Community Content Search

Introduction

Keyword searches can be conducted with ease across all community tools through a single search interface. A simple keyword search form is also included on each community's What's New page. The full search capabilities can be accessed by clicking the dedicated navigation button which appears alongside the other tools in the left-hand navigation bar. Click the screen shot on the right to see the full search interface and sample search results.

Note: Dedicated search functions also exist for finding members and searching within a single database.

Search All My Communities: You can select the "Search All My Communities" link at any time while searching in the community to open the Site Wide Search window. This will allow you to search multiple communities simultaneously.

Searching Community Content

The community content search function offers a single interface to search across all content types stored in a single community. Supported content types include:

Articles
Discussion topics
Discussion messages
Calendars
Calendar entries
Databases
Database records
Notes

Polls
Mailing lists
Mailing list messages
Files
Media
Projects
Tasks

Most searches will be conducted by matching user-inputted keywords. Multiple keywords and search phrases can be used together to refine or broaden a single search. Users can select whether "all" or "any" of the specified keyword/phrases should be included in a content item to be considered a match. The following table illustrates this keyword search flexibility:

User Input	Actual Search Conducted
User Input	Option: "Any" keyword	Option: "All" keywords
red bicycle racing	"red" or "bicycle" or "racing"	"red" and "bicycle" and "racing"
"red bicycle" racing	"red bicycle" or racing	"red bicycle" and racing

Important: File content of text-based file types will only be searchable if file indexing has been enabled for the site.

If file indexing has been enabled by administration, the text-based content of certain files such as MS Word documents, MS Excel spreadsheets, and text files may be searched for as well. Text-based file content is searched by using the same procedures listed in the above table. If a text-based file contains the criteria entered into the search dialog box, it will be presented in the list of results. In the search results portion of the pop-up window, files that have been indexed will have a preview option. If you wish to view an HTML preview of the file, select the preview icon to the left of the file's name. For further information, see the section on file previewing.

Search Tips

Any series of words that should appear together should be quoted to form a search phrase. In the second example above, a content item will have to contain "red bicycle" to be a match.
Do not type "and" or "or" into the keyword box unless you wish to search on those words.
All searches are case insensitive, therefore, a search for "Apple" and a search for "apple" will produce the same results.
Learn and use the advanced search options discussed below. Using these options to refine your search can save you time - shorter search times and fewer search results to review.

Advanced Search Options

All searches can be refined through various additional criteria in addition to, or instead of, specifying keywords. The additional search criteria are listed below with a brief explanation on their usage.

Note: If the advanced search has been accessed from within a specific community tool, a "Select Tools" link will be provided in the search interface. Selecting this link will access the search interface for all community tools.

To access all available search features, select the "Show more search options" link to expand the options list.

Updated Date Range

To search for content items based on their updated date, you must first check off one or both date filters. The "After" date filter allows you to find items that have been updated after the specified date. The default is 1 year ago. The date is not inclusive. The "Before" date filter allows you to find items that were updated prior to the specified date. The default date is tomorrow. The date is not inclusive. Click the calendar icon to quickly select a date using a calendar interface.

Tools

Multiple content types may be searched simultaneously. By default, all tools and content types are selected. When the Search button is selected within a specific tool, the search is specific to the tool content types (tool section box does not appear). If the tool selection box does not appear, a link labeled "Select Tools" will appear below the tool-specific selection box.

Tool-Specific Location

If the Search button is selected within a specific tool, a special tool-specific selection box appears instead of the default tool-selection box. It will present options such as a list of folders located in the specific tool area. To search across more than one tool or a different tool, click "Select Tools" below the special selection box.

Stars of Excellence

All content items can be marked with a level of approval by content moderators, administrators, or founders. These approval levels appear as one to three "stars of excellence". Searches can be refined to include content that has a minimum approval. For example, if "two stars +" is selected, it means any content item with less than two stars will not be permitted to appear as a search result.

Content Ratings

Important: This search option will only appear if content ratings have been enabled by administrators at both the site and community levels.

Content items, which support User Content Ratings, can be evaluated by community members and assigned a rating from 1 to 10. A value of 10 indicates highly rated content, whereas a value of 1 indicates poor quality content.

Searches can be refined to show only content that has been rated. Select a "Minimum average rating" to return content items with at least the selected average value. To return content items rated by at least a certain number of members, enter a value for "Minimum number of ratings" (the community default will be suggested).

Include folders

By default, all content including folders is included in a search result. Users conducting searches can choose to exclude folders from their search results by de-selecting the option "Include folders".

Include items from archived folders

Any tool folders can be set as an archived folder. Content found is archived folders are accessible, but does not appear on the What's New page, in the "Most Recent" listings, or in automatic e-mail updates. These items can be excluded from a search by de-selecting the option "Include items from archived folders".

Include unmoderated content

All content posted by community members is not considered approved unless it is explicitly approved by a moderator, administrator, or founder. Once approved or "moderated", a green check mark appears on the content's detail screen (next to the stars of excellence). If it is not yet approved, the check mark appears gray in color. When full content moderation is enabled on a tool by administrators, unmoderated content items are hidden from members until they are approved. When content is not set to be hidden prior to approval, users conducting searches can include or exclude unmoderated items in their search results by de-selecting the option, "Include unmoderated content".

Include previous versions

By default, only the most recent version of a revised content item will be included in a search result - past versions are not displayed, unless specifically indicated. To include previous versions of content, select this option and the following information will be included in the search results: "ex: 2 search results also found in older versions of this content item, "View list". Select the view list link to display all versions of the content item in the search results.

Posted by

Search results can be filtered to include only content owned by a specific community member. To search for content owned by a single member, enter the member's full user name in the "Posted by" field. To find a member's user name, refer to the community Member List.

The presentation of search results can also be customized. The following two options also appear on the search form:

Show in Results

Search results can be made to include various additional information beyond the name of the matching content item.

User Name: user name of content owner.
Date and Time: updated date and time value associated with an item.
Description: additional description associated to a content item (if provided by the content author).
Location: Folder or special category where the content item is located within its tool area.

Sort Order

Search results are sorted by "Last Updated date (descending)" by default. This means the most recently added or updated items will appear first. The sort order can also be modified to be ascending/descending by date posted or alphabetical.

If content ratings have been enabled by administrators, the option will be provided to sort by highest or lowest average user rating. If one of these sort options is applied, items that have not met the minimum number of member ratings will appear at then end of the sort. These items will be sorted together by "Last Updated (descending)".

If a view count sort option has been selected, view counts for each content item will be displayed in the search results, otherwise these values will be hidden. For a complete description of each view count sort option, see the section on view count intervals.

Note: If the "Display of Content View Counts" has been disabled, sorting based upon these values will still continue, however view counts will be removed from all locations of the community.

Accessing the Searching Interface

The search interface can be accessed in the following areas of the online community:

Navigation Bar: A "Search" option appears in the main left-hand navigation bar. It will appear below the current "Explorer" option. Clicking the Search navigation option will open the search interface as a pop-up window. This option can be disabled by Founders and Administrators from within the Tool Configuration screen (community administration area).
What's New: A boxed area will appear on the top right-hand side of the What's New page. It offers users a simple version of the search form. Submitting the search form will open the search interface as a pop-up window. If no keyword criteria is specified, the search will return a list of the most recently updated content items across all content areas.
Explorer: The Explorer interface, which permits rapid tool and folder navigation, includes a toggle button to view the search interface using the same floating window. The search interface offers a toggle button to return to the Explorer interface. This helps to minimize the number of additional "pop-up" or floating windows required.
Community Tools: Within each tool area, a Search button appears which will open the search interface as a pop-up window. The current tool will be pre-selected. If the search button is selected while viewing a specific folder, the folder and its sub-folders will be pre-selected in the search form as well. During a tool-specific search, an option will appear on the search form to "Select Tools" - click this option if you wish to search across multiple or different content types.

Note: A special search interface is provided for searching a single database. The database search interface provides special capabilities such as searching within a specific database field. Database records can therefore be searched using either search interface.