The search tutorial shows you how to take advantage of ECIS search capabilities and suggests some winning advice for finding the information you need. Its companion, query language tutorial emphasizses the ECIS query capabilities. The search tutorial shows you how to use the results of your search. With ECIS, you can do the following: Customize the initial rank using the Personalized relevance ranking functionality View your results in detail Export your results to predefined formats ECIS is designed to enable you to use your prior knowledge of Web search tools. Hence, the search engine is very similar to what you use to search the Web: you can quickly type in a few key search words and get results immediately. Moreover, the search is designed to offer full ECIS functionality. You can specify attributes like title, full-text or body. You can also search specific databases or groups of databases (called domains).

Topics:    Search Tutorial    Examples    Query language    Syntax   Query results

Basic Search Advice

The following section helps you to prepare an effective search and obtain the results which really interest you: all results corresponding to your search and only those which interest you.

Prepare your search by clarifying your objective and the scope of your search.

The search you perform to find information on Jaguar can be different depending on whether you require information on the Jaguar car or the animal of the same name.

• Keywords
  A search is based on one or more keywords. Use synonyms or alternatives of these keywords to specify your search (OR). You can also choose terms that are not relevant in order to exclude them (ANDNOT).
  A search can be performed on exact phrases.
• Operators
  You can combine keywords with operators: AND - OR - ANDNOT - WITHIN - NEAR. To learn more about  operators, go to query language tutorial.
• Domains
  In what domain do you want to seek?
  Search engines are classified by domain: General, Business, Press, etc. Select the fields in which your search is the most relevant.
  In each domain, you can restrict the sources to the most suitable search engines. By default, a search is run on all the sources of the selected domain. See: Select domains and sources.
• Attributes
  You can scan for a keyword in full-text, in the body of text, or in the title only. To specify this information, change the attribute of the search.

Examples

To get familiar with the Basic Search, go to the advanced search page and try out the following sample searches:

Finding conferences on XML Select General from the list of domains Select Title from the Attribute pull-down menu  Select CONTAINS from the Filter pull-down menu  Enter the search words conference or proceeding or seminar or workshop or symposium and press return  Repeat the steps above, by selecting Body for Attribute and CONTAINS XML or SGML  Click Start to activate the search

Tips: To perform the same search right from the main search page, use the ECIS query language In the search area, enter: title:conference or proceeding or seminar or workshop or symposium / body:XML or SGML

Finding trade shows on software translation

In the example below, search for the phrase "Trade Show." Note the use of quotation marks in the query. 

• Domain: General 
• Title CONTAINS "trade show" 
• Body CONTAINS translation 

Finding online newsletters and electronic journals on knowledge management

The example below shows you how to use phrases and grouped boolean operators. Note the use of parentheses within the query. The example also indicates the appropriate use of the TITLE versus BODY attributes. Searching the body of online documents for the word Knowledge would yield an unacceptably large number of results.

• Domain: General 
• Title CONTAINS knowledge and (ejournal or "electronic journal" or "electronic journals" or newsletter) 

Search for exact phrases

When searching for phrases such as The Document Company or Design Patterns, enclose the phrase in quotation marks, that is to say "Design Patterns". Using the quotation marks tells the search engine to find those words in sequence.

Select domains

In the standard and advanced search pages, select or clear a domain by clicking on the icon of the domain. The domain is selected when the icon is active (color).

Select sources

To limit a search to specific sources of a domain:

1. Click Domains in the standard search window
2. Select the required domain
3. Clear or select the sources within this domain
4. Click OK to validate your preferences
5. Before running the search, make sure that the desired domain is active (icon colored)
   A search is performed on the sources that you indicated for this domain

Change Attribute

By default, a standard search is performed with the full-text attribute (the keywords you entered in the search text-field are searched for any attribute). To choose a different attribute like title, body or author, use one of the following methods:

• Use the advanced search panel
• Create a complex query using the ECIS query language
  Sample: title:"Design Patterns" / body:singleton NEAR factory / date:after:2002-01-01