January 6, 2009, Tuesday, 5

Builditwiki:Searching

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This article provides an overview of Builditwiki's search feature, as well as using external search engines, such as Google, to find information.

Contents:
1 Builditwiki search
2 External search engines
3 Browser specific help
4 See also

[edit] Builditwiki search

Template:HelpTOC

Put your keyword in the searchbox.

  • Go - (or Enter on keyboard) will take you automatically to the article.
  • Search - will return a list of articles.

[edit] Effective searching

Here are few good tips and hints for using the Builditwiki search feature effectively:

[edit] Limiting results

  • Any word: Builditwiki'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".

[edit] 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, Builditwiki's Lucene index does not use "stop words", so any word can be successfully used in search queries. Lucene still doesn't search for numbers.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 Builditwiki:Special characters.

[edit] 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. See the manual of style for more info.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] The source text is searched

The source text (what one sees in the edit box, also called wiki text) is searched. This distinction is relevant for piped links, for Builditwiki:interlanguage links (to find links to Chinese articles, search for zh, not for Zhongwen), special characters (if ê is coded as ê it is found searching for ecirc), etc.

[edit] Delay in updating the search index

For reasons of efficiency and priority, very recent changes are not always immediately taken into account in searches.


[edit] External search engines

Various search engines can provide domain-specific searches, which lets you search Builditwiki 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 Builditwiki using bookmarklets.

In general, external search engines are faster than a Builditwiki 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 Builditwiki itself. Also, when returning Builditwiki articles in a regular search, mirrors and forks of Builditwiki content frequently rank higher than the actual Builditwiki articles because of search engine optimization techniques.

These issues may be less of a problem when using certain search engines that process Builditwiki differently:

  • Yahoo! includes Builditwiki as part of its content acquisition program and gets a regular datafeed.
  • Clusty downloads and processes the database regularly, generating automatic abstracts and image thumbnails and meaningfully parsing redirects, disambiguations, and categories.
  • Qwika only indexes wikis, and thus mirrors do not appear in their results.


[edit] Google

By following the link below, you can use the Google search engine to search Builditwiki


If you frequently search via Google, consider installing the Google Toolbar. Using the "search this site" button allows you to quickly search Builditwiki. The official Google Toolbar is for Internet Explorer (Microsoft Windows and Mac) and for Mozilla Firefox (works on all operating system platforms for which Firefox is available, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X).



[edit] Yahoo!

By following the links below, you can use the Yahoo! search engine to search Builditwiki - 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 Builditwiki.com. The official Yahoo! Companion Toolbar is only for Windows with Internet Explorer and Mozilla.

[edit] Other

Here are more Builditwiki:Tools which make searching more convenient.

[edit] Browser specific help

[edit] Using Mozilla to automatically search

Listed below are ways to search Builditwiki with Mozilla-based browsers, including Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, and Netscape 6 and 7.

[edit] Search Builditwiki from the sidebar search tab or address bar

Works with: Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 6/7.

Mozilla and Netscape 6 & 7 come with a sidebar that allows a user to search the Builditwiki site, and Firefox has a toolbar item to do the same. To install the search plugin that tells Mozilla how to search Builditwiki, do the following:

  1. Go to one of the following sources of Builditwiki search plugins. The Mycroft plugins are sometimes out of date, and plugins from the second source may work better.
    1. Original search plugins from Mycroft
    2. Updated search plugins
  2. There are versions for many languages, so pick the language local to your area.
  3. If JavaScript is enabled, clicking on the name of the search plugin will automatically install the search plugin.
  4. If you can't install the search plugin automatically, the second source above lets you right-click on the plugin and save it to disk, or download a ZIP file containing all available plugins. Save the downloaded .src file in the searchplugins directory where Mozilla is installed and restart the browser to use the new plugin.

To make Builditwiki your default search engine in Mozilla, Beonex Communicator, and Netscape 6/7:

  1. Go to Edit, Preferences.
  2. Expand the Navigator tree and choose Internet Search.
  3. Choose Builditwiki as your default search engine.

With Builditwiki selected as your default engine, searches can be conducted via the search sidebar tab, search box, or the web address bar.

[edit] Search Builditwiki using a bookmarklet

Works with: Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 6/7.

Builditwiki can also be searched via a bookmarklet.

In Mozilla Firefox, follow these steps:

  1. Right click in the search field at the top of the page, and select "Add a Keyword for this Search".
  2. Enter "Builditwiki Quicksearch" for the name.
  3. Enter "w" (without the quotes) for the keyword.
  4. Change the bookmark folder if you wish, and click "Add".

In Mozilla Suite, Netscape 6/7 and Beonex Communicator, follow these steps:

  1. Right click on the following web address and select "Bookmark this link": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s
  2. Go to Bookmarks, Manage Bookmarks. Choose the bookmark you have just created. Highlight the Bookmark and click Properties.
  3. In the dialogue that comes up, put a lowercase w in the keyword box.
  4. 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.

[edit] 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)window.location='http://www.builditwiki.com/wiki/Special:Search?search='+x

The whole thing should be pasted in as a single line without spaces for it to work.

[edit] Internet Explorer

To enable a quick search from the Windows and Internet Explorer Address bars, do the following

  1. Open Notepad.
  2. Insert all of the text in the box below this list of steps.
  3. Choose File | Save as and save the file as it "builditwiki.reg" (either use quote marks around the file name or choose All Files from the Save as type drop-down in Notepad's Save dialog).
  4. Double-click on the "builditwiki.reg" file to add the key to your Windows Registry. 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\w]
@="http://www.builditwiki.com/w/wiki.phtml?search=%s"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"

This will allow you to type "w Your Builditwiki Search Term" into the Windows and Internet Explorer Address bars to immediately search Builditwiki for the search term you've specified.

Note: There are other URLs you can specify instead of the Default (@) key given above. The following will return results from the English content: 

http://www.builditwiki.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s
http://www.builditwiki.com/w/wiki.phtml?search=%s

[edit] K-Meleon

K-Meleon has a search button that can be used to search Google. You can change it to search Builditwiki instead, by:

  1. Close K-Meleon.
  2. Open up prefs.js with a text editor. The file should be in your K-Meleon\Profiles\PROFILE_NAME\RANDOM_STRING.slt\ directory.
  3. Add this line, and save prefs.js.

user_pref("kmeleon.general.searchEngine", "http://www.builditwiki.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=");

Open up K-Meleon and press the search button to search Builditwiki. 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.




[edit] Opera 9

Go to Tools -> Preferences -> Search and either Add a new search engine, or edit an existing one, such as Download.com. Recommended parameters are: 

Name: &Builditwiki
Keyword: w
Address: http://www.builditwiki.com/w/wiki.phtml?search=%s

Since at least Built 8502, more than one character is allowed (Last versions "Key" changed to a "Keyword"), so instead of setting "w" as the keyword, you alternativly could use "wiki", or whatever you like. Although this is not as short and handy, it would save you the replacement of an existing engine.




[edit] If you cannot find an appropriate page on Builditwiki

If there is no appropriate page on Builditwiki, consider creating a page, since you can edit Builditwiki 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 might answer your questions.

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