Executing a Search Query

In the last exercise, you executed a search query to familiarize yourself with search-specific interfaces. However, there is more to executing a query than entering a single word. To find the information you really need, you might need to enter more than one query term. It stands to reason that the more query terms you enter, the more discriminating your query becomes, thereby producing a more focused result set.

Search queries can be comprised of any of the following items.

• Single word

• Multiple words

• Single phrase in quotes

• Multiple phrases in quotes

For example, if you search the phrase oak furniture, the result set contains only those content items containing the words oak furniture. If a document contains the words oak chest but not oak furniture, that document will not appear in the result set.

If you search two phrases and separate them by the word AND, then both phrases must appear in the document for that document to appear in the result set.

In this exercise, you will enter a query phrase to observe how the results are more focused when multiple phrases are entered in the search Web Part.

OPEN the SharePoint site. This exercise will use the http://wideworldmporters site, but you can use whatever SharePoint team site you want. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.

BE SURE TO verify that you have permissions to the site in which you want to execute your query. If in doubt, see the Appendix on page 435.

1. In the search Web Part, type a phrase encapsulated in quotation marks, such as oak chairs.

Notice that two items from the index are returned back in the result set: the document containing the phrase oak chairs and the folder hosting the document containing the phrase oak chairs.

2. Add another phrase, such as oak furniture, to help focus your query. Separate both phrases with the AND operator.

Note that the result set is more focused, containing the only item in the site that contains both phrases.

CLOSE the browser.