Search for content
You can search for text, metadata, or XML tags in the files in the Repository.
When you search using the Find What, full text searches are done with results in any of the three areas noted below.
- Metadata fields (
METADATA). - Element text inside XML content, with removal of special characters and stemming support (in the appropriate language dependent from the searched languages) (
CONTENT_EN). - Any XML element name, attribute name, attribute value, comment, processing instruction or any textual content of one of these XML types.
Search for text or XML snippets of the XML content is a balance between performance and functionality. This means that complex XML structure searches might not return the results you expect, but the following typical use cases are valid in any circumstance.
| To search for | Example | Result | Actual indexed and searched phrase in XMLCONTENT (all XML content, no stemming supported) | Actual indexed and searched phrase in CONTENT_EN (element text only, stemming supported) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The existence of text | body | Objects that contain "body" in element text, attribute values, comments or processing instructions. Note that this does not match objects that only have a <body> element. | "body" | "body" |
| The existence of an XML element | "<indexterm>" | Objects that contain <indexterm> elements (or the word indexterm in element text content) | "<indexterm" | "indexterm" |
| The non-existence of an XML element | -"<indexterm>" | Objects that do NOT contain an <indexterm> element (and that do not contain the word indexterm in element text content) | NOT "<indexterm" | NOT "indexterm" |
| That have a certain public DOCTYPE | "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" | Objects that contain "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" (or "oasis dtd dita topic en" in element text content) (not limited to the PUBLIC ID) | "-//oasis//dtd dita topic//en" | "oas dtd dita topic en" |
| That have a certain system DOCTYPE | "topic.dtd" | Objects that contain "topic.dtd" (or "topic dtd" in element text content)(not limited to the SYSTEM ID) | "topic.dtd" | "topic dtd" |
| That have a certain DOCTYPE | "<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC \"-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN\" \"topic.dtd\"" | Objects that contain the given DOCTYPE definition (or "doctype topic public oasis dtd dita topic en topic dtd" in element text content) | "<! doctype topic public \"-//oasis//dtd dita topic//en\" \"topic.dtd\"" | "doctype topic public oasis dtd dita topic en topic dtd" |
| An attribute having a certain value | "href=\"GUID-C90ECA8A-A0B2-4F5B-9F00-7CF27E6CABF7\"" | Objects that contain an "href" attribute with the value "GUID-C90ECA8A-A0B2-4F5B-9F00-7CF27E6CABF7". Note that we needed to escape the inner double quotes.
| "href= \"guid-c90eca8a-a0b2-4f5b-9f00-7cf27e6cabf7\"" | "href guid c 90 eca 8 a a 0 b 2 4 f 5 b 9 f 00 7 cf 27 e 6 cabf 7" |
| A certain condition | ishcondition="BLUETOOTH=Y" | Objects that contain the given condition (or "ishcondit bluetooth y" in element text content) | "ishcondition= \"bluetooth=y\"" | "ishcondition bluetooth y" |
| An attribute value | "GUID-C90ECA8A-A0B2-4F5B-9F00-7CF27E6CABF7#GUID-C90ECA8A-A0B2-4F5B-9F00-7CF27E6CABF7" | Objects that contain this part of text (in attribute values, element text, processing instruction text, XML comments, etc.). Attribute values containing the characters <, =, > cannot be found this way, so e.g. searching for "BLUETOOTH=Y" will not work.
| "guid-c90eca8a-a0b2-4f5b-9f00-7cf27e6cabf7#guid-c90eca8a-a0b2-4f5b-9f00-7cf27e6cabf7" | "guid c 90 eca 8 a a 0 b 2 4 f 5 b 9 f 00 7 cf 27 e 6 cabf 7 guid c 90 eca 8 a a 0 b 2 4 f 5 b 9 f 00 7 cf 27 e 6 cabf 7" |
| The existence of an attribute | "href=" | Objects that contain an "href" attribute (or "href" in element text content) | "href=" | "href" |
| A certain element with text | "<linktext>日本 MODULE1</linktext>" | Objects that contain the text in the given element( or "linktext日本 MODULE 1 linktext" in element text content)
| "<linktext 日本 module1" | "linktext日本 MODUL 1 linktext" |
| A certain processing instruction | "<?xm-replace_text Paragraph?>" | Objects that contain the given words in the processing-instruction (or "xm replace text paragraph" in element text content) | "<?xm-replace_text paragraph" | "xm replac text paragraph" |
| A certain comment | "<!--Arbortext, Inc., 1988-2009, v.4002-->" | Objects that contain the given comment (or anywhere else in textual content) (or "arbortext inc 1988 2009 v 4002" in element text content) | "arbortext inc 1988-2009 v.4002" | "arbortext inc 1988 2009 v 4002" |
| The existence of an XML element (special case) | "<msgph/>" | Objects that contain the <msgph> element (so not only empty <msgph> elements) (or "msgph" in element text content) | "<msgph" | "msgph" |
Known limitations:
- Searching text containing the backslash character does not work
- Depending on the XML structure, searching for nested XML elements may not work.
Search text inside elements with attributes
If you need to find the
<title> elements that contain the word "charging", you can use the following search string:
"<title>charging</title>"
However, the following title element will not be found:
<title translate='no'>Charging the battery</title>because of the translate='no' attribute. You would need the following search string to find that particular title element:
"<title translate='no'>charging</title>"