Search indexing and weighting

Matrix keeps an index or a list of words, where each word appears, and how often each word appears. For the search page, search list, search folder, and quick search to work, indexing needs to be turned on in the system.

Once indexing is turned on, assets will automatically be indexed when created. Changes to assets will also be indexed when committed.

By default, Matrix will index the asset’s attributes, including its content and metadata values. You can turn indexing off for an asset type or fields within an asset type on either the asset weights, asset tree weights, or the Search manager’s Global weights screen.

You can also change which words are indexed and how many characters a word must be before being indexed by the search manager’s Details screen. Read the Setting up the search manager documentation for more information on using the Search manager.

Weights are given to assets when a term that is being searched for is found within it. The higher the weighting or the score for an asset, the higher up in the list of results it will appear.

Weightings are applied to the asset fields, asset attributes, and metadata fields. Each field can have different weights. For example, Asset name can have a higher weighting than Asset contents. This difference means that if the term is in the Asset name, it will be given a higher score than in the Asset contents. By default, when indexing is turned on, all asset fields, attribute fields, and metadata fields will be indexed with a weighting of one.

Weights can be set in the following ways:

For more information on each of these screens, refer to the search manager chapter in this manual.