Searching the User Assistance

For the Online User Assistance, you can use a service based on the EXALEAD CloudView search engine. For the Installed User Assistance, you can use a Java server that installs with the documentation packages.

This task shows you how to:

Search the Online User Assistance

You can perform a full-text search on the online portal and refine the results using facets.

Perform Full-Text Search

You can run more or less complex queries on the online portal.

  1. Enter your query in the search box.

    Syntax rule Description
    Search for all search words in any order

    This is the default behavior.

    For example, word1 word2 gives the same results as word2 word1. Only pages that contain both the words word1 and word2 appear in the Search results. Adding more terms restricts the search further.

    Note: When your query contains more than one word, pages containing all words are found before those only partially fulfilling the search criteria.
    Reserved characters

    Use double quotes if your query contains the following reserved characters: / , < > = : {} [] () \t \n \r.

    Search by exact phrase

    Use double quotes "" to search for exact phrases.

    For example, if you enter "prerequisite checklist", the search results display the pages containing exactly the words prerequisite checklist in that order.
    Search by exact word

    Use the + (plus) operator to search for exact words only. It is typically useful to search for:

    • Link words (the, a, of, or, and) that are ignored by default.
    • The plural of a word.
    • Very specific queries, like part reference names.

    In your query, you can also prepend words by + to search for the exact forms of these words only. For example, with the query foo +bar, foo has the standard semantic expansion but not bar, which returns the exact form only, that is, bar, and not bars.

    Search with logical expressions

    Use the following operators to build your queries with logical expressions (for example, word1 <OPERATOR> word2):

    • OR: either one search term OR another. It is useful to specify a list of similar terms that might occur in the document you are looking for.
    • AND: one search term AND another search term.
    • NOT: one search term BUT NOT another search term.
    • XOR: either one search term OR another BUT NOT both.
    • BOR: either one search term OR another. Only use it for a fast OR on many documents (no expansion, no ranking).
    Search with excluded words

    Use the following operators before the string to exclude from the search:

    • NOT
    • -XX (minus sign)
    • BUTNOT

    Examples:

    • compound -box or compound NOT box searches for documents containing compound but not box.
    • create database BUTNOT oracle searches for documents containing create and database, but not oracle.
    Search by word proximity

    Use the following operators to find documents where search terms are in proximity of one another:

    • NEAR
    • NEXT
    • AFTER
    • BEFORE
    Note: By default, the maximum distance between terms is 16 words.

    Example: "collaborative spaces" AFTER communities searches for documents where collaborative spaces appears soon after communities.

    You can also specify the maximum distance of the words by using NEAR/x, AFTER/x, and BEFORE/x. For example:

    • "collaborative spaces" NEAR/5 communities searches for documents where collaborative spaces appears within 5 words of communities,
    • and "collaborative spaces" BEFORE/5 communities searches for documents where movie star appears within 5 words before communities.
    Important: You cannot use proximity operators with expressions whose "position" cannot be computed. For example, the query music NEAR (Madonna AND mp3) does not work, because the expression Madonna AND mp3 cannot be associated with a single word position value.
    Search with wildcard

    Use * as a wildcard. For example, drill* returns: drill, drilled, drilling, drill-rivet, etc.
    Search with regular expressions

    Use regular expression patterns based on Perl 5.

    Open and close patterns with a / (slash) character.

    Examples:

    • /s.ren..pi.y/ searches for documents with words that match the pattern S . R EN .. PI . Y and would find documents with the word serendipity.
    • /mpg(1|2|3)?/ searches for documents containing any of the following: mpg, mpg1, mpg2, or mpg3.
    Search with optional terms

    Use the OPT operator to include an optional word in the search. Use it to specify several terms without limiting the scope of the search.

    expression OPT pattern searches for documents containing expression that preferably also include pattern.

  2. Click the result you want to open.

This opens the page with the search terms highlighted and updates the breadcrumb trail at the top of the page.

This also shows you the page location in the table of contents displayed on the left.

Refine Search Results with Facets

You can use the facets on the left to refine your search to a specific Topic Type, Topic Category, Area, Sub Area, or to a combination of these elements.

  1. Launch your query from the search box.
  2. In the Refine your search area, select a facet category to refine your search.

    You can:

    • Click a facet category to exclude all other categories. For example, in the Topic Category facet, click Administration to display this category only (see the table below).
    • Click the x icons of the facet categories you want to exclude.
    • Reset your faceted search by clicking again the selected facet categories.

    Facet Description
    Topic Type Type of information, for example Task, Concept, Reference, and so on
    Topic Category Category, for example, What's New, Overview, and so on
    Area Quadrant or user assistance area
    Sub Area Domain

Search the Installed User Assistance

Important: The installed user assistance uses a Java server as search utility, not the EXALEAD CloudView search engine.

Perform Full-Text Search with the Java Server

You can use the java server to run simple searches.

  1. Enter the words you want to search for in the online user assistance search box.

    For example, enter the words: websphere plug-in.

    Notes:

    • Search is case-insensitive.

    • Use double quotes to search for exact phrases. For example, if you enter "prerequisite checklist", the search returns only pages containing exactly the words prerequisite checklist in that order.

      You can use both single words and exact phrases (between quotes) in the same query. For example, searching for fillet "scale expression".

    • When your query contains more than one word, the search returns only the pages that contain all the query words.

      If you search for a group of terms that are present in many pages, response time for the query might be long.

    • The search capability considers the following special characters as separators, and does not take them into account: ," = + ( ) ? * / |

      It also considers the following characters as separators when they are at the end of the word: _ - ' .

    • The Java server removes a list of stop words from the query (but keeps them if they are part of an exact phrase. In English, these words are: a, and, be, for, from, has, i, in, is, it, of, on, to, the.

      In the search results, the Java server highlights all the words entered in the query, including stop words. For example if you search for in the bounding box, it will highlight in and the.

    • When searching for a Japanese string, use spaces to separate characters.

  2. Click Search (or press Enter) to start the search.
    The search results page opens.
    Note: The Glossary panel includes glossary terms containing at least one of the words and expressions of the query.
  3. Click the link to the user assistance page you want to open.

  • This opens the page with the search terms highlighted and updates the breadcrumb trail at the top of the page.
  • This also shows you the page location in the table of contents displayed in the area to the left.
Tip: The breadcrumb trail lets you open any page upward in one click.

Refine Search with Facets

You can use filters to restrict your search to a specific Brand, Domain, App, Guide, or to a combination of these elements.

In the Search results page, use the facets on the left to filter the search on specific parts of the global Documentation set.

Note: For each facet, you can select multiple facet values to refine your query.