Table of Contents
Fotoware extended search
11. April 2025
Table of Contents
When a user searches for assets in Fotoware, it is possible to define additional search parameters to create very specific queries.
To use the extended search, select the three dots beside the search field:
Note: Extended search is only available to registered users. Unauthenticated guest users can only use standard search functionality.
You can adjust the precise criteria to search for in the overlay that opens. You can search in specific fields, within a specific time interval, and so on.
Select your criteria and then select Search to pass the search to the server and retrieve the results.
Which fields can be searched in?
You can use the Extended search dialog to search within a specific field by selecting it from the Field drop-down list. The drop-down list contains the built-in fields (Title, Description, Tags, Status, Rating and Notes), as well as any fields that have been added to the metadata viewthat is associated with the archive, for example, Upload Time and Uploaded By (Full Name), as shown in the screenshot below.
If you need to search additional fields that do not appear in the drop-down list, you can insert specific Search Expressions in the All fields text box to search for a specific field. Alternatively, you can ask your Fotoware administrator to add the required fields to the metadata view.
File size limitations
The given file size in Search Expressions, Extended search, and SmartFolders cannot be larger than 4 GB (4096 as value in the file size field)
How multiple search words are combined
If you specify multiple metadata criteria, different values in the same field are combined with OR, while different fields are combined with AND.
Example
The screenshot below shows a search for two words in the same field (Keywords - field 25). This search will be interpreted as "foo" OR "bar".
If you were to add a search for the word "hello" in the Title field (field number 5) to the query above, the entire search will be interpreted as: (5:hello) AND (25:foo OR 25:bar), because different fields are always combined with AND in the Extended search dialog, while words in the same fields are combined with OR.
Search expressions that are typed explicitly into the Search field in the Fotoware grid behave differently from the Extended search dialog described above:
When searching for 5:hello 25:foo 25:bar in the Fotoware search field, there is always an implicit AND between all predicates.
The AND/OR rule described above applies only to the Extended search dialog and query strings. You can set AND/OR operators explicitly in the Extended search dialog box using Search Expressions as explained in the paragraph below.
Creating Queries using Search Expressions
By using search expressions, it's possible to create very advanced queries. This can be especially useful when creating queries for use with SmartFolders.
For example, you can create a range search that retrieves files with a modification time within the last 6 hours by entering the following in Search for ... in All fields as seen in the example above:
mt:{{now-PT6H}} TO {{now}}
Another example: To search for London and Big Ben in the Title field (#005), you can do as follows:
005:London AND 005:"Big Ben"
Important: Search expressions MUST be entered in the All fields text box (as in the example above).
For more information on using search expressions and dynamic tags, see: