topic Re: How to search metadata of documents in Alfresco Archive

How to search metadata of documents

mohan_jha23 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:23:53 GMT

Hi All,I am new to alfresco, I need to search metadata (like Filetitle) of documents stored in alfresco. Is there any rest API for this or I need to write the web script for this. If I need to write the web script then please tell how to write the web script for the same.Thanks in advance,Mohan

Re: How to search metadata of documents

rliu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:28:16 GMT

If you're looking to search on a specific field, yes, then you'll have to write a custom webscript. Their may be other ways of doing it, but I had to construct a Java-backed controller and utilize the SearchService with Lucene query to achieve the desired functionality.

Re: How to search metadata of documents

mohan_jha23 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:36:29 GMT

Thanks for your reply,yes I am looking to search on a specific field(like author,title,description).Can You share with me how to write the custom webscript to use SearchService with Lucene query for achieving the desired functionality.

Thanks,

Mohan

Re: How to search metadata of documents

lista — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:35:02 GMT

A good place to start:

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Web_Scripts
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Java-backed_Web_Scripts_Samples

In general, always take a look at the Wiki, it's really helpful.

Cheers!

Re: How to search metadata of documents

tonyc — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:40:14 GMT

I have just made a custom search web script and had struggled so let me help a little…

assuming your search term is args.query and you want to search on the title of content, the js could be something along these lines..

query = '+@cm\\:title:\"' + args.query + '"';
var results = search.luceneSearch(query);
model.results = results;

You may or may not have realized how finicky lucene syntax is, it took me a bit to grasp. But it is quite easy once you are used to it.
Hope that helps! Good Luck

Re: How to search metadata of documents

rliu — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:55:59 GMT

I agree with tonyc. Lucene query syntax is not very forgiving. Most of search errors were due to improper use of the right query and its respective syntax.

Re: How to search metadata of documents

jenim — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:12:32 GMT

var def =
    {
     query: "+@cm\\:title:" + args.keyword,
     store: "workspace://SpacesStore",
     language: "Lucene",
     locale: "BG_"
    };
    var results = search.query(def);

It works for me.

Re: How to search metadata of documents

francoist — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:58:30 GMT

Hi, firstly, thank you very much for this post, it has helped a lot.

One question though - what would be in the variable "results" after the search has been performed?

Re: How to search metadata of documents

invictus9 — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:59:27 GMT

Hi, firstly, thank you very much for this post, it has helped a lot.

One question though - what would be in the variable "results" after the search has been performed?

I'm pretty sure that you get a list of nodes that match the query.

Another point to note: Always clean up your search terms before constructing the Lucene query. If you have stray quotes, or strops, you may end up with something that is not what was intended. Ideally, the Alfresco library would have a luceneCleanUp() function to make sure you can pass the data in without mishap.