Search the docs

Every page of the docs site has a search box in its header. It finds only the pages, and the parts of pages, that you are allowed to read, in the release you are reading.

Searching

Type one or more words in Search the docs at the top of any page and press Enter. The results page lists up to 20 matching pages, best first, each with its title and a short passage around the match. Select a title to open the page.

Words are matched in any order and in any form: installing also finds "install".
Put a phrase in double quotes to match it exactly: "setup wizard".
or between words matches either one, and a minus sign in front of a word leaves out pages that contain it: sso -saml.
The last word also matches as the start of a longer word, so insta finds "installer".
Queries longer than 200 characters are cut to 200.

The search works without JavaScript: it is an ordinary form, and the results page has its own address (/search?q=…) that you can bookmark or share. Someone else who opens that address sees the results for what they can read, not yours.

What is searched

Search uses the same reader filter as the pages. It looks only at the release you are reading, for example the 2.x docs (see Choose the version you read), and only at text you can see: a hidden page never appears in the results, and words from a section, paragraph or alternative hidden from you never match, rank or appear in a passage. Titles count most, then short descriptions, then the rest of the page.

Results are worked out for each request and never cached or shared between readers. The help panel in your apps and the JSON help API search the same way.

For authors

Good titles and short descriptions make pages easy to find, because they weigh most in the ranking and the short description is quoted when the body has no text.

opend preview has the same search box. It searches the current Preview as reader's pages in memory, so you can check what each reader finds. Switching reader on the results page keeps the query. The previewer's search has no stemming or phrase syntax: words must appear as typed. See Preview as different readers.

For administrators

The worker indexes each release for Postgres full-text search when it publishes it. Releases published before search indexing existed are searched in memory, without stemming, until you run opend-server reindex. See Upgrade OpenD. Site searches are counted in Docs analytics and reader feedback with the surface site.