Search Help
How to use the OpenText Federated Query Server demos on this site
For more information about the OpenText Federated Query Server product, see the Overview page.
To perform a search, enter some words or phrases into search box, and press the "Search" button. You can enter Boolean expressions into the search box - see below for details.
To customize your search, click the "Preferences" link next to the search button. You can then choose appropriate options from the "Match", "Number of Results", "Result Clustering", "Result Style" and "Stop Searching" drop down lists. You can also select the search engines that you want to query.
The following sections describe the items on the Search and Preferences pages.
Search Box
Enter a query in the form of a single word or multiple words, with or without Boolean operators (e.g. AND, OR). Federated Query Server will automatically translate your query string into the appropriate syntax for each of the search engines.
The following table lists the search operators that this Web site supports (note that this is a tiny fraction of the operators that the Federated Query Server product supports):
| Operators | |
|---|---|
| "..." | Searches for the words within the double quotes as an exact phrase |
| AND | Returns results that contain both of the surrounding words or phrases |
| OR | Returns results that contain either of the surrounding words or phrases |
If a search engine does not support a particular operator, Federated Query Server will use the next most general operator instead.
Match
The "Match" drop down list allows you to specify how Federated Query Server will join the words and phrases in your query. It does this by inserting a Boolean operator between every pair of words or phrases that are not already separated by an operator.
| Match Options | |
|---|---|
| All of the search terms | Uses the AND operator between words or phrases, if no Boolean operator is specified |
| Any of the search terms | Uses the OR operator between words or phrases, if no Boolean operator is specified |
If you use Boolean operators in your query, they override the selection in the "Match" drop down list.
Number of Results
The "Number of Results" drop down list allows you to select the maximum number of results each search engine returns.
Result Clustering
The "Result Clustering" drop down list allows you to choose which type of clustering Federated Query Server will perform.
Clustering is a sorting method that takes the search results and groups them according to topic, site location, or both. If you choose a clustering option, Federated Query Server creates a linked list at the top of the result page so that you can easily navigate to the group of results most pertinent to your query.
| Clustering Options | |
|---|---|
| None | Federated Query Server returns a single merged list of results, with no clustering |
| By content | Results are grouped according to their content. Common phrases in the result titles and summaries are used as headings for the result clusters |
| By site | Results are grouped according to their location. The result URLs are used to form site names, which are then used as headings for the result clusters |
| By content and site | Results are grouped according to either their content or their location, whichever has most in common with other results in the result list |
Result Style
The "Result Style" drop down list allows you to choose the style in which results are displayed by Federated Query Server.
| Style Options | |
|---|---|
| Long | Displays the relevance score, title, summary, source and URL of each result |
| Medium | Displays the relevance score, title and summary of each result |
| Short | Displays just the title of each result |
Stop Searching
The "Stop Searching" drop down list allows you to choose the maximum time that Federated Query Server will spend waiting for the search engines to send a response.
| Stop Options | |
|---|---|
| After [N] seconds | Waits for a maximum of [N] seconds for the search engines to respond |
| Never | Waits for ever for the search engines to respond |
Search Engines
By default, Federated Query Server will broadcast your query to all of the search engines listed on the Preferences page. However, you can choose to query only certain search engines by selecting only the checkboxes next to those engines you wish to query. Buttons are provided which select and clear every search engine checkbox.