Improving Document Metadata Searches in Alfresco Full Text Search (FTS) with Advanced Query Language

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Alfresco is a powerful open-source content management platform widely used for document management and collaboration within enterprises. One of its key features is Full Text Search (FTS), which allows users to efficiently search for documents based on their content and metadata. While Alfresco provides a robust search capability out-of-the-box, there are times when users need more refined searches, especially when it comes to filtering documents based on their names using advanced query language.

The Need for Advanced Search Filters

In many scenarios, users need to narrow down their document searches based on specific criteria, such as:

1. Starts with: To find documents whose names begin with a certain string.
2. Ends with: To find documents whose names end with a particular sequence of characters.
3. Contains: To find documents whose names contain a specific substring.
4. Equals: To find documents with exact name matches.

While Alfresco’s basic search capabilities cover a wide range of scenarios, implementing these specific filters can enhance the precision and efficiency of searches, particularly in large document repositories.

Challenges with Basic Search Syntax

Alfresco’s basic search syntax offers flexibility but may not always yield desired results, especially when it comes to precise name-based searches. For instance, consider the following query:

TYPE\:content AND cm\:name:"alf*"

One might expect this query to retrieve documents whose names start with “alf.” However, due to the nature of Alfresco’s search behavior, this query might return unexpected results.

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