dKosopedia:Searching
From dKosopedia
- See also: DKosopedia:Look it up, for a general guide.
This article provides an overview of DKosopedia's search feature, as well as using external search engines, such as Google, to find information.
Contents: |
DKosopedia search
Put your text in the searchbox; it provides an input field with two buttons:
- Go - the Go button (or Enter on the keyboard), will take you automatically to the best match for the entered keyword.
- Search - the Search button will return a list of matching results.
Effective searching
Here are few good tips and hints for using the DKosopedia search feature effectively:
Limiting results
- Any word: DKosopedia's default search mode will turn up results with any of the words in your query. For instance, search engine turns up many results containing only "search" but not "engine" or only "engine" but not "search" in addition to the ones you probably wanted, which contain both words.
- All words: To limit to results that include all words, put a "+" at the beginning of each word: +search +engine returns only pages containing both words, like Google's default mode. You can also do a phrase search by enclosing words in quotes: "search engine" turns up a smaller set of results, which not only have both words but have them in order.
- Exclude words: To exclude results that include some words, put a "-" at the beginning: search -engine
Boolean search is also possible, using words including "AND", "OR", and "NOT".
Avoid short and common words
If your search terms include a common "stop word" (such as "the", "one", "your", "more", "right", "while", "when", "who", "which", "such", "every", "about") it may give a large number of non-relevant results. Historically, these words could not be searched at all, but as of February 2006, DKosopedia's Lucene index does not use "stop words", so any word can be successfully used in search queries.
Wildcards
You can use some limited wildcards if you really want to. Look up "fulltext search" on http://www.mysql.com/ and look down under 'boolean search' for the details. However, wildcard searches are slower, so go easy on the poor server.
Words with special characters
In a search for a word with a diaeresis, such as Sint Odiliënberg, it depends whether this ë is stored as one character or as "ë". In the first case one can simply search for Odilienberg (or Odiliënberg); in the second case it can only be found by searching for Odili, euml and/or nberg. This is actually a bug that should be fixed -- the entities should be folded into their raw character equivalents so all searches on them are equivalent. See also DKosopedia:Special characters.
Words in single quotes
If a word appears in an article with single quotes, you can only find it if you search for the word with quotes. Since this is rarely desirable it is better to use double quotes in articles, for which this problem does not arise.
An apostrophe is identical to a single quote, therefore Mu'ammar can be found searching for exactly that (and not otherwise). A word with apostrophe s is an exception in that it can be found also searching for the word without the apostrophe and the s.
Namespaces searched by default
The search only applies to the namespaces selected in the user's preferences. To search the other namespaces check or uncheck the tickboxes in "Search in namespaces" box found at the bottom of a search results page. Depending on the browser, a box may still be checked from a previous search, but without being effective any longer! To make sure, uncheck and recheck it.
Searching the image namespace means searching the image descriptions, i.e. the first parts of the image description pages.
Delay in updating the search index
For reasons of efficiency and priority, very recent changes are not always immediately taken into account in searches.
External search engines
Various search engines can provide domain-specific searches, which lets you search DKosopedia specifically. Searches are based on the text as shown by the browser, so wiki markup is irrelevant. Depending on your browser, you may also be able to use tools that allow you to search DKosopedia using bookmarklets.
In general, external search engines are faster than a DKosopedia search. However, because the search engine's cache is based on when the site was indexed, the search may not return newly created pages. Similarly, the search engine's cached version of the page will not be as up-to-date as the link to DKosopedia itself. Also, when returning DKosopedia articles in a regular search, mirrors and forks of DKosopedia content frequently rank higher than the actual DKosopedia articles because of search engine optimization techniques.
By following the links below, you can use the Google search engine to search DKosopedia - either all languages, or English-only. Google indexes all namespaces.
- Search all languages
- Search the English DKosopedia only
- Search the English DKosopedia (excluding articles nominated for deletion)
If you frequently search via Google, consider installing the Google Toolbar. Using the "search this site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of DKosopedia. The official Google Toolbar is for Internet Explorer (Windows only) and for Firefox (works on all operating system platforms for which Firefox is available, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X).
Yahoo!
By following the links below, you can use the Yahoo! search engine to search DKosopedia - either all languages or English-only.
If you frequently search via Yahoo!, consider installing the Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Using the "Search Only the Current Site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of DKosopedia. The official Yahoo! Companion Toolbar is only for Windows with Internet Explorer and Mozilla.
Other
Here are more DKosopedia:Tools which make searching more convenient.
Browser specific help
Using Mozilla to automatically search
Listed below are ways to search DKosopedia with Mozilla-based browsers, including Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, and Netscape 6 and 7.
Search DKosopedia using a bookmarklet
Works with: Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 6/7.
DKosopedia can also be searched via a bookmarklet.
In Mozilla Firefox, follow these steps:
- Right click in the search field at the top of the page, and select "Add a Keyword for this Search".
- Enter "DKosopedia Quicksearch" for the name.
- Enter "w" (without the quotes) for the keyword.
- Change the bookmark folder if you wish, and click "Add".
In Mozilla Suite, Netscape 6/7 and Beonex Communicator, follow these steps:
- Right click on the following web address and select "Bookmark this link": http://en.dKosopedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s
- Go to Bookmarks, Manage Bookmarks. Choose the bookmark you have just created. Highlight the Bookmark and click Properties.
- In the dialogue that comes up, put a lowercase w in the keyword box.
- Click OK and close the properties box, then close the bookmark manager.
In Camino, use the Mozilla Suite directions. Use Get Info (cmd-I) in the bookmarks manager to bring up the properties dialogue.
To search, go to the web address bar, enter "w SEARCH_QUERY" (without the quotes), and press enter.
Javascript in Bookmarks
Javascript can bring additional functionality to your bookmark. The following javascript can be pasted in as the 'Location' of a new bookmark created manually, for example in the 'Manage Bookmarks' window of Firefox. If you highlight a word in a webpage then hit the new bookmark, javascript grabs the word you have selected and uses that to perform the search. If no word is highlighted, you will be prompted to enter one.
javascript:x=escape(getSelection());if(!x)%7Bvoid(x=prompt('Enter%20Word:',''))%7D;if(x)+x
The whole thing should be pasted in as a single line without spaces for it to work.
K-Meleon
K-Meleon has a search button that can be used to search Google. You can change it to search DKosopedia instead, by:
- Close K-Meleon.
- Open up prefs.js with a text editor. The file should be in your K-Meleon\Profiles\PROFILE_NAME\RANDOM_STRING.slt\ directory.
- Add this line, and save prefs.js.
user_pref("kmeleon.general.searchEngine", "http://en.dKosopedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=");
Open up K-Meleon and press the search button to search DKosopedia. To go back to Google or to use another search service, edit prefs.js and delete the added line
Make sure K-Meleon is closed before editing prefs.js.
Opera
All Opera versions 6, 7, and 8 use a customizable text file called search.ini. This file should only be edited while Opera is not running. The following example replaces one of the existing pre-defined search engines. It is up to the user to avoid conflicts of shortcut key (key=). By default 'w' is taken by the download.com search, so either this or the DKosopedia one should be changed. Furthermore the 'Search Engine ##' should be replaced with a free number: '12' is free by default. The Search.ini editor makes editing trivial (see external link).
[Search Engine ##] Name=&DKosopedia URL=http://www.dKosopedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?search=%s Query= Key=w Is post=0 Has endseparator=0 Encoding=utf-8 Search Type=8
Opera 8
Opera appears to take a copy of the "search.ini" and load it into an internal buffer of some type. After editing the file with your new entry you must change the "File Version" at the top of the file to allow for your changes to be seen in the browser.
A new kind of search system has been added to Opera, which no longer requires manual editing. This will create a button on the mainbar, which can then be put anywhere you wish, even in the start panel.
See http://nontroppo.org/opsed/download.php?dd=e&plugin=100&type=SE7 for a DKosopedia search button.
Opera 9 (Preview)
Just right-click on the search field you want to create a search with and click "Create search". The following dialog is really simple. You just have to select a name for the search and a search shortcut. It even alerts you if the shortcut you want is already in use.
Older Versions
Most importantly, in 7.0, you should back up your customized search.ini because the file is overwritten by the Opera installer. This is no longer true in 7.10 and later.
In Opera 6 and 7.0, the menu accelerator letter is defined by the & in the name. In current versions the accelerator is automatically generated and may no longer be the same as the key.
More information
- Search.ini editing tool — makes it easier to add search engines
- How to edit Opera's search.ini (recommended reading prior to hand-editing search.ini)
If you cannot find an appropriate page on DKosopedia
If there is no appropriate page on DKosopedia, consider creating a page, since you can edit DKosopedia right now. Or consider adding what you were looking for to the Requested articles page. Or if you have a question, then see Where to ask questions, which is a list of departments where our volunteers answer questions, any question you can possibly imagine.
See also
- DKosopedia:User preferences help, "Search result settings" section.
- DKosopedia:Go button