User Guide

Using Internet queries 589
If you enter a minus sign (–) immediately preceding field, documents that contain the specified
term are excluded from the search results. For example, if you enter
-field:term, documents
that contain the specified term in the specified field are excluded from the results of the search.
If you enter a plus sign (+) immediately proceeding the field search specification, such as
+
field:term, documents are included in the search results only if the search term is present in
the specified field.
Field searches are enabled by the
enableField parameter in a template file. This parameter, set to
0 by default, must be set to 1 to allow searching a document field.
Caution: The enableField parameter is the only thing in a template file that should be modified.
Query syntax
The query syntax is very similar to the syntax that users expect to use on the web. Queries are
interpreted according to the following rules:
• Individual search terms are separated by whitespace characters, such as a space, tab, or comma;
for example:
cake recipes
• Search phrases are entered within double-quotation marks; for example:
"chocolate cake" recipe
• Exclude terms with the negation operator, minus ( - ), or the NOT operator; for example:
cake recipes -rum
cake recipes NOT rum
• Require a compulsory term with the unary inclusion operator, plus sign (+); in this example,
the term chocolate must be included:
cake recipes +chocolate
• Require compulsory terms with the binary inclusion operator AND; in this example, the terms
recipes and chocolate must be included:
cake recipes and chocolate
Field searches
You can search fields or zones by specifying
name: term, where:
name is the name of the field or zone
term is an individual search term or phrase
For example:
bakery city:"San Francisco"
bakery city:Sunnyvale
For more information, see “Refining your searches with zones and fields” on page 601.