square brackets

[nmyers]

In March 2011 I had this reply from Wrensoft re square brackets:
Square brackets are effectively treated like a space character, and break up words.

So searching for DOG[CAT] is the same as searching for DOG CAT.

However if you select match ALL words, then you should get a match. That is to say, searching for DOG[CAT] should match both the text DOG[CAT] and DOG CAT on a page.
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I posted this question last week under that reply, but it must have been overlooked due to the original thread being a year old, so I am starting a new thread:

Because I need to distinguish between products such as d-[1,2-13C2]glucose and d-[1-13C]glucose, I have selected both the comma and hyphen to be join characters. I can't do anything about the brackets. When I search for d-[1,2-13C2]glucose with ALL search words selected, the Zoom engine replies
Search results for: d- 1,2-13C2 glucose
No results found.
If I then repeat the search, using the term d- 1,2-13C2 glucose, Zoom replies it searched for d 1,2-13C2 glucose and I have a good match.

I don't have DOG[CAT] on our pages, but it seems that searching for d-[1,2-13C2]glucose is not the same as searching for d- 1,2-13C2 glucose. My first bracket follows a join char (hyphen for us) but the second bracket is between two characters.

Is zoom stripping out brackets during the indexing, but not soon enough during the query?

Are square brackets treated identically to parentheses?

I recently upgraded to 1028 and I had been using 1023. The site in question can be seen at www.omicronbio.com/search.php. Please note that I am entering these terms in the Search for box and leaving the product name box blank.

[Ray]

I posted this question last week under that reply, but it must have been overlooked due to the original thread being a year old, so I am starting a new thread:

It wasn't overlooked. I think you missed the fact that there were 2 pages to that thread. The reply to your last post can be found on the second page.

This is now in fact the third thread you have started on this same topic. Did you pursue the custom meta field idea that I posted in your original thread (that I had linked to from your second thread)?

It would be easier for us to manage if you keep the discussion in the same thread. Otherwise, each time we have to hunt for 3 different threads to work out what has been discussed, and get the full story, before we can write a reply. I even vaguely recall there might have been an off-forum e-mail support thread too, but couldn't find it right now to check what we might have said about this.

It's possible that the join word rule for two consecutive join characters (a hyphen followed immediately by an open square bracket) is not being stripped the same way in the search script, as it is in the indexer. I think I responded via email about this. We plan to look into this for V7.

In the meantime, as noted in the previous thread, Zoom wasn't really designed to search for a string of punctuation characters in that fashion. And if you need special rules for searching chemical nonclementure (which we are not familiar with), we can provide a quote for custom development.

I believe square brackets are treated the same way as parenthesis, but I haven't tested this in detail.

If I were you, I would consider breaking up the chemical name and having different custom meta fields for them. E.g. one that searches specifically for composition by exact matching ("d-[1,2-13c2]" without the "glucose" part) and another field for searching glucose, sodium, etc.

[nmyers]

This is the reply I see on the second page :
"Yes. If you are search for "See Jane run", with quotes on two pages, then a page that mentions Jane and running a lot will be ranked higher than the page that doesn't. This is true even if the exact phase appears only once on the two pages.

We designed Zoom to search for words and numbers. We didn't really design it to search for the string of punctuation used in chemical names. You might find that in the end that some custom development is required to get the result you want. "
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That reply doesn't address my question : Is zoom stripping out brackets during the indexing, but not soon enough during the query? That is why I gave you the benefit of the doubt that my post was overlooked because it was part of an old thread. I apologize if I have not followed your procedures.

The only communication I have had with wrensoft via email was regarding our license key and forum membership activation and welcome.

Yes, I did try the custom meta field, but have not yet gotten acceptable results, have been trying for a year now to get this search function usable.

In a previous thread re two join characters in a row, some undocumented behavior was revealed - after I had spent hours to determine how Zoom was treating apostrophes. I had hoped with this post re square brackets to avoid more hours to determine how Zoom is treating square brackets, as it seemed your original reply was not actually happening on our site that "searching for DOG[CAT] is the same as searching for DOG CAT.". You have addressed this with your response here : It's possible that the join word rule for two consecutive join characters (a hyphen followed immediately by an open square bracket) is not being stripped the same way in the search script, as it is in the indexer. I think I responded via email about this. We plan to look into this for V7. (I did not get an email, but thank you for the response here).

I realize I have unique needs. I believe I need a better understanding of how Zoom functions, including any undocumented features, in order to get acceptable results. I have read the pdf manual and could not find any mention of parentheses in it. I was hoping you would be able to give me some concise information re parentheses and explain why your example of square brackets does not seem to apply on our site.