Search for documents (basic)

You can use the IBM FileNet Search web part to search for content located in an IBM FileNet P8 object store. The web part provides both basic and advanced search options. This topic covers how to use the basic search to find content.

You can perform a variety of actions on the documents and folders in the search results. The actions are described in Interact with documents and folders.

Enter search text

The options you have when entering search text depend on whether the object store is indexed for full-text searching.

In an indexed object store ("Document contains") In a non-indexed object store ("Name starts with")

Basic search looks for specific words or phrases in a document or in string properties that have been configured for full-text indexing.

Basic search displays documents matching all of the words or phrases you enter, ranked by their relevancy. The relevancy is reflected in the Score column, which assigns a rank between 0 and 1. A higher score indicates a result with a closer match to the entered search text.

TIP If you want to find text in a document's title and exclude matches in the document's content, use the advanced search option to look for the text in the Title property.

Using wildcard characters

If you are not sure of the spelling or other variation used in the document you are searching for, you can use the following wildcard characters in your search text:

  • Use an asterisk (*) to stand for zero or more letters, numbers, or underscore ( _ ) characters. For example, searching for wo*d finds documents containing wood, word, World, or would.
  • Use a question mark (?) to stand for one (and only one) letter or number. For example, searching for ?an finds documents containing ran or can, but not span.

Matching an exact word or phrase

To match an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in double quotes. This is especially useful for proper names or common phrases. For example, searching for John Adams would return documents containing U. S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Searching for "John Adams" would return only those documents containing John Adams.

Basic search looks for matches in the document name. By default, it looks at the beginning of the name.

Using wildcard characters

If you are not sure of the spelling or other variation used in the name of the document you are searching for, you can use the following wildcard characters in your search text:

  • Use a percent sign (%) to stand for zero or more characters. For example, searching for IBM FileNet P8%Guide could find documents called IBM FileNet P8 Troubleshooting Guide and IBM FileNet P8 Security Guide 4.0.0.
  • Use an underscore (_) to stand for a single character. For example, searching for r_n finds documents or folders whose name contains ran or run, but not rain. You cannot, however, include an underscore in your search text as a literal, since search automatically treats the underscore as a wildcard character. For example, searching for all documents that start with Document_ would return results such as DocumentA as well as Document_1 and Document_2.

NOTE  Keep the following in mind when searching in an indexed object store:

Select where to search

Select the object store or folder where you want to start your search. Search looks in all subfolders of the selected object store or folder.

What can you do with the search results?

You can select a document to view or to perform various actions. You can view the available actions in the context menu. See Interact with documents and folders for more information.