About Search

 

Search Results and Indexing

When results are shown in Relevance order, scoring is applied based on the number of times a search term is used and where the term is used within a piece of content. Scoring is based on the following factors (in descending order or weight):

  1. Titles – The names of the indexed objects, such as the subject of the discussion post
  2. Descriptions – The body or description of the object, such as the library entry description or the body of a blog post
  3. Text in other fields – Comments are a common third-level text input included in relevance scoring
  4. Descendants – Content on the Higher Logic platform often exists within a larger framework, such as a discussion thread or an attachment to a post within a thread
  5. Boosts – The following characteristics are also possible sources of increased relevance scores
    1. Time – The more recent, the more the boost
    2. Quantity – The more the search term is used, the higher the boost
    3. Direct match – If the searched term is a direct match in content, not a hit based on stemming, there is a slight boost. Stemming is achieving a hit for derivatives of a term, “friendly” being a hit for “friend” through stemming.

 

 Search Operators

Search operators are syntax elements, such as quotation marks or specific words, that put conditions on the initial search. 

Exact Phrase
Values between quotes "such as this" will treat the text string as a single term.

Tags
A tag operator can be used to return only tagged items in results. Example: Tags:webinar will return only items with the tag of "webinar." Untagged items will not be returned. Note: ILTA recordings, presentations and publications are tagged. Some blogs are tagged. Discussions are typically not tagged.

Wild Card
A term including an asterisk will allow any character or characters to replace the value. Example: innovat* finds innovation, innovate and innovated.  

Logical Operators
  • The common term "and" requires logic between strings. Example: meat and potatoes returns only items where both meat and potatoes are included.
  • The common term "or" uses any-of-these logic between strings. Example: grass or turf returns any items where either grass or turf is included. 

Grouping
A term within parentheses will allow "and" and "or" operators to limit the result set. Example: lunch and (meat or room or bunch) will bring back anything with lunch and at least one of meat, room, or bunch. Note that multiple instances of logical operators can be used.

Negating 
A hyphen connected to a term will omit any content using that term from results. Example: -football will omit any items with the word "football." The negating character can be used with groupings.

Common Properties
Standard English terms can be used to look for matches within specific stored elements. 

  • Title example: Title:Favorite will return only items where the word "favorite" is used in the title of the item. 
  • Description example: Description:Evidence will return only items where the word "evidence" is used in the description of the item. 

Ranges
Brackets with capital TO between properly formatted date values can limit to a range such as a date range. Example: [01/01/2016 TO 12/31/2016]

Date Formats
Multiple expressions for dates are supported. (When omitted, the time component is equal to 00:00:00)

  • MM/dd/yyyy
    • Example: 01/01/2016
    • Example: 12/31/2016
       
  • yyyy-MM-dd
    • Example: 2016-01-01
    • Example: 2016-12-31

Date/Time Formats
  • MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss
    • Example: 01/01/2016 00:00:00
    • Example: 12/31/2016 23:59:59
  • MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt
    • Example: 01/01/2016 12:00:00 am
    • Example: 12/31/2016 11:59:59 pm
  • yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
    • Example: 2016-01-01 00:00:00
    • Example: 2016-12-31 23:59:59
  • yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss tt
    • Example: 2016-01-12 00:00:00 am
    • Example: 2016-12-31 11:59:59 pm
  • yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ
    • Example: 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z
    • Example: 2016-12-31T23:59:59Z

Search Tip #1

After performing a search, click User Content under "Categories" to enable the selection of additional filter options on the left side of the screen.

 

Search Tip #2

Want to search just a specific community? Start a search, click User Content under "Categories," and then you'll see the full list of ILTA Communities on the left side. Select this to filter your search results to only those check-marked communities.