Documentation: Searching Arctos
How To Customize the Search Page
The main search page can be customized to reflect the preferred suite of fields displayed for queries, especially those most frequently when searching. When logged in, customization options are saved to the user profile and will automatically display on subsequent logins.
Navigation: Main Page [OR] Search -> Catalog Record
Defaults
The default search pane contains a few basic search fields that are most frequently used for querying biodiversity collections. Use the Customize Search & Results menu at the top of the page to select from several preset search options that are tailored to discipline-specific query fields (e.g., paleo or ethnographic collections):
Profiles
To customize the search and result fields displayed or add more fields to the pane to create a more advanced search, use the “Customize or Manage Profile” menu option.
You may choose from an existing profile to “seed” the form or start from scratch. Toggle on or off fields in the Search Options and Results Options tables to control what fields are displayed.
Pro Tip: While any user can customize the fields displayed, users must create a login to save these custom preferenes for subsequent searches. Provide a name for your new profile, and click ‘create and use’.
- Each customize table is sortable, listing the field name of either Search Options (query fields) or Reults Options (the fields that will be displayed in the search results table).
- When clicked, eye icons display the definition of each term. Use the checkboxes to manually selct desired options, or use the category or subcategory checkmarks to batch-select related options within a categoy, or the “x” symbol to batch toggle off existing selections.
Note that while a user can turn on every Search table option, doing so in the Results table will result in limited record retrieval. This is due to the “cost” of the memory needed to simultaneously search multiple fields/tables throughout the database. Generally speaking, the more Results Options selected, the fewer catalog record results will display. For instance, toggling “core” (default) selections plus a handful of targeted fields will typically result in a search that maxes out at 500,000 records. Adding a few more fields may result in a maximum of 250,000 records returned. However, toggling every Result Option selection will likely retrieve a maximum of 3 catalog records.
Results Options relate to the field headings displayed at the top of the results table. Users will be able to access all informaiton contained in a catalog record by clicking on the catalog number. Users will also be able to download the search results as displayed (limited to the Result Options fields selected), and/or may asynchronously “request data” for large datasets. See How to Customize Results for more detailed information.
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