Metacat

Metacat PathQuery used to support 'matches-exactly' as one of its possible 'searchmode' values. It appears that this is no longer the case. The string 'matches-exactly' appears in the JavaDoc comments for the two QueryTerm constructors:

• @param searchmode
• determines what kind of substring match is performed (one of
• starts-with|ends-with|contains|matches-exactly)

However, it no longer appears in the source code itself. When setting 'matches-exactly' as the searchmode value, the search behaves as if the searchmode value was instead set to 'contains'. For example, the following pathquery:

<pathquery version="1.2">
<querytitle>Advanced Search</querytitle>
<returnfield>dataset/title</returnfield>
<returnfield>originator/individualName/surName</returnfield>
<returnfield>dataset/creator/individualName/surName</returnfield>
<returnfield>originator/organizationName</returnfield>
<returnfield>creator/organizationName</returnfield>
<returnfield>keyword</returnfield>
<querygroup operator="UNION">
<queryterm searchmode="matches-exactly" casesensitive="false">
<value>ax</value>
<pathexpr>abstract/para</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="matches-exactly" casesensitive="false">
<value>ax</value>
<pathexpr>abstract/section/para</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="matches-exactly" casesensitive="false">
<value>ax</value>
<pathexpr>dataset/title</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="matches-exactly" casesensitive="false">
<value>ax</value>
<pathexpr>keyword</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="matches-exactly" casesensitive="false">
<value>ax</value>
<pathexpr>surName</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
</querygroup>
</pathquery>

generates the following SELECT statement:

(SELECT DISTINCT docid FROM xml_path_index WHERE (UPPER LIKE '%AX%' AND path IN ('abstract/para','abstract/section/para','dataset/title','keyword','surName')))

I've also tried using a 'searchmode' value of 'equals' and the results are the same. The following pathquery:

<pathquery version="1.2">
<querytitle>Advanced Search</querytitle>
<returnfield>dataset/title</returnfield>
<returnfield>originator/individualName/surName</returnfield>
<returnfield>dataset/creator/individualName/surName</returnfield>
<returnfield>originator/organizationName</returnfield>
<returnfield>creator/organizationName</returnfield>
<returnfield>keyword</returnfield>
<querygroup operator="UNION">
<queryterm searchmode="equals" casesensitive="false">
<value>ab</value>
<pathexpr>abstract/para</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="equals" casesensitive="false">
<value>ab</value>
<pathexpr>abstract/section/para</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="equals" casesensitive="false">
<value>ab</value>
<pathexpr>dataset/title</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="equals" casesensitive="false">
<value>ab</value>
<pathexpr>keyword</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
<queryterm searchmode="equals" casesensitive="false">
<value>ab</value>
<pathexpr>surName</pathexpr>
</queryterm>
</querygroup>
</pathquery>

generates the following SELECT statement:

(SELECT DISTINCT docid FROM xml_path_index WHERE (UPPER LIKE '%AB%' AND path IN ('abstract/para','abstract/section/para','dataset/title','keyword','surName')))

In both cases, the SELECT statement is constructed as if for a 'contains' searchmode.

I'm not sure whether support for 'matches-exactly' was withdrawn from Metacat intentionally or by accident, but I think it would be valuable to restore it. For example, LTER is now using a controlled vocabulary to improve searching its data catalog. Some of the search terms in that controlled vocabulary are short chemical formulas such as 'C' or 'CO'. Whenever a search term is three characters or fewer in length, we use 'matches-exactly' as the searchmode, otherwise we use 'contains'. Since 'matches-exactly' is not supported, all short search terms such as 'C' or 'CO' are matching virtually every EML document in the catalog. Consequently, the search results in these cases are not useful to the end user.