Search Tutorial: Difference between revisions

From GCD
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 12: Line 12:
=== Additional Information ===
=== Additional Information ===
Note that currently most of our credit data is in the form of free text fields. This can result in not finding all credits (due to name variations) or too many credits (due to similar names). In End of 2019 we started the process of migrating our credit data to real database connections, but the migration of the existing data is expected to take a long time.
Note that currently most of our credit data is in the form of free text fields. This can result in not finding all credits (due to name variations) or too many credits (due to similar names). In End of 2019 we started the process of migrating our credit data to real database connections, but the migration of the existing data is expected to take a long time.
The [a], [b], and [m] behind a series name are short cuts for the three publication types album, book, and magazine.


=== Creator Checklist (in development) ===
=== Creator Checklist (in development) ===

Revision as of 12:26, 15 February 2020

There are several ways to search in our database

Everything Search

The regular search is a free-text search for (most of) our database content. It behaves like a regular web search, you enter a few terms which should be in the result you are after. For example the name of the creator, series name, issue number, or character names. The search returns all occurrences, by default sorted by a relevance score. Sorting in alphabetical or chronological order, or by country code, can be selected on the top right. Filters for stories, issues, series, etc. are at the top. Additional filters by country, language or publisher are available on the left. If there are too many results, additional search terms should be added to reduce the number of hits. See also the bottom of the result page for some further instructions.

Credit Search

Using the drop-down selection in the search header you can perform credit specific searches. For example, selecting 'Pencils' and entering 'Jack Kirby' (or 'Kirby Jack') will get over 20.000 sequences matching that name, or a search 'Joe Simon Jack Kirby' will give not quite 500 results. The search performs a free text search in our data for pencils. The default sorting is alphabetical by series name (and issue number), but can be changed to chronological.

Advanced Query

The Advanced Query allows field specific queries. It is a somewhat experimental query builder and has known oddities and limitations. In difference to the former searches, here the queries match exact substrings, e.g. "Jack Kirby; Joe Simon" and "Joe Simon; Jack Kirby" will give different results. The sort order is here select beforehand under 'Ordering'.

Additional Information

Note that currently most of our credit data is in the form of free text fields. This can result in not finding all credits (due to name variations) or too many credits (due to similar names). In End of 2019 we started the process of migrating our credit data to real database connections, but the migration of the existing data is expected to take a long time.

The [a], [b], and [m] behind a series name are short cuts for the three publication types album, book, and magazine.

Creator Checklist (in development)

A checklist of the issues a creator worked on can be obtained by using an URL of the form
www.comics.org/checklist/name/<creator-name>)/
www.comics.org/checklist/name/<creator-name>)/country/<country-code>/
www.comics.org/checklist/name/<creator-name>)/language/<language-code>/
Forms to use the checklists without hand-editing URLs will be added at some time.

Search Improvements

We know about the limitations of our search. These exist not for a lack of wants and ideas, but a lack of technical volunteers. We welcome any volunteer who is willing to improve our search capabilities.