Contents
The search screen should meet the needs of all but the most extreme search requirements. It supports boolean (AND, OR and NOT) and mathematical (less than, greater than, etc.) operations, and wild card characters.
You reach the search screen by clicking on the "Search" button on either the classification browser or the record display screen. This will open a new Web browser window for the search screen.
The main classification menu allows you to choose the type of classification browser you are using (standard, enhanced and hierarchy), the display style the browser is in (with or without frames) and the number or records that are returned on each page. In addition, the Subsets and Options link on the main menu allow you to work with subsets of the entire classification database when running searches. Subsets are explained below.
PASS-THROUGH All of the options that you select on the main menu and on the Subsets and Options menu are passed from screen to screen by the classification software. This has two implications: First, different windows can be open at the same time that were started with different options. Second, these windows keep passing the options they were started with to new windows that they open. So, if you choose the "Enhanced Browser" from the main menu and click on its "Search" button and run a search, and then click on one of the records on that search screen to see it displayed in the classification browser, it will use the "Enhanced Browser" to do so.
QUERIES vs. BROWSING The search screen supports two ways to search the classification database: queries and index browsing. A query allows you to search for one or more criteria using boolean logic (AND, OR and NOT), mathematical operators (greater than, less than, etc.) and wild card characters (to match multiple characters). The result is a set of records that meet the search criteria, returned in no particular order. To run a query, input your criteria into one or more of the input fields on the search screen and then press the "Search" button.
Index browsing, on the other hand, allows you to choose an existing database index (like classification number, index term, keyword, etc.), input a starting value and jump to that place in the index. The results are returned in "index order" (usually this is alphabetical order) so that you can navigate forwards and backwards in the index to locate the exact term you are looking for. Index browsing does not support boolean or mathematical operators, or wild card characters.
Index browsing is almost always faster and easier to do than running queries, so it is recommended that you start by browsing and move onto queries as necessary. You browse an index by inputting your search term into the appropriate field on the search screen (like caption or keyword) and pressing the "Browse" button to the immediate right of the field. There is a "Browse" button corresponding to each input field on the search screen. Make sure that you click on the "Browse" button to the right of the input field for the index you want to view.
TERMINOLOGY Whenever this help document refers to a "search" as in "search screen", "running a search" or "search results", it includes both index browsing and actual queries. If any part of this document refers to only index browsing or only queries, that will be explicitly stated.
RESPONSE TIME Index browsing will always produce an almost immediate response back to your computer. This is because the server has to do very little work in returning the contents of an index. Running a query, however, make take noticeably longer. The length of time it takes for query to run depends on the number of records that match each one of your criteria. Even if the final result is only a handful of records, if any one of your search terms would have resulted in tens of thousands of matches on its own, you may experience some delay. If you are using Netscape Navigator as your Web browser, the server will return a status screen every ten seconds (if the query takes that long) to show you what its progress is. Unfortunately, Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support the protocol that makes this possible. Instead, the server will return a space character every ten seconds. This is to stop the browser from thinking that the connection to the server has gone down (your screen will remain blank, however). It is important when you are running a query that you don't press the ESCAPE key, click on your Web browser's "Stop" button or use any other button (backwards, forwards, etc.) that would cause the browser to replace the contents of the query screen. If you do, you will cancel the query in progress because all of these actions will cause your Web browser to drop the connection to the server. Whenever the connection between your Web browser and the server is interrupted, the server will stop whatever it is in the middle of, reset itself and wait for your next request. This doesn't mean you can't do anything else with your computer. In fact, you can do anything but submit another request to the server from some other browser window. So, you can continue word processing, Web surfing and game playing, as long as it is in a different window and this server is not involved. The queries that run the fastest are those where your search terms are as specific as possible. The fewer records that match each search criteria the faster the query runs. This means you should take particular care in your use of wild card characters, particularly when placed near the front of a search term. In fact, the use of leading truncation (placing a * or ? at the front of a search term) will generally result in significantly slower queries. PUNCTUATION Whether you are index browsing or running a query, this server treats almost all punctuation (comma, period, hyphen, dollar sign, parentheses, slash, etc.) as a space and multiple spaces as a single space. In addition, any leading and trailing spaces (or punctuation) are ignored. Any punctuation that is not treated as a space is ignored (apostrophe and caret: ' and ^). This makes it possible to find what you are looking without knowing how the original record was punctuated or formatted. In classification number indexes the following punctuation is not ignored: colon, hyphen and period.
If you are using Netscape Navigator as your Web browser, the server will return a status screen every ten seconds (if the query takes that long) to show you what its progress is. Unfortunately, Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support the protocol that makes this possible. Instead, the server will return a space character every ten seconds. This is to stop the browser from thinking that the connection to the server has gone down (your screen will remain blank, however).
It is important when you are running a query that you don't press the ESCAPE key, click on your Web browser's "Stop" button or use any other button (backwards, forwards, etc.) that would cause the browser to replace the contents of the query screen. If you do, you will cancel the query in progress because all of these actions will cause your Web browser to drop the connection to the server. Whenever the connection between your Web browser and the server is interrupted, the server will stop whatever it is in the middle of, reset itself and wait for your next request. This doesn't mean you can't do anything else with your computer. In fact, you can do anything but submit another request to the server from some other browser window. So, you can continue word processing, Web surfing and game playing, as long as it is in a different window and this server is not involved.
The queries that run the fastest are those where your search terms are as specific as possible. The fewer records that match each search criteria the faster the query runs. This means you should take particular care in your use of wild card characters, particularly when placed near the front of a search term. In fact, the use of leading truncation (placing a * or ? at the front of a search term) will generally result in significantly slower queries.
PUNCTUATION Whether you are index browsing or running a query, this server treats almost all punctuation (comma, period, hyphen, dollar sign, parentheses, slash, etc.) as a space and multiple spaces as a single space. In addition, any leading and trailing spaces (or punctuation) are ignored. Any punctuation that is not treated as a space is ignored (apostrophe and caret: ' and ^).
This makes it possible to find what you are looking without knowing how the original record was punctuated or formatted. In classification number indexes the following punctuation is not ignored: colon, hyphen and period.
You can choose which areas of classification you want to limit your searches to both when you start the software and from the search screen. To select your subsets when you start the software, use the Subsets and Options menu. This menu allows you to select all of your browser options and any subsets you want to use. After you have made all of your selections, click on the "Start" button to launch the classification software. After the server has sent back its response (you may need to log in first), you can use your Web browser's "add bookmark" function to save your selection as a bookmark. The next time you want to use that configuration, you can have your Web browser "jump" to that bookmark. This saves you from having to make those selections every time you want to use that configuration. Remember, you can start a new Web browser window at any time to either start classification with a different configuration (different number of records per page, etc.) or to go to an entirely different web site.
To change your subsets after you have started the software, use the "Subsets..." button at the bottom of the search screen. This will not affect any other classification windows that are already open, only the current search window and any windows it launches.
Additional documentation:
Caption Index The caption in a classification record is the most specific portion of the record's hierarchy. It is displayed in the right hand column in the classification browser. For example, for:
HA4020 Arctic regions
The caption for this record is "Arctic regions". Its full hierarchy is:
Statistics -- Statistical data -- By region or country -- Arctic regions
The caption index is sorted on field 153/j.
Keyword Index Most of the text fields in each classification record contribute entries to the keyword index. The index contains most of the words that appear in a record. In general, this is the index of last resort as you will almost always get back more records than you would like. If you have ever used an Internet search site like Yahoo or Excite, you have an idea of the limitations of keyword searching.
No stop lists are used when the keyword index is updated so no words are dropped in the process. For example, the keyword indexes of many library systems drop certain words that are found in a record. The list of words that are not indexes are called stop lists. As a result, words like "and", "or", "a", "an" and "the" are often ignored. Because this can created problems in extreme situations (like the Dutch magazine "The") this software does not bar any words from the keyword index.
Any queries that you run that involve the keyword index are handled differently than any of the other indexes. Because the keyword index only contains individual words, if you input more than one word in the keyword field and run a query, the software will search for those words separately in the same record. There is no phrase searching support in the keyword index.
The keyword index the only index that you don't have to use boolean mode to search for multiple values at the same time. If you input more than one word (words are anything separated by a space), the program treats each word as a separate criteria. Whether or not a record matches this criteria depends not only on the presence of these words but also on whether you have selected the AND or the OR search option. If you have selected the AND search option, every word in the keyword list must be present in the record for the record to be a match. Alternately, if you select an OR search, any of the words in the list can be present in a record for it to match.
The following fields are included in the keyword index:
153/h, 153/j, 253/i, 353/i, 453/j, 553/t, 680/i, 681/i, 683/i, 761/i, 763/i, 763/j, 764/i
Index Term Index Index terms are cross references that guide a user to the preferred terminology for a given subject. For example, if you browse for "boot industry" in the Index Term index, you will discover that the appropriate classification is:
HD9787 Footwear. Shoes
The index term index is sorted on field 753/a, followed by field 753/b.
Caption or Index Term Index This index contains both classification captions (the lowest part of the hierarchy) and the cross-referencing index terms. It saves you from having to search both places separately for a term.
This index combines the caption index (sorted on field 153/j) and the index term index (sorted on field 753/a, followed by field 753/b).
Classification Number Index This index contains the classification number from each record as well as any cross-reference classification numbers (like see references). Browsing this index is the same as using the Standard classification browser. However, if you are running a query and are getting too many results, you can narrow your search by including a partial classification number. This is the same concept as using subsets but allows you to work with even more narrow areas of classification.
For example, let's say you want any occurrence of "netherlands" in the keyword index and want to narrow the criteria further to just the "HF" (Commerce) section of the social sciences. You would input "netherlands" into the Keyword field and "HF" into the Classification Number field and click on the "Search" button to run the query.
Please note that the Classification Number field is the only input field that is affected by whether you are working with Schedules records, Tables records or Both (see Display Options, below). When working with just Schedules records, the field is treated as a classification number (HD9000) or span (HD9000-9019). When you select Tables or Both, the field is treated as a table number on its own (H18), a table number followed by a classification number (H18 1) or a table number followed by a span (H18 1-18).
If you need to browse the classification number index or run a search with a classification number as one of the criteria, you should select Schedules or Tables separately. Selecting Both will give the same results as selecting only Tables because the field will be treated as a table number.
The classification number index contains three different types of keys using the following sets of fields:
153/z, 153/a, 153/c 453/z, 453/a, 453/c 553/z, 553/a, 553/c
Record Number Index This index contains the 001 -- record number -- field from each record in the database. This index is not available in ClassWeb.
Modification Date & Time Index This index contains the 005 -- modification date and time -- field from each record in the database. This index is not available in ClassWeb. The 005 field is formatted as follows: YYYYMMDDhhmmss.0
THE DISPLAY The search screen is made up of five to seven sections depending on whether there are any data records on the screen. When you are browsing an index or looking at the results of a query, the data is displayed at the top of the page and the rest of the search screen follows. The sections are, from top to bottom:
Search Results The first line after the command buttons displays information about the index or query you are using, along with the number of entries in that index or query. Here is what might be displayed when browsing the caption index:
Basic Classification Search: Captions (28521 items)
The number in parentheses are the total number of captions in this index. Remember, this number will vary widely, depending on whether you are working with the whole database or individual subsets.
A query might produce the following:
Basic Classification Search: query1 (3 items)
Following the search information are the search results. If you are browsing an index, the search results will usually be a list of index terms as links you can click on. Clicking on any of these links will return a screen with both index values and lists of records with that term. When you run a query, you only get back a list of records that match your criteria as there are no index values . Remember, that any time you want to know what a particular link in classification does, move your mouse over the link and look at your Web browser's status (help) line.
You can select how much information is returned about each classification record by using the Display Options at the bottom of the screen. You can choose how much of each record's hierarchy is displayed on each line. The default selection is to just display the caption for each record (the lowest level of the hierarchy). The other selections run the range from no hierarchy to the entire hierarchy.
Classification Record Links Each classification record that is returned on the search screen includes a number of links. The classification number for each record is a link to the classification browser for that particular number. When you click on a number, the classification browser will display the classification schedules starting with that number.
At the end of each record on the search screen are a set of capital letters in parentheses. For example, here is the result of a query for a caption value of "arctic":
These links are used to perform actions related to that particular record. The possible letters are:
As mentioned above, the type of classification browser and other display options that are used when you click on these links are determined by the browser that launched this search window.
Search Input Fields The input fields are used to enter your searching criteria. If you are only using one field and you don't need wild cards, boolean logic or mathematical operators, click on the "Browse" button to the right of the field to start an index browse. Otherwise, fill in your various criteria and click on the "Search" button.
Each of the input fields correspond to a different classification indexes, which are described above. Documentation on wild cards, boolean logic and mathematical operators can be found below.
Display Options The two display options affect how much of each record's hierarchy is returned and whether to search the schedules records, tables records or both. As far as the hierarchy goes, you can either display: none of a record's hierarchy; just each record's caption (the lowest or most specific portion of the hierarchy); the highest and lowest parts of each records hierarchy (this is the partial hierarchy option); or the entire hierarchy.
Search Options The search options only affect queries and not index browsing. The options are:
AND vs. OR Search This option only affects your searches if you have filled in more than one field with criteria and if you are searching the keyword index. In these cases, you can ask for those records that meet every criteria you entered (this is an AND query) or you can ask for those records that meet any of the criteria you input (an OR query).
This is an example of an AND query:
Find all records that have "netherlands" in the keyword index AND a classification number that starts with "HF".
To run this query, you would make sure the AND option is selected (it is by default) and fill in the input fields as follows:
Input Field Input Value Keyword netherlands Classification number HF
Find all records with a caption of "arctic" or an index term of "arctic".
To run this query, you would make sure the OR option has been selected and fill in the input fields as follows:
Input Field Input Value Caption arctic Index term arctic
Simple vs. Boolean Search So far, this document has only described how to to input a simple query. This is the default setting for the search screen. However, your searches can become much more powerful if you turn on the boolean option. In boolean mode, you can have more than one search term per input field , and you can use wild card characters and mathematical operators.
The most important difference between inputting a boolean query and a simple query is that you have to put quotation marks around each of your search terms when using boolean mode.
Here is an example of running a keyword query for multiple terms (the Boolean option must be selected for this to work):
Input Field Input Value Caption "statistics" or "finance" Keyword "administration" or "insurance"
Here is an example using boolean logic and mathematical operations:
Input Field Input Value Classification number (>= "KJ" and < "KJU") or ( >= "KKE" and < "KL")
Each query operator has a precedence which determines how the software interprets your query. This is no different than the use of precedence in algebraic formulas. For example:
4 + 5 x 6
The multiplication operator has a higher presence than the plus operator. As a result, you multiple five and six before adding the four. In the preceding example, it turns out the parentheses are not needed. This is because AND has a higher precedence than OR. Parentheses don't hurt, however, and they often make a query more readable.
Boolean Operators Here is the list of query operators and their relative precedence values:
Operator Precedence Meaning () 7 Parentheses not 6 Logical NOT cmp 5 Compare operator < 4 Less than > 4 Greater than <= 4 Less than or equal to >= 4 Greater than or equal to = 3 Equal to != 3 Not equal to <> 3 Not equal to >< 3 Not equal to and 2 Logical AND or 1 Logical OR
Case Sensitive Search Case sensitivity refers to how a computer handles upper and lower case letters when searching for data. With this server, it also includes the issue of diacritical marks like accents and umlauts that are used in non-English languages. By default, this server uses a relaxed approach with search criteria when dealing with upper/lower case issues and diacritical marks. As a result, you don't have to worry about how the data is capitalized and accented when you input your search terms. Please note that any time you use a Browse button to browse an index, the lookup is always relaxed. You cannot perform a case sensitive index browse -- you must run a query instead.
If you are looking for a specific capitalization and accenting, there are two procedures to follow depending on whether you are in Boolean mode or not. If you are not in Boolean mode (i.e. the "Simple" search option is selected), you can check the "Case sensitive search" button before pressing the "Search" button. If you are in Boolean mode, you must use back-quote characters around your search terms instead of double-quotes. The back-quote character is on the same key as the tilde (~). Here is an example:
Input Field Input Value Caption `Statistics` or "Finance" Keyword `Administration` or "insurance"
Truncation Search By default, every search term you input in a query is treated as if it was just the prefix or beginning of the word or phrase you want. This is sometimes called a truncation search. So if you are searching for "statistic", the system will also match on "statistics", "statistical", "statistician", etc. This makes it easier to find all variations of a word without having to enter all of them in.
If you are looking for a specific version of a word or phrase, you can select the "Exact match" option at the bottom of the search screen.
Wild Card Characters The truncation search that is described in the previous section is an example of the use of wild card characters. this server supports two such characters: the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?). An asterisk matches zero or more characters and a question mark matches exactly one character. You can accomplish the same thing as a truncation search by selecting the "Exact match" option and adding asterisks to the end of each of your search terms.
You can use wild card characters in both the simple and boolean modes. Here is an example with a simple search:
Input Field Input Value Caption rail* employees
Input Field Input Value Caption "rail* employees"
Things to remember:
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