Help:Search

From MixesDB

Below all facts about the different ways of searching MixesDB.

Search Box on Sidebar

The simple search box on the left sidebar searches all namespaces you defined as default in your user preferences/Search.
Enter a search term and hit return. You will see the standard result page. If the term matches a category name, you'll be taken there directly (Go button function).
3 letters: Although you can't search "WMC" or "In The Mix"; the Go function will take you to the category (if exists).
You can change the standard number of results in your preferences/Search.

Wildcards*

Searching for unit will only find the "Unit Club". Searching for unit* will find the "Unit Club", the "Unity Festival" etc. It's also useful when you don't know the correct spelling of a name.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search is a very powerful search that lets you search the database with more precision on the results. You can combine a search for title and page content with the categorization of the pages. Besides using AND/OR operators you can also include or exclude aspects. A quick category selection lets you include tracklist state and time aspects on the fly to your search. You can combine everything with everything. If you combine in a smart way you can get the exact pages you look for and there is nothing you can't find.

The following facts apply to the "Title and Page Content" section as well as for the "Category section":

• CaPiTalizAtiOn of the search terms doesn't matter.
• You can use Wildcards* as described above.
• Include/Exclude should be self-explaining: Enter to the Exclude field what should not be included in the result pages.

Search operators

You can include multiple search terms in one string using AND / OR (always in upper case).

• Searching groove AND body in the include box of the title / page section will only find pages that include both words either in the title or the page content.
• Searching groove OR body lists pages where only "groove" is included, where only "body" is included and of course where both are included since one of them is included anyway.
• You can combine both to groove AND ( body OR soul ) (note the blanks)

The operators are logical operators. This becomes clear when you use them in the category section.

• Searching 1998 AND 1999 returns no results since no page is in both categories.
• Searching 1998 OR sven väth finds pages in category "1998" as well as pages in category "Sven Väth" and logically also pages in both categories.

Since there are exclude fields there is no need for the operator NOT (doesn't work, no need to try).

Title and Page Content

This will list or exclude articles matching your search term(s) in the Title and Page Content fields.

• You can't search words with 3 or less letters because those are not indexed in the search index.
  Try in combination: instead of derrick may use "derrick may". Words in quotes will be found only if they appear in this order.
• You can't search stop words here. Stop words are short and often used but meaningless words that are not indexed (full list of stop words).
• Since most mix pages include the category names in the title and in the page content (e.g. [[Category:Clubnight]]) you can also find the pages via the Title and Page Content fields (except categories in Style and Misc).

Category section

This will list or exclude articles that are included in the categories you enter.

• You can search for short words because category names are searched via the category index. So you can enter category names like in the mix or wmc.
• You have to know the category names you want to enter (for unsure spellings try Wildcards*).
• Remember that you don't need to write the complete category name. It's enough if you search for "richie h*" and most likely only the category "Richie Hawtin" will be considered. Searching "esse*" will consider "Essential Mix" and "Essential Selection".
• Be sure you add the beginning of the category name at least, i.e.
  richie hawtin or riche but not hawtin or
  richie hawtin AND ricardo villalobos or riche AND ricardo villa* but not hawtin AND ricardo (wouldn't find "Richie Hawtin" as category)
• Remember you can enter everything from the main categories like artists, clubs, styles, years etc.

Namespaces

This is the list of all searchable namespaces. Tick the namespace(s) the result pages should be in.

• Mix pages are located in the (Main) namespace, so for mix pages only "(Main)" and "Category" are relevant. "File" includes uploaded Images and ID Samples.
• If you're logged in, change the defaults in your user preferences/Search.

Quick Categories

This should be self-explaining.

• "Tracklist should be:" E.g. click "complete" + "incomplete" and all pages in the result will have a complete or incomplete tracklist.
  Ticking all 3 equals ticking none of them: The search will simply ignore the tracklist categories.
• "Select a time": Choose a single year and the result will only be pages in that year category.
  The centuries like "1990s" will find pages being in category 1990, or 1991, or 1992, or .... 1999, 199X.
  Selecting "earlier" will list pages being linked to 1979 or years before.

Results

• The results are sorted in the order in which they were added. That makes not much sense but ensures fast performance.
• By default 50 results are displayed per page. You can change that on the result, but not per default.

Google this page title

Each mix and category page has a Google icon displayed behind the page name. Clicking it will open a new tab / window and search the page title on Google. Mix pages: If you're unhappy with the results, change the search string in the search box (e.g. remove the date). This mainly happens when there are too many words.
Some pages don't display the Google icon, e.g. titles which don't make sense to google, e.g. Main Page, the main categories like Artist, or years like 2005. If you find other category page names that should be ignored, pls post a comment here.

Search this artist on discogs

When enabled in your prefs / Gadgets a Discogs icon will be displayed on artist category pages, searching the artist name on discogs.com. Although discogs is going down the drain since their latest version change it is still a more or less good resource for releases (see example screenshot).

Search Plugin

There's a search plugin for the Firefox and Internet Explorer search bars so you can search MixesDB without visiting it first. Simply click the according button in the search bar of your browser when browsing MixesDB.

Firefox	Internet Explorer
Note: If it doesn't work in Firefox, do it manually (one click also)

RubNub Firefox Add-On

The Firefox Add-on RubNub enhances your address bar with additional functionality. It uses YubNub which is the website solution for it. It comes with thousands of handy commands. Try it out, the command for searching MixesDB is 'mdb ...'. So entering 'mdb mills sonar' in your address bar will perform the search without visiting MixesDB first.