RDS search logic

RDS Learning and support

How the search function works on RDS

Two types of search

The search has two main parts:

  1. It looks for the entire phrase you enter, like "Test phrase."
  2. It also looks for individual words within the phrase using wildcards, like "Test*" or "phrase*."

  1. First part (searching for the whole phrase):

    • The search removes common words that don't help much (stop words).
    • It then looks for the exact phrase you entered.
    • It assigns scores to the results based on certain rules.
    • These results get a boost in scoring (by 1000).
    • The number of results is limited to 500.

  2. Second part (searching for single words):

    • The search breaks the phrase into separate words.
    • It checks if each word is a common word (stop word).
    • It uses wildcards to search for variations of each word.
    • It assigns scores to these results too, following rules.
    • The number of results is limited to 500.

  3. Final part (combining and sorting)

    • The results from the first part (whole phrase) and the second part (single words) are combined.
    • Duplicate results are removed.
    • The results are then sorted based on their scores.

Summary

  • Most of the time, you'll see results with the whole phrase first and then results with individual words.
  • In some cases, results from the second part (single words) - where single words are matched in the title or other searchable fields that gives them a higher score - may appear higher than results from the first part, where the full phrase is matched but with a lower score.

Additional notes

  • Filters can be used to narrow down results.
  • Certain settings, such as editors disabling specific nodes from search, can also affect which results are shown and may reduce the number of results returned.

 

Search example

  • Let's say you search for "Lorem ipsum."
  • Results containing the exact phrase "Lorem ipsum" are shown first (marked in red) [Figure 1: Site search results examples].
  • Then, results with individual words "Lorem" and "ipsum" are displayed (marked in yellow) [Figure 1: Site search results examples].

This system helps you find the most relevant results when you search on the website.