Searching for assets (FotoWeb Pro)
Performing a basic search
To perform a basic search, simply start typing words in the search box. This will execute a full-text search across the entire definition of metadata fields.
Example:
beautiful beach
By default this, will be construed as the precise string "beautiful beach". How FotoWeb interprets searches that contain several words without quotation marks to separate them can be configured by the FotoWeb administrator in the search string modification settings.
Searching for an exact phrase
To search for an exact phrase, such as a complete name, enclose the phrase in quotation marks:
"barack obama"
This will only produce matches in assets that contain the exact phrase barack obama, but not, for example, return assets that contain the phrase president obama.
Searching in specific fields
To search in a specific field, you will need to specify the field followed by the word or phrase you're searching for.
For example, to search for winter in the Keywords field (field no 25):
25:winter
You can also expand this search - say you want to search for winter and snow as keywords in field 25:
25:winter & 25:snow
This example uses the boolean operator AND - a complete list of such operators can be found below.
To go even further, let's imagine a search for winter and snow in field 25 and the phrase alpine skiing in the caption (field 120):
25:winter & 25:snow & 120:"alpine skiing"
A note on the last example above
In the last example above, a search string such as 25:winter&snow will produce another result, since it specifies a search for winter in field 25, while the search for snow is based on free-text in all fields in the metadata definition since no field is specifically set for that term.
Reference material
Wildcard characters
When you are searching, you can make use of some special characters to help you find what you are looking for. These special characters are:
? (question mark)
Matches any single character
Example:
shoe?
This search will match the word shoes, but not shoe.
* (asterisk)
Matches any number (including zero) of characters
Example:
shoe*
This search will match shoe, shoes, shoestring etc.
Example: Searching for filenames using wildcard characters
fn:*.jpg
Finds all assets assets with the extension .jpg. A complete list of specifiers (predicates) can be found in the search reference.
Boolean search
The following boolean operators can be used:
| Operator | Example search | Result |
|---|---|---|
| AND / & |
winter & snow winter AND snow |
Finds assets with both words present. Note: The AND operators can be omitted: If two clauses are put next to each other, they are implicitly combined using the AND operator |
| OR / | |
apples OR pears apples | pears |
Expression matches if both or both operands matches. |
| NOT / - | apples NOT pears | Expression matches assets with the words apples that does not also contain the word pears |
Additional details can be found in the search reference.
Numeric range search
A numeric range search can be used to search for pictures of a certain size, assets within a date range, and so on.
There are two range forms that can be used, closed range form and open range form.
Closed range form example:
pw:800~~2048
This will execute a search for pictures with a pixel width in the range 800 to 2048 pixels.
Open range form example
pwf:800 AND pwt:2048
This is essentially the same search; we have specified pixel width from (pwf) and pixel width to (pwt) - A complete list of operators can be found in the search expressions reference article.
The benefit of using an open range form is that you can specify only an upper or a lower limit. So if you're interested in finding pictures that are 800 pixels wide or more, but don't want to specify an upper limit, your search can look like this:
pwf:800
Example 1: Searching for assets that have been modified between Jan 1st and 31st 2016
mt:2016-01-01~~2016-01-31
Here we use the mt specifier, modified time, which lets us set an interval.
Example 2: Searching for assets that have been modified since Jan 1st 2016
mtf:2016-01-01
This search uses the mtf specified, modified time from, without specifying an end. Hence, all files modified since the specified start date will be found.
Example 3: Searching for assets that have been uploaded since Jan 1st 2016
A slightly different approach is needed when searching in xmp date fields: To find files that have been uploaded since Jan 1st 2016, we can perform a search in the Uploaded time field (no 362). The syntax will then look like this:
362:2016-01-01~~9999-12-31
Since there is no way to specify an end date representing today, you can use an imagined date far into the future - in this case we've set an end date in the year 9999. The same can be used to set a start date far into the past - you can for example set the start date in the year 1700 to make sure you include all files since then.
A complete set of available search expressions can be found in the search expressions reference article.
Extended search
When searching for assets, it is possible to use extended search parameters to more closely specify which fields to search in, folder names to include, and so on. For more information about extended search, see Using FotoWeb extended search.
How search results are presented in FotoWeb Pro
When you perform a search FotoWeb opens up tabs for all the archives that generate search results. If your search produces hits in so many archives that they don't all fit on your screen, the little menu icon to the left of the tab area shows a counter to indicate how many other archives have search results in them. You can then open that menu and tick off the archives you want to display.
To find specific content in archives, use the Search field at the top right of the screen. When you log in, there is also a large search bar on the home page that allows you to search in all the archives that you can access.
Clearing the search
To clear the search, select X in the search field.
Other ways to locate files
Though performing a search is a convenient way to locate the files you're looking for, you may also find that browsing archives by folders or taxonomies, when available, can also be very useful to find assets.
Further reading: Complete search reference
You can find a complete overview of FotoWeb's search capabilities here: Search Expressions reference article.