8.3.1.Search query language
The search query language is used to specify conditions on documents, which have to be returned as result when searching the archive.
All search conditions can be negated using the NOT keyword. The keyword is case sensitive, so it must be always written in UPPERCASE. The exclamation mark “!” is a shorter version of the NOT keyword and has the exact same function. The syntax may look like as follows:
For freetext search:
- NOT value
- !value
For property search:
- Subject:(NOT test)
- Subject:(!test)
You can also combine the NOT operator with:
- phrase queries: NOT “this is a test”
- regex queries: filename:(NOT **[0-9]{3}\.txt)
- wildcard queries: NOT test*
- range queries: Size:(NOT 1M,2M) OR Date:(NOT 2020-01-01,2020-12-31)
The search query language used in any user interface of contentACCESS can be divided into following categories:
Source specification
The searching user can specify where to search on different levels: tenant, model, entity
Tenant:(string) – select a tenant by name; search in tenants having the specified string in name
MTID:(string) – select a model by type identifier (EmailArchive, FileSystemArchive, SharePointArchive)
Source:(string) – select a model by keyword; search in models having the specified string as a keyword (email, file, sharepoint). This is similar as the MTID mentioned, but accepts more free model specification. Possible values are:
- For FileSystemArchive: file, fs, filesystem, archive
- For EmailArchive: archive, email, mail, mailarchive, emailarchive
Examples:
- source:file
- source:mail
Entity:(string) – select one or more entities by name; search in entities having the specified string in name. Entity name is mailbox address in Email archive and Root folder path in File system archive.
Examples:
- entity:abal@tech-arrow.com – search in ABAL’s mailbox
- entity:c:\temp – search in c:\temp folder
Property value specification
The following properties can be used to specify conditions on documents to be returned as result when searching the archive:
Date
Applicable only for properties of “date” type. Exact date specification has to be in format YYYY-MM-DD (no hours, minutes, seconds can be specified).
Example:
- date:(2016-12-05)
Available placeholders: now – means this hour; today, yesterday, this week, last week, this month, last month, this year, last year
Example:
- date:(now), date:(last week)
Number
Numbers are written as usually (1, 2, 3…). For the size conditions also units can be specified:
K | KB – size in kilobytes
M | MB – size in megabytes
G | GB – size in gigabytes
T | TB – size in terabytes
Example:
- size:(>1K) – files or emails (depending on the archive) larger than 1 KB
Range
Two types of ranges can be specified: numerical and date ranges. Ranges can be upper bound, lower bound or an interval. A range can be specified as a value for all properties of type “date” and “number”.
Prop:(>value) – the value of property “Prop” is greater than “value”
Prop:(< value) – the value of property “Prop” is less than “value”
Prop:(value1, value2) – the value of property “Prop” is greater than “value1” and less than “value2”
Examples:
- size:(1K, 1M) – files/emails (depending on the archive) larger than 1KB and smaller than 1MB
- date:(2016-10, 2016-12) – files created/modified or emails sent (depending on the archive) in the last quarter of 2016
Filename
Finds items by attachment name (Email archive) or file name (File archive). Wildcard characters can be used for filename pattern specification (* or ?). They have the same meaning as when searching for files in Windows.
Filename:(*.txt) – this will find all attachments and files having the extension .txt
Filename:(file) – this will find attachments and files having the exact name “file”
Filename:(file.*) – this will find attachments and files named “file” of any type (extension)
Properties in different archives
When specifying a boolean value for a property in query, the following notations can be used:
- true | yes | y stand for True
- false | no | n stand for False
Property names and values are not case sensitive. Wildcard characters (* and ?) can be used everywhere.
The character ‘|’ means an option or alternative (in cases if multiple property names and values can be used).
If the value is specified in quotes (e.g. “value”), it is considered as a phrase.
Example:
- “brown fox” will find all documents that contains the words “brown” followed by word “fox”
Email properties
The properties below are applicable when searching in Email archive
| Property | Specificity | Description |
| HasAttachment: | true | false | if true, finds emails having one or more attachments; if false, finds emails having no attachments |
| Importance: | Low | Normal | High | finds emails with the specified importance level |
| Sensitivity: | Normal | Personal | Private | Confidential | finds emails with the specified sensitivity level |
| Flag: | true | false | find emails having a flag set (true) or not set (false) |
| AttachmentCount: | (number) | finds emails with the specified attachment count |
| Bcc: | (string) | condition on addresses in BCC tag of the email |
| Category: | (string) | condition on category |
| Cc: | (string) | condition on addresses in CC tag of the email |
| Folder: | (string) | condition on folder path; possible to find emails only in the specified folder (backslash is used as path separator, e.g. Inbox\Important) |
| ReceivedDate: | (date) | condition on receiving date |
| RetentionTime: | (number) | condition on retention time (in months) |
| Sender | From: | (string) | condition on email sender |
| Date | SentDate: | (date) | condition on email’s sent date |
| Size: | (number) | condition on email’s size in bytes |
| Title | Subject: | (string) | condition on email subject |
| To: | (string) | condition on email’s recipient |
| Body: | (string) | search in the mail’s body text |
| Attachment: | (string) | search in mail’s attachment text |
File properties
The properties below are applicable when searching in File archive
| Property | Specificity | Description |
| CreationDate: | (date) | condition on file’s creation date |
| Title | Filename: | (string) | condition on file’s name |
| Folder: | (string) | condition on file’s path (\ is the path separator as in Windows, e.g. c:\documents\rfa) |
| Date | ModifiedDate: | (date) | condition on file’s creation date |
| Size: | (number) | condition on file’s size in bytes |
SharePoint document properties
The properties below are applicable when searching in SharePoint archive
| Property | Specificity | Description |
| CreatedBy: | (string) | condition on user who created the file |
| CreationDate: | (date) | condition on creation date |
| FileSize: | (number) | condition on file size |
| Date | ModificationDate: | (date) | condition on modification date |
| ModifiedBy: | (string) | condition on user who modified the document |
| Name: | (string) | condition on document name |
| Title: | (string) | condition on document title |
| VersionNum: | (number) | condition on document’s version number |