Semantic MediaWiki 3.0.0/Highlights/Special:Search, SMWSearch, and the extended search profile



introduces an extension to the existing SMWSearch and Special:Search integration between the "standard search" and a Semantic MediaWiki powered search to be more fluent and easier to use by novice as well as expert users.

Elevated by the introduction of the ElasticStore and its support for advanced full-text search capabilities on both structured and unstructured elements, the integration with Special:Search has been added to bridge the gap between Special:Ask's structured searches and Special:Search's "unstructured" field input.

The integration has been made adaptable so that different user scenarios and use cases can be supported (with the help of the so called search profile which have different input forms, see the SEARCH_FORM_SCHEMA).

When SMWSearch is enabled, the standard Special:Search is made aware of the  syntax additional and now supports a lighter term parser syntax. Furthermore, specific input forms can help users to interact with the Semantic MediaWiki powered search without leaving Special:Search or requiring users to use the more expressive #ask language.

Forms (not related to the PageForms extension) are made available to help summarize different use cases such as "Books and journals" or "Media and files" with input fields defining relevant property fields including the support for value autocompletion (made possible by the newly  introduced pvalue API function) that are most likely relevant for the context of a form and hereby search execution.

Besides the input, results (using the extended search profile) now support different sort preferences such as:


 * "Most recent" to show to most recent modified first
 * "Title" default sort mode
 * "Best match" to show results with the highest score (aka relevancy) first (only available in combination with the ElasticStore)

Other features include collapsing the namespace selection box to create a more compact search experience while not diminishing available options during a search request.