Developing ColdFusion MX Applications with CFML
Using Verity Search Expressions

Using simple queries

The simple query is the default query type and is appropriate for the vast majority of searches. When entering text on a search form, you perform a simple query by entering a word or comma-delimited strings, with optional wildcard characters. Verity treats each comma as a logical OR. If you omit the commas, Verity treats the expression as a phrase.

Caution:   Many web search engines assume a logical AND for multiple word searches, and search for a phrase only if you use quotation marks. Because Verity treats multiple word searches differently, it might help your users if you provide examples on your search page or a brief explanation of how to search.

The following table shows examples of simple searches:

Example	Search result
low,brass,instrument	low or brass or instrument
low brass instrument	the phrase, low brass instrument
film	film, films, filming, or filmed
filming AND fun	film, films, filming, or filmed, and fun
filming OR fun	film, films, filming, or filmed, or fun
filming NOT fun	film, films, filming, or filmed, but not fun

The operators AND and OR, and the modifier NOT, do not require angle brackets (<>). Operators typically require angle brackets and are used in explicit queries. For more information about operators and modifiers, see "Operators and modifiers".

Stemming in simple queries

By default, Verity interprets words in a simple query as if you entered the STEM operator (and MANY modifier). The STEM operator searches for words that derive from a common stem. For example, a search for instructional returns files that contain instruct, instructs, instructions, and so on.

The STEM operator works on words, not word fragments. A search for instrument returns documents containing instrument, instruments, instrumental, and instrumentation, whereas a search for instru does not. (A wildcard search for instru* returns documents with these words, and also those with instruct, instructional, and so on.)

Note:   The MANY modifier presents the files returned in the search as a list based on a relevancy score. A file with more occurrences of the search word has a higher score than a file with fewer occurrences. As a result, the search engine ranks files according to word density as it searches for the word that you specify, as well as words that have the same stem. For more information on the MANY modifier, see "Modifiers".

The following figure shows a basic search interface performing a single word search:

The results of this search show the effects of the STEM operator and MANY modifier:

In CFML, enter your search term(s) in the criteria attribute of the cfsearch tag:

<cfsearch name="search_name"

  collection="bbb"
  type="simple"
criteria="instructional">

Preventing stemming

When entering text on a search form, you can prevent Verity from implicitly adding the STEM operator by doing one of the following:

• Perform an explicit query. For more information, see the next section, "Using explicit queries".
• Use the WORD operator. For more information, see "Operators".

In CFML, you can prevent stemming by enclosing the double-quoted search term with single quotes, as follows:

<cfsearch name="search_name"

  collection="bbb"
  type="simple"
criteria='"instructional"'

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