The Client Side of Search

End users will experience Search from a very different interface than has been discussed thus far in this chapter. They will execute queries and view query results within the confines of the new Search Center.

The Search Center is a SharePoint site dedicated to help the end user search the index. It includes several components, each responsible for a specific search task. The default setup for the Search Center includes the following components:

• Search Center Home

• Search Results

• Advanced Search

• People Search

• People Search Results

• Search Navigation tab

You can customize the Search Center by modifying these components or by creating your own version of these components. Because they are merely Web Parts, you can add them to the Search Center to extend its functionality or remove them to focus the Search Center's functionality.

Executing Queries to Query the Index

Search supports two types of queries: keyword and SQL. This section discusses only keyword search syntax because the SQL Server syntax is designed to be used by developers creating custom solutions.

You can use any of the following as keywords:

• Single word

• Multiple words

• Phrase (two or more words enclosed in quotation marks)

• Prefix (includes a part of a word, from the beginning of the word)

There are three types of search terms that you can use: Simple, Included, and Excluded. Table 16-4 describes your options.

Table 16-3: Overview of Query Terms and Usage
Open table as spreadsheet

Name	Definition	Character	Example
Simple word	Search query word with no special requirements	N/A	Boots
Included term	Search query word that must be in the content items returned in the result set	"+"	+boots
Excluded term	Keyword that must not be in the content items that are returned in the result set

The inclusion "+" mark means that each content item in the result set must contain at least this word. For example, if you were to search on "muddy boots" (without the quotation marks), you would see documents in the result set that contained the word muddy, the word boots, and both muddy and boots. The point is that if you wanted all documents that have the word muddy plus documents that have only muddy and boots but not muddy and shoes, your search phrase would be "muddy + boots" (without the quotation marks). By the same token, if you wanted to exclude certain documents from the result set because of a certain word, you would use the "-" sign. For example, if you're looking for any type of boot except muddy, you would enter the query "boots - muddy" (without the quotation marks).

Note 

The query terms are not case sensitive. Searching on "windows" is the same as "windOWS." However, the thesaurus is case sensitive, by default, so if you enter "Windows" as a word in an expansion set and the user enters "windows" as a query word, the expansion set will not be invoked. If you want to turn off case sensitivity in the thesaurus, enter the following command at the beginning of the thesaurus file:

 <case><caseflag="false"></case> 

Query terms are also not accent sensitive, so searching for "resume" will return results for "résumé." However, you can turn on diacritical marks using the stsadm.exe command, such as:

 stsadm -o osearchdiacriticsensitive