Search assets by keywords

Introduction

censhare allows you to assign keywords to assets. Keywords are a great help in classifying asset content and properties. This makes large amounts of data easier to search.

For their part, keywords can be organized into hierarchical structures. These structures reflect, for example, the categorization of an asset as based on different details. For example, instead of specifying the keywords Nature, Landscape, and Mountains as separate keywords, they can also be specified as a path structure Nature / Landscape / Mountain. Every node in this structure represents the given asset in different precision categories.

Hierarchical keyword structures make working with keywords in censhare considerably easier. As a user, you only need to specify one keyword – e.g., the keyword Mountains in the example above. Because of the hierarchical structure, the keywords Landscape and Nature will also be assigned to the asset.

When you perform a keyword search in censhare, you can just use any one of the keywords Mountains,  Landscape or Nature as a search term to find your asset. This article describes the requirements that must be met for you to be able to use hierarchical keywords. The article also explains how to use keywords in the Quick search andthe  Detailed search.

Prerequisites

censhare version 2017.2 enables the use of asset-based keywords. Module assets of the "Keyword" type offer a number of advantages over the hierarchical keyword tree which censhare used previously.

These assets can be created and maintained in censhare Web by users who have the appropriate permissions. Asset-based keywords can be localized and can contain other features (e.g. a context).

To map relationships between keywords, censhare uses the Keyword hierarchy relation.This enables users to create a hierarchical keyword tree just as before. However, the use of keyword assets and keyword relations is considerably more flexible than the feature-based keyword tree.Multiple parent-child relations can also be created and completely different sub-structures can be built.

As a user, you work with asset-based keywords just like before.You add or remove keywords using the Keywords widget. Just as before, censhare represents hierarchical keyword trees as a path. For example, the structure:

• Nature

  • Landscape

    • Mountains

    • Sea

is represented as the following paths:

• Nature

• Nature / Landscape

• Nature / Landscape / Mountains

• Nature / Landscape / Sea

For example, if you select the Nature / Landscape / Mountains path for an image asset called "Alpine Panorama", censhare knows that all three keywords in the path apply to the asset. They describe the image in different precision categories.

Quick search

censhare indexes keyword assets and keyword hierarchies for the Quick search. When you enter a keyword in the search field, the results list displays the following assets:

• assets with which the keyword is directly related

• further keywords which are related to the keyword under this hierarchy

• assets which are directly related  to the associated keywords

For example, you can use the following search queries to find the image asset "Alpine Panorama" (again assuming the keyword structure used above):

Detailed search

You find the keyword search in the Detail Search dialog under the Advanced tab, in the "Keywords" section. This section offers a number of search fields, depending on your system configuration. The hierarchical keyword search is indicated accordingly. This field is a selection list marked with a triangle to the right.

The censhare Detail Search allows you to search for assets with a specified keyword. You do not need to know what keywords are in use in order to do this. As soon as you open the selection list, censhare displays all keywords in hierarchical keyword structures As soon as you start to enter a keyword, censhare filters the list and only displays entries which match what you have entered so far.

You have two options for searching for assets: You can search for assets which are directly related to a keyword, or for assets within a keyword structure. The following table shows the search options and what kinds of results they return. The example in turn refers to the keyword structure presented in the introduction.

1. Searching for assets with a specific keyword:

   Select the path which shows your search keyword. For example, to search for assets with the keyword Mountains, select Nature / Landscape / Mountains. Click OK to start the search. The list of results shows only those assets which are directly related to that keyword. If no assets with the keyword "Mountains" exist, the Detail Search will likewise not make the keyword available for selection.

2. Searching for assets in a path with placeholders:

   To execute a search using placeholders, select a path which ends with / *.For example, to search for everything in the keyword path Landscape  select Nature / Landscape / *.Click OK to start the search. The list of results now displays all assets with one of the keywords Landscape, Mountains or Sea.