Search options

The following parameters can be used in the fulltext search:

Search for phrases

A search for phrases can be executed by using the quote signs (""). The result will then contain exactly the searched phrase.

"french cooking"

Conjunctions

Note on conjuctions

To use the "+" and "-" conjunctions the setting "Enable partial word search" (basic.enablePartSearch) in the extension setting must turned off.

The result must contain the word

"french cooking" +eggs

If you want to to find only results which include both search words, you need to add the "+" to both search words, eg.

+"french cooking" +eggs

The result must not contain the word

"french cooking" -eggs

Search for umlauts

If you search for words including umlauts, it doesn't matter if you use the umlaut character or the character in your search word (ä --> a, ö --> o etc.). Example: Searching for "Küche" or "Kuche" gives the same results.

The reason for that lies in MySQL itself and it's treatment of collations:

More than one search word

If you type in more than one searchword, all the words will be linked with "OR".

The results containing all searched words get the highest ranking and will be placed on top of the result list.

  • If you place a "+" in front of a word, the result must contain the word.(Conjunction).

  • If you place a "-" in front of a word, the result must not contain the word.(Disjunction).

Example:

“+Auto +cheap -expensive“

If you activate the enableExplicitAnd-option in the extension manager, all words will be conjuncted and the "+"-parameter becomes needles.

Note: If you are using the premium version of ke_search and you want to activate the searchengine Sphinx, all search words will automatically be conjuncted for it is the default behaviour of Sphinx.

Minimum length

If a word is shorter than 4 characters it will not be searched (Example: "come to" is the searched phrase and only "come" will be searched). This behaviour only shows if the short word stands at the beginning or the end of the searched phrase. If the short word stands between to longer words like "come to our company", this phrase will be searched exactly.

The minimum length can be changed, see Configuration.

Partial word search

The partial word search is enabled by default.

ke_search will find partial words if they are in the beginning of the words in the index.

Search for "Apple" will find:

  • Apple

  • Appletree

But will not find:

  • Bigapple

The partial word search can be deactivated in the extension setting (Extension-Manager), option enablePartSearch. Only full words which match the input will then be found.

You can activate the partial word search for single words by adding a "*" to the searched words. (Example see above).