Use Case: Search site for information -

Actor: Site Visitor

To find content on a CMF site, you often need to conduct a search query to return a list of content items which meet a group of search conditions to narrow down the returned search results. To search the site for information, you have 2 different options.

• Quick Search
• Advanced Search

If you choose to search the site via the quick search feature, enter the keyword (s) in the search text box in your top navigation bar and select the go button. This allows you to search the content cataloged on the site only via the keywords you've choosen to enter into the quick search field. After selecting the go button, you proceed to the search results list which displays the results of your query. The advanced search form is discussed in more detail next.

If you would like to further parameterize your search or strictly limit your search to only content of a spefic type, you will want to use the advanced search capabilities of the CMF. To access the advanced search form, click the search link in the top navigation bar. This will take you to the advanced search form. Enter your search criteria and select the search button. The advanced search form allows you to search for content based upon any combination of the following:

Full text search

The full text search searches for your keyword(s) in the fulltext of the content item, for example the entire body of a document.

Title

The title searches for your keyword(s) only in the title of a content items.

Subject

The subject search locates content items which match your keyword(s) found in the subject of content items.

Description

The description search locates content items which match your keyword(s) found in the description of content items.

Confined date range for new items

This date range search allows you to only return content items which are new since a specific period; for example only search for items which have been created in the past month.

Type of content you are interestded in

Searching by content type allows you to only search for content which you are interested in. For example, you might only wish to view News Items which have the word convention mentioned in their description.

Creator

Searching by creator allows you to narrow your search down to only content items created by the content creator id you enter into this field.

After defining the parameters for your search, click the Search button. You will proceed to the search results, listing those content objects found which meet the conditions of your search. From the search results page, you can browse content on the site by title, description, type and the date the content item was last modified.

It's possible for your search query to be too restrictive and no content is found which meets your search conditions. You might wish to return to the advanced search form and alter your query parameters to be less restrictive.