Query Syntax
By default, Voyager searches all text (including metadata) for matching items. Results that match the title or path are ranked above results matching any other text. To customize the default field weights, see Query Settings.
In addition to the default behavior, Voyager supports explicit operators and field selection.
Operators
OR
The OR operator is the default search operator. This means that if there is no operator between two terms in a search, the OR operator is used. The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching record if either of the terms exist in a record. For example, to search for records that contain either "Florida highways" or just "highways" use the query:
"Florida highways" highways
"Florida highways" OR highways
AND
The AND operator matches records where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single record.
For example, to search for records that contain "rivers" and "lakes" use the query:
rivers AND lakes
Fields
Voyager supports fielded data. When performing a search you can either specify a field name, or use the default search which uses many fields. You can search any field by typing the field name in lowercase followed by a colon ":" and then the term you are looking for. Searching by field names only produces results that match the particular field specified.
For example, to search for any records with "Rivers" in the name field and "Florida" in the path field, use the query:
name:rivers AND path:Florida
Note: The field is only valid for the term that it directly precedes, so the query:
name:major cities
will only find "major" in the name field. It will find "cities" using the default search which uses many fields.
To search for two or more terms in a field name, quotes are required around the text. For example, to search the name field for "major cities", use the query:
name:"major cities"
Searching by Path
Paths in voyager can either be searched for using the standard field selection operator ":", or a special "=" operator that matches folders explicitly.
Using the standard "path:" syntax, the query is looking for words in the path. For example:
path:Desktop
returns items with "Desktop" in the path.
Using the "=" operator will find files explicitly in a folder. For example:
path=F:\Desktop\NJ DEP\NJ100mhillshd\nj100mhill
Wildcards
Voyager supports single and multiple character wildcard searches within single terms.
To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol
To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the "*" symbol
The single-character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with that character. For example, to search for "text" or "test" you can use the search
te?t
Multiple-character wildcard searches look for 0 or more characters. For example, to search for counties or countries, you can use the search:
count\*
Note: * or ? are not valid as the first character in a search string
Escaping Special Characters
Voyager supports escaping special characters that are part of the query syntax. The current list special characters are:
+ - && \|\| \! ( ) { } \[ \] ^ " ~ * ? :
To escape these character use the \ before the character.
Negating Query Terms
To negate a search use “-“ …
For example:
Search for name:snake (~302 results)
Add to that search -name:river (~209 results)
Finding non-empty Fields (NOT NULL)
To search for NOT NULL, use:
[* TO *]
This translates loosely to {something TO something}. This also applies to numeric values.
For example:
Search for author:[* TO *] (~100,000 results)
Search for -author:[* TO *] (~3,900,000 results)
New in Voyager version 1.9.9 - absolute_path field
Beginning with version 1.9.9, Voyager includes a new absolute_path field than you can use in search queries..
To use absolute_path in a query, you specify words that appear in the full path of records in the index.
For example, the query
absolute_path:data
will return records with the string data in the full path.
Usage Notes
Query Syntax
If a path includes more than one directory, you must:
Use two backslashes (\\) as a separator
Add quotation marks around the query term
This means that if the absolute_path includes \directory\sub-directory, the query term would be
absolute_path:"directory\\sub-directory"
For example, to query for records with Project\Data\Local\CA in the absolute path, use
absolute_path:"Project\\Data\\Local\\CA"
Searching for a Specific Directory
To query for a specific directory, use the = operator.
For example, to search for the files in the specific folder D:\Project\Data\Local\CA, use the query
absolute_path="D:\\Project\\Data\\Local\\CA" absolute_path vs path
The existing path field stores a location relative to the indexed location.
For example, for records in the location D:\Project\Data\Local\CA, the path field would contain Project\Data\Local\CA.
Prior Voyager Versions
Locations that you indexed using Voyager versions prior to 1.9.9 will not contain the absolute_pathfield. To include this field, you need to re-index those locations.