Searching

SearchBlox supports faceted search, API-based search, and secure search.

• Faceted Search
• Search API
• Secure Search

Searchblox uses a standard search query format that includes operators and faceted options.

Search Query Syntax

• The SearchBlox query syntax combines Elasticsearch syntax with SearchBlox’s custom syntax.

Operators in Search

Fielded Search

Wildcard Search

• SearchBlox lets you use wildcard searches with single or multiple characters.
• Use ? for a single-character wildcard and * for multiple characters.
• The ? wildcard matches only one character.
• Example: To match text or test, use te?t.
• The * wildcard matches zero or more characters.
• Example: To match test, tests, or tester, use test*.
• You can also place wildcards in the middle of a word, like te*t.

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Fuzzy Search

• SearchBlox supports fuzzy search, which finds results even when words are misspelled.
• To use it, add a ~ at the end of a single word.
• Example: Searching roam~ will also match words like foam and roams.
• For multiple words, add the fuzzy operator to each word separately.
• Example: international~ earth~ day~ performs a fuzzy search on all three words.

Proximity Search

• SearchBlox supports proximity search, which finds words that appear near each other.
• To use proximity search, put a ~ at the end of a phrase and specify the distance between words.
• Example: To find “searchblox” and “j2ee” within 10 words of each other, use:
  "searchblox j2ee"~10

Exact Search or Phrase Search

• To find documents with an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in double quotes.
• Example: To search for Old is gold, use: "Old is gold"

Boolean Operators

• Boolean operators** combine search terms using logic.
• SearchBlox supports: AND, +, OR, NOT, and -.
• Operators AND, OR, and NOT must be in ALL CAPS.

OR Operator

• The OR operator is the default in the SearchBlox Search API.
• It finds documents if either of the terms or phrases exists.
• Example: To search for documents containing either "searchblox server" or elasticsearch, use: "searchblox server" OR elasticsearch.
• A simple query like searchblox j2ee also returns documents containing either term.

AND Operator

• The AND operator finds documents where both terms appear in the text.
• Example: To search for documents containing searchblox and j2ee, use: searchblox AND j2ee.

NOT Operator

• The NOT operator excludes documents that contain the term following NOT.
• Example: To find documents containing "searchblox server" but not j2ee, use: "searchblox server" NOT j2ee.
• The NOT operator cannot be used alone; a query like NOT "searchblox server" will return no results.

Plus Operator "+"

• The + (required) operator ensures that the term after + must exist in a document.
• Example: To search for documents that must include searchblox and may include j2ee, use: +searchblox j2ee.

Minus Operator "-"

• The - (minus) operator excludes documents containing the term after -.
• Example: To find documents containing "searchblox server" but not j2ee, use: "searchblox server" -j2ee.
  *Fielded Search**
• SearchBlox supports fielded search, allowing searches within a specific field.
• By default, searches are performed on content, title, description, and other mapped custom fields.
• To search a specific field, use the syntax: fieldname:searchterm.
• Examples:
  keywords:news
title:world
url:"http://www.bbc.com"
• For url field, enclose the URL in double-quotes.
• Fielded search works on standard fields and custom fields.
• The following fields can be used in fielded search queries:

Grouping

• SearchBlox supports using parentheses () to group clauses and create sub-queries.
• Grouping allows you to control Boolean logic in a query.
• Example: To search for either searchblox or server, and also j2ee:
  (searchblox OR server) AND j2ee
• Fielded search can also be grouped with Boolean operators for complex queries:
  +travel +world +(title:"news")
(world AND travel) OR keywords:news
((world AND travel) OR keywords:news) AND cnn

Default AND/OR operation

• In the SearchBlox API, when multiple search terms are used, the default operator is OR.
• You can change the default to AND by using the parameter &default=AND.
• In faceted search, &default=AND ensures that multiple terms are combined with the AND operator.
• To learn more on this parameter read: Search Parameters

Using Special Characters in Search

• SearchBlox uses sb_analyzer by default, which ignores special characters during indexing, though they can appear in context.
• To retain special characters for search, you can change the analyzer.
• Characters that can be used directly without an escape character: @ # $ ^ & - + = | " , . ? ( ) *
• Example: test@
• Characters that require an escape character: ~ { } ! : < > _ [ ] / \ %
• Example: test%
• The fuzzy search operator ~ cannot be used directly or with an escape character; enclose the term in double quotes for search.
• Example: "test~nest"
• For more on search analyzers and handling special characters, refer: Analyzers in SearchBlox

Sample Search Queries