Search TWiki Variables

TWiki Variables are text strings - %VARIABLE% or %VARIABLE{ parameter="value" }% - that expand into content whenever a topic is rendered for viewing. TWiki Variables are useful to create TWiki applications and workflows, but there are also variables for content creation such as %TOC% to show a table of content and %INCLUDE{}% to include another page.

You can search TWiki Variables.

• SEARCHDEFAULTTYPE: Default search type for search forms which calls the search script
  • Currently keyword

Search Pages

• Patterns are separated by semicolons

• • Currently %SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE%

• • Currenty literal
• SEARCHSTOPWORDS: List of stop words (common words and characters to exclude from a keyword search)
  • Currently a, all, am, an, and, any, as, at, b, be, by, c, d, e, for, from, g, h, how, i, i'm, i.e., in, is, isn't, it, it's, its, j, k, l, m, n, o, of, on, or, p, q, r, s, t, that, that's, the, this, to, u, v, w, was, wasn't, what, what's, when, where, who, who's, will, with, x, y, z

Search Help

Basic Search Form

The WebSearch form offers basic search features:

• Search field: Enter one or more keywords
• All webs flag: Check the flag if you want to search all public webs, not just the current web
• Scope: Select if you want to search the topic title, text body or both

The search is keyword based like in a typical search engine:

• Specify word(s) you want to find
• Multiple words form an AND search, intranet web service returns all pages that have the three words anywhere in the page
• Optionally specify plus signs for AND search, like intranet +web +service
• Enclose words in double quotes to form a literal search, like "web service"
• Specify a minus sign to exclude a word, like soap -shampoo
• Use double quotes if you want to search for a leading minus sign, like "-nowarn"
• Stop words are excluded from a keyword search:
  • Stop words are common words and characters such as "how" and "where", defined in the SEARCHSTOPWORDS setting in the TWikiPreferences
  • If you want to search for a word in the stop word list, prefix the word with a plus sign
• Example: To search for all topics that contain "SOAP", "WSDL", a literal "web service", but not "shampoo",
  enter this: soap +wsdl "web service" -shampoo

Advanced Search Form

The WebSearchAdvanced form offers more control over search.

TWiki supports three types of searches:

• keyword: The basic search type
• literal: Simple search where text is searched literally
• regex: A RegularExpression search for power users

TWiki's regex search is a set of regular expression patterns:

• Patterns are delimited by a semicolon
• An AND search is performed for the list of patterns
• An exclamation point preceeding a pattern indicates an AND NOT search; use it to exclude a pattern, like !web service
• If you want to search for a semicolon or an exclamation point, escape them with a leading backslash, like \!shampoo
• Example: To search for all topics that contain "SOAP", "WSDL", a literal "web service", but not "shampoo",
  enter this: soap;wsdl;web service;!shampoo

Formatted Searches

You can embed a nicely formatted search in a topic by using the %SEARCH{}% variable described in TWikiVariables.

Search Preferences

The TWikiPreferences has these settings:

• SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE: Default search type for search forms which calls the search script
• SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE: Default search type for %SEARCH{} variable
• SEARCHSTOPWORDS: List of stop words

-- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 18 Jan 2004