Using the Search Engine

All of the ITG-archived mailing lists use the SWISH-E search engine. If you have read the SWISH-E 2.2 Documentation and already know how to use SWISH-E, you can make use of the full power of boolean and meta searches (as long as the search type of boolean is selected). If you do not know how to use SWISH-E, these tips will help you use our interface.

Basic Searching

The basic searching option uses only a single text box to enter a query to the search engine. The Advanced Search option has a larger set of features available to it, and is described in greater detail below.

To use the basic searching option, simply enter text into the text field and press the enter or return key. The search engine will return a listing of all documents containing all of the search terms. Searching is done in a case-insensitive manner.

The basic searching option understands standard SWISH-E boolean queries, so more complex searches can be constructed using this small text field. For really complex searching options, or to effectively search by date, it is recommended that the Advanced Search form be used.

Note: if boolean searching is used, do not use the single-quote character in the search field to surround phrases. This will produce incorrect results in the matching output, and will incorrectly fill out the form when redisplayed. Always use double quote characters when boolean searching for phrases.

Advanced Searching

Type words into the search field and press enter or click on the search button. Searching is done in a case-insensitive manner.

There are ways to refine the search using just the words of interest:

All of the Words

Searches for all documents containing every word listed, though not necessarily adjacent to one another. For phrase searching, use the Exact Phrase option.

Some of the Words

Searches for all documents containing at least one of the words listed.

Without the Words

Searches for all documents containing none of the words listed.

Exact Phrase

Searches for the phrase you entered. No quotes are needed.

Boolean

Enables boolean type searches, and all the power of the SWISH-E search engine. See the SWISH-E 2.2 Documentation for more information.

Additional Options

From

The From field searches only the "From:" headers in the email. To find all email from "grosser@uiuc.edu", you can search for the full email address, just "grosser", or even the person's name (as long as it is included in the From: header).

If no search words are specified, all messages from the listed author are returned. The From field can be any valid SWISH-E search command, including boolean-type searches. See the SWISH-E 2.2 Documentation for more information.

Subject

Like the From field, the Subject field will search for values in the "Subject:" header only. As with the From field, if no search words are specified, all messages containing subject words are returned. And, the text can be any valid SWISH-E search command.

Date

The Date field will restrict searching to the range of dates specified. The options for adjusting the date searching are as follows:

The first option is the only one that makes use of both date fields. Initially the dates are set to be the full range of dates available from the first message received to the current date.

Between

The default setting, Between searches for messages between the specified dates.

On

Only messages sent on the date specified will be searched.

Before

Only messages sent before the date specified will be searched.

After

Only messages sent after the date (up to the current time) will be searched.

None

This option turns off date matching altogether. Normally it is assumed that people are searching the archives to find a message, not to pick up the extraneous files like threaded indices, support documents, or home pages. Selecting None will permit the search engine to include in its results any documents that are not messages. Using the sorting method By Date is not recommended with this option: all non-dated documents will appear at the end of a potentially long list.

Sort

Sort has two options: sorting by document relevance and by date. Sorting by relevance will put the documents determined to be the most relevant to the other search criteria first. Sorting by date works for messages only - non-message documents, if returned by setting the Date type field to None will be included last.

There is currently no way to sort in reverse order, which really doesn't make sense when searching for relevant documents, but might be useful for date searching. Instead, use the paging options at the bottom of each page to step through the pages backwards.

Display

Sets the number of documents to display per page. Be careful with the "All" option: searching for a common word will result in hundreds of thousands of matches!

List

This option is available only to archives that have multiple lists associated with the archive.

Selecting a list will restrict all searching to that list only. Of course selections can be combined to search across mailing lists.

When no list options are selected, the entire web site is searched, which includes pages that may not be messages. This is the same behavior as if all of the options were selected.

The special list name Other has been reserved to search documents outside of the lists. Select it when these documents should be considered along with the mailing lists proper.

The Results Section

If no matches are found, a message will be displayed. Otherwise the matches are returned in the order specified by the Sort field.

Messages are numbered and the document's title is listed as the main link. Underneath are the "From:", "Subject:", and "Date:" headers for documents that have this information. If sample text from the document has been archived, then it is listed as well. Finally, the document's rank, file size, and URL are listed for informational purposes.

If more than one page of matches has been found, a series of links at the bottom of the page will let you step page by page through the matches.