Query Search

Key words can be searched for when using the search (simple or advanced) function in SmartyFile. There is added functionality to use a query to search for partial words and to add wildcards as part of the query. Queries can be used on to search on the following items to match a partial word:
- Round
- Owned by
- Shared with
- Form response text
- Form name

Example: you may have tried to search for any applications that are owned by one of your team members ‘Jenny’. You search using ‘jen’ but received no results. If you use ‘Jenny’ you receive results. If you wanted to use ‘jen’ to find applications you would need to use a query. Details on how to do this are outlined below.

For those interested in the specifics of this function, SmartyFile uses 'Lucene Search'.

Types of searches

Results include specific character/number/word/phrase/etc

If you would like your search to return results for only those submissions that contain specific character, number, word, phrase etc the you are able to do this by using double quotation marks ( ““ ) on either side of the required result.

For example, to search for all the submissions that contain ‘community’ you can use the search:

“community”

Wildcard Searches

Lucene supports single and multiple character wildcard searches within single terms (not within phrase queries).

To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol.

To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the "*" symbol.

  • The single character wildcard search looks for matching terms which replace the "?" with another character.

For example, to search for "text" or "test" you can use the search:

te?t

  • Multiple character wildcard searches look for 0 or more characters.

For example, to search for test, tests or tester, you can use the search:

test*

You can also use the wildcard searches in the middle of a term.

te*t

Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators allow terms to be combined. Lucene supports AND, "+", OR, NOT and "-" as Boolean operators (Note: Boolean operators must be ALL CAPS).

For example, to search for submissions that include ‘community events’ or just the word ‘events’ you can use the search:

“community events” events

or

“community events” OR events

  • You can use the AND operator to find results where both terms exist anywhere in the application ID.

For example, to search for submissions that include ‘community events’ and also ‘youth events’ you can use the search:

“community events” AND “youth events”

  • The "+" or required operator requires that the term after the "+" symbol exist somewhere in the result.

For example, to search for submissions that must contain ‘community’ but may also contain ‘events’ you can use the search:

+community events

  • The NOT operator excludes documents that contain the term after NOT.

For example, to search for submissions that contain ‘community’ but does not include ‘events’ you can use the search:

“community” NOT “events”

The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return no results:

NOT “events”

  • The "-" or prohibit operator excludes documents that contain the term after the "-" symbol.

For example, to search for submissions that contain ‘community events' but not 'youth events’ you can use the search:

“community events” - “youth events”

For further technical information on Lucene search parameters see Technical Lucene Parameters

Search