ResultListNoHitsTemplate.xml.

Syntax: template=filename

Example: template=ResultList.html

Default: Search Page (SearchTemplate.html), Search Results (ResultListTemplate.html), and Print (PrintResultTemplate.html)

Default templates are specified using QuickFinder Server Manager.

theme

String

Name of the theme (or directory within the templates directory) where a complete set of search and print templates are stored.

Syntax: theme=theme_name

Example: theme=Intranet

typequery_number

Integer

Type of search.

  • 0 = Normal search; this is the default.
  • 1 = Searches only the given document numbers.
  • 2 = Root search used by the search tree control to get the top tree nodes.
  • 3 = Used to get the children of the given document number.
  • 4 = Searches the descendants of the given document numbers. Used to narrow a search or a print request, including all of its children.

Syntax: typequery_number=number

Options:

  • 0 = Normal search; this is the default.
  • 1 = Searches only the given document numbers.
  • 2 = Root search used by the search tree control to retrieve the top tree nodes.
  • 3 = Retrieves the children of the given document number.
  • 4 = Searches the descendants of the given document numbers. Used to narrow a search or a print request, including all of its children.

Example: type0=2

Default: 0 (zero)

url

String

Specified as a parameter to the Highlight servlet to determine the URL to highlight. The URL is highlighted only if the current user has rights to the file. The value must be properly URL-escaped.

Syntax: url=value

Example: url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.novell.com%2Findex.html

userid

String

User ID for form-based logins.

Syntax: userid=variable

Example: userid=jsmith

weightquery_number

Integer

Assigns a level of importance to the current query item as it relates to the other query items that are part of the search query. QuickFinder Server uses this number along with the relevance number to determine a search result’s final relevance and then orders the results accordingly.

Range: 0 to 100

Syntax: weightquery_number=number

Example: weight0=75

Default: 100