Searching Using Search Applets

This section provides an overview of the search capabilities QuestAgent applets provide from the end user’s point of view. QuestAgent comes with two highly customizable applets:

• Standard Search Applet (SearchApplet.class)
• "Search by Field" Applet (FieldedSearchApplet.class)

Using the QuestAgent search applets, the user can do simple searching or more complex query searches using Boolean operators.

Standard Search Applet (SearchApplet.class)

The searching technique is similar to commonly used web search engines.

To search a document collection

1. Enter the search term or query in the Query text box.
2. Click the Search command button.
3. The QuestAgent search applet displays "searching…" in the message area. If any hits are found in the index, The QuestAgent search applet displays the title of the document(s) in the result list.
4. To open a document in the result list, double-click its title.

For details on simple searches and query searches, see the sections below.

Simple Searching

• Searches are not case sensitive. Typing System is the same as typing system.
• You can enter multiple terms, such as purchase license.
• Use the asterisk (*) as a suffix wildcard character in keywords. For example, enter order* to find pages containing order, ordered or ordering.
• Click the Search button or press Enter to start the search.
• If no matches are found, reword your query and try again.
• When matches are listed, double click a matched entry to open the document.
• Use the browser’s Find function to locate the term on a page.

Advanced Searching

• You can enter a Boolean expression, using AND, OR and NOT operators.
• Use AND to specify two or more terms which must occur in the document, for example: software AND system returns only those documents containing both system and software.
• Use OR to specify two or more terms which, any of which must occur in the document, for example: software OR system returns documents containing either software or system or both.
• Use NOT to find documents that do not contain the expression, for example: NOT(support)
• Multiple terms automatically make an AND expression. So, entering purchase license is the same as entering purchase AND license.
• You can also use parentheses in Boolean expressions. For example, you can enter (java and applet) or wizard to search for documents containing either wizard or the combination of java and applet.

"Search by Field" Applet (FieldedSearchApplet.class)

"Search by Field" Applet provides additional functionality by allowing user to select one or more index fields to search in. Using "More" and "Fewer" buttons, the user can simply add or remove query text boxes - one for every index field.