Search scoping

Introduction

Funnelback can use a document's URL to filter the search results. The scope CGI parameter will restrict the results to the document URLs that match the parameter.

For example, the query:

http://FUNNELBACK-SERVER/s/search.html?query=romeo&collection=shakespeare&scope=topaz

will query the shakespeare collection, but limit the results to those documents that come from the server called topaz.

Note that the scope is a sub-string match to the document's URL.

Syntax

The scope is a comma-separated list of strings that are matched against the URLs of documents that match the query terms. You can negate the match by placing a minus-sign at the start of a string.

Caveats

• Protocols should not be included in the scoped search. E.g. Use 'www.funnelback.com' and not 'http://www.funnelback.com'.

Forms

Scopes are commonly used in search templates to:

• restrict the search to a specific web site (or sub-site); or
• allow the user to dynamically choose the site.

If you wish to hard-code the scope, then create a hidden element to set the scope:

<input type="hidden" name="scope" value="cmis.csiro.au,-vic.cmis.csiro.au">

Otherwise, you could use a select list to set the scope:

<@s.Select name="scope" 
  id="scope" 
  options=["=All","macbeth=Macbeth","much_ado=Much Ado About Nothing","merchant=Merchant of Venice"] />

Note the first option All sets the scope to an empty string, which means all documents.

Examples

The scope restriction:

scope=company.com,-shop.company.com

will return documents whose URLs match company.com and exclude any that match shop.company.com