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Administration: Omnidex Indexing

PowerSearch

Overview

People do not think like databases. Databases are highly organized and structured, and they follow careful rules. People simply ask questions that they want answered, and they don't always follow the rules when they ask their questions. Databases record their data very precisely, and they expect queries to be precise as well. People do not always ask precise questions.

Imagine asking a question of an Internet search engine, such as Google or Bing. You give your best guess at criteria and the search engine interprets them for you. It compensates for spelling errors, plurals and verb tenses. It translates acronyms and honors well-known synonyms. It generally finds what you want, and it can even suggest, “Did you mean …?”.

People appreciate how Internet search engines think more like a person. They don't have to be an expert searching the web, and they don't have to understand the structure and details of a web page. They just need to know how to ask a question.

This flexibility belongs in databases, too. PowerSearch provides this flexibility. PowerSearch let's you find your data even if you don't know the correct spelling, transpose numbers, use abbreviations, or use nicknames or synonyms. PowerSearch allows your database to think like a person.

With PowerSearch, each column has a context, and each context demands a different flexibility. For example:

  • A First Name column needs to allow synonyms for given names, equating Bill to William, Beth to Elizabeth, and so forth.
  • A Last Name column needs to allow a phonetic search.
  • An Address column need to allow misspellings and postal code abbreviations.
  • A Postal Code column needs to allow a geographic radius search for all Postal Codes within a certain distance.
  • A Phone Number column needs to allow transpositions, and would allow alternative area codes.
  • An Email Address column needs to allow alternative spellings, or alternate domain names.

PowerSearch provides these capabilities, and also allows you to customize them to meet your own needs. As a database administrator, you can choose what level of flexibility you want o each column, and you can invent your new flexibilities as well. In the end, you can help your users find what they are looking for.

Take a look at an example of PowerSearch, or even try a quick demo. As you continue this section, you will learn how to add PowerSearch into your application.

Additional Resources

See also:

 
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admin/indexing/powersearch/home.1295758207.txt.gz · Last modified: 2016/06/28 22:38 (external edit)