cfsearch

Description

Searches one or more Solr or Verity collections.

A collection must be created and indexed before this tag can return search results.

A collection can be created in these ways:

• With the cfcollection tag

• In the ColdFusion MX Administrator

• Using a native Verity indexing tool, such as Vspider or MKVDK. For more information on Vspider and MKVDK, see Introducing Verity and Verity Tools in Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Register any collection that you create with a native Verity tool. A collection can be registered with ColdFusion in the following ways:

• With the cfcollection tag

• In the ColdFusion MX Administrator

A collection can be indexed in the following ways:

• In ColdFusion, with the cfindex tag

• In the ColdFusion Administrator, which calls the cfindex tag

• Using a native Verity indexing tool, such as Vspider or MKVDK

For more information, see Building a Search Interface in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

Category

Extensibility tags

Syntax

<cfsearch  
    collection = "collection name" 
    name = "search name" 
    category = "category[,category2,...]" 
    categoryTree = "tree location" 
    contextBytes = "number of bytes" 
    contextHighlightBegin = "HTML string" 
    contextHighlightEnd = "HTML string" 
    contextPassages = "number of passages" 
    criteria = "search expression" 
    language = "language" 
    maxRows = "number" 
    previousCriteria = "criteria" 
    startRow = "row number" 
    status = "" 
    suggestions = "suggestion option" 
    type = "criteria">

See also

cfcollection, cfexecute, cfindex, cfobject, cfreport, cfwddx

History

ColdFusion 9: Added support for Solr search engine.

ColdFusion MX 7:

• Added category, categoryTree, status, suggestions, contextPassages, contextBytes, contextHighlightBegin, contextHighlightEnd, and previousCriteria attributes.

• Added author, category, categoryTree, context, rank, size, recordsSearched, and type result columns.

• Added information on the status structure and its associated keys.

• Removed references to a separate K2 server and k2server.ini file.

• Removed references to unregistered collections.

• Removed references to external collections. ColdFusion MX now manages all collections through the Verity Search service.

• Changed cflock recommendation. It is no longer a best practice to surround the cfsearch tag with a cflock tag.

ColdFusion MX:

• Deprecated the external attribute. It might not work, and might cause an error, in later releases. (ColdFusion stores this information about each collection; it automatically detects whether a collection is internal or external.) This tag supports absolute (also known as fully qualified) collection pathnames and mapped collection names.

• Changed query result behavior: the cfindex tag can index the query results from a cfsearch operation.

• Changed Verity operations behavior: ColdFusion supports Verity operations on Acrobat PDF files.

• Changed multiple collection behavior: this tag can search multiple collections. In a multiple collection search, you cannot combine collections that are registered with K2Server and registered in another way.

• Changed acceptable collection naming: this tag accepts collection names that include spaces.

• Changed the following support: this tag supports Verity 2.6.1 and the LinguistX and ICU locales.

• Changed thrown exceptions: this tag can throw the SEARCHENGINE exception.

Attributes

Usage

The cfsearch tag returns a query object whose columns you can reference in a cfoutput tag. For example, the following code specifies a search for the exact terms "filming" or "filmed":

<cfsearch 
    name = "mySearch" 
    collection = "myCollection" 
    criteria = '<WILDCARD>`film{ing,ed}`' 
    type="explicit" 
    startrow=1 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<cfdump var = "#mySearch#>

In this example, the single-quotation mark (') and backtick (`) characters are used as delimiters; for more information, see Using Verity Search Expressions in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

To optimize search performance, always specify the maxrows attribute, setting it to a value that matches your application’s needs. A value less than 300 helps to ensure optimal performance.

Adobe does not recommend using the cflock tag with this tag; Verity/Solr provides the locking function. Using the cflocktag slows search performance.

The cfsearch tag result columns

Status structure keys

To permit application users to search Verity collections for nonstandard strings, words, or characters (for example, "AB23.45.67" or "--->") that would otherwise cause an error, you can create a text file that lists these elements and defines their formats for Verity. Name the file style.lex and put copies of the file in these directories:

• Windows:

  • cf_root\verity\k2\common\style

  • cf_root\verity\Data\stylesets\ColdFusionK2

• UNIX:

  • cf_root/verity/k2/common/style

  • cf_root/verity/Data/stylesets/ColdFusionK2

In the multiserver and J2EE configurations, you install Verity in a separate directory.

Example

<!--- #1 (TYPE=SIMPLE) -----------------------------> 
<cfsearch  
    name="name"  
    collection="snippets,syntax,snippets"  
    criteria="example"  
    maxrows = "100"> 
<p> 
<cfoutput>Search Result total =#name.RecordCount# </cfoutput><br> 
<cfoutput> 
    url=#name.url#<br> 
    key=#name.key#<br> 
    title=#name.title#<br> 
    score=#name.score#<br> 
    custom1=#name.custom1#<br> 
    custom2=#name.custom2#<br> 
    summary=#name.summary#<br> 
    recordcount=#name.recordcount#<br> 
    currentrow=#name.currentrow#<br> 
    columnlist=#name.columnlist#<br> 
    recordssearched=#name.recordssearched#<br> 
</cfoutput> 
<cfdump var = #name#> 
<br> 
 
<!--- #2 (TYPE=EXPLICIT) -----------------------------> 
<cfsearch  
    name = "snippets" 
    collection = "snippets" 
    criteria = '<wildcard>`film{ing,ed}`' 
    type="explicit" 
    startrow=1 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<cfoutput  
    query="snippets"> 
    url=#url#<br> 
    key=#key#<br> 
    title=#title#<br> 
    score=#score#<br> 
    custom1=#custom1#<br> 
    custom2=#custom2#<br> 
    summary=#summary#<br> 
    recordcount=#recordcount#<br> 
    currentrow=#currentrow#<br> 
    columnlist=#columnlist#<br> 
    recordssearched=#recordssearched#<br> 
</cfoutput> 
<cfdump var = #snippets#>  
<br> 
 
<!--- #3 (search by CF key) -----------------------------> 
<cfsearch  
    name = "book" 
    collection = "custom_book" 
    criteria = "cf_key=bookid2" 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<cfoutput> 
    url=#book.url#<br> 
    key=#book.key#<br> 
    title=#book.titleE#<br> 
    score=#book.score#<br> 
    custom1=#book.custom1#<br> 
    custom2=#book.custom2#<br> 
    summary=#book.summary#<br> 
    recordcount=#book.recordcount#<br> 
    currentrow=#book.currentrow#<br> 
    columnlist=#book.columnlist#<br> 
    recordssearched=#book.recordssearched#<br> 
</cfoutput> 
<cfdump var = #book#>