Advanced search options
- Applies to:
- All MindTouch Versions
- Role required:
- N/A
Search results only include pages or files that the user has permission to view.
Search terms
- A single term is one word, such as "research" or "analytics".
- A phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes, such as "custom CSS".
- Add double quotes around a term or phrase to match the words exactly.
- Using only one double quote mark causes a search error.
- Multiple terms can be combined with Boolean operators to form a more complex query.
Search constraints
| Constraint | Description | Example |
| author:<text> | Lists all pages that are authored by a certain user. The last person to make changes to an article is considered an author. | author:JamesV |
| content:<text> | Only searches within the content of a page or file. This does not include titles, tags, file names, descriptions, etc. | content:templates |
| date.created:<yyyymmdd>* |
Searches for all articles or files created at a certain date. Format: YYYYMMDDhhmmss. Append an asterick (*) to search for everything within a certain date range. |
For all articles created in 2014: date.created:2014* |
| date.edited:<yyyymmdd>* |
Searches for all articles or files edited at a certain date. Format: YYYYMMDDhhmmss. Append an asterick (*) to search for everything within a certain date range. |
For all articles edited in 2015: date.edited:2015* |
| description:<text> | Only searches file descriptions. If multiple words are being searched, they must be wrapped in quotes. | description:"image properties" |
| extension:<extension> | Lists only files associated with a certain file extension. | extension:csv |
| namespace:<namespace> | Returns results only from the specified namespace, such as main (shown) or media. | namespace:main |
| path:<path> | Returns results from a specific section instead of the whole site, such as from a specific category (Demo, shown) or Guide page. | path:Demo/* |
| path_ancestor:<path> | Returns results from a specific section instead of the whole site, such as from a specific category (Demo, shown) or Guide page. | path_ancestor:"Demo" |
| tag:<tag> | Lists all pages that are tagged with the specific tag you are searching. You can also click the tag in Page Settings on any page to trigger a search for all pages associated with that tag. | tag:search |
| title:<title> | Only returns search results that are specific to the page title. | title:"page" |
| type:<type> | Only returns results of the specified type, for example articles (wiki, shown), or attachments. | type:wiki |
| script:"template('<template_path/template_name>/" | Returns pages that contain a specific template. This search does not search templates. | |
| script:"wiki.page('Page_Path/Page_Title', 'Heading')" | Returns pages that contain content reuse of a specific page section. | |
| script:"template('Expert/Elm/Views/LearningPath', {name: 'pathname'*)" | Returns pages that contain a specific Learning Path. | |
| –<search constraint> | Add a minus sign next to any of these constraints to exclude options from the search result. | editor -tag:customization |
| +<search constraint> | Add a plus sign next to any of these constraints to include options from the search result. | editor +tag:customization |
Boolean operators
Boolean searches help link or unlink search queries. These are used in all popular search engines and are usually universal. Boolean searches are case-sensitive and require capitalization. If you have more than two words, Boolean searches help refine the search.
| Operator | Description | Example |
| OR | Displays one query or the other. Searching with multiple words (not a phrase in quotes) always searches with the OR operator. The more relevant search results are boosted if all of the words in the search are in the result. | Editor OR Table |
| AND | Only shows articles that include all of the words in the query. Searching with phrases acts similarly to using the AND operator. | Editor AND Table |
| NOT | Removes the next word from the search results. This helps when you have a large population of results and know you would like to strip out a specific subset of results. | Editor NOT Table |
Boost terms
When searching with multiple terms, you can boost a specific term to give it higher priority in the search. The higher the boost value, the more relevance is given to the term.
The query "page editor" can have either "page" or "editor" boosted, depending on where ^ is appended. Example: page editor^2 or page^10 editor
Grouping terms
Multiple clauses can be searched using parenthesis, similar to a math equation. This can be useful if you want to control the Boolean logic for a query.
Group words with parentheses ( ) and use Boolean operators to separate them. For example: (mindtouch OR mt4) AND advanced. This searches for either "mindtouch" or "mt4" and "advanced" in the query.
Escape special characters
Some special characters have functions related to the search query. For example, * is a wildcard character.
To include a character that has a special function in your query, you must escape the special character by adding a backslash \ before it.
For example, to search for the query "c:\desktop" you would type c\:\\desktop.
Special characters include: + - & || ! ( ) { } ] ^ " ~ * : \:
Touchpoint / API Examples
If using the search API (or Touchpoint), you may want to search based on ticket or user context.
For example: setup +namespace:main AND type:wiki AND path:Demo/*
This will search for the keyword "setup" in the main namespace (not template pages), only searching articles (not file attachments), and only under the "Demo" category (not the entire site).
This list of advanced search options in this article is not exhaustive. Other searches may be available. To apply constraints via an API call to the search API, alternate formatting is required. Contact Support team to learn more.