FAQ Frequently asked questions

How to combine multiple keywords?

If you enter multiple keywords, every object that reflects the content of all keywords, will be found. By default, keywords are linked with a logical AND.

Example: Akropolis Athen

How to exclude keywords?

By placing a hyphen in front of a keyword, you can exclude any objects from the search result, which include the latter.

Example: Akropolis -Athen

How to enter complex logical operators in a search query?

Arachne supports the logical operators AND, OR and NOT. Pay attention to the usual operator precedence: NOT has priority to AND has priority to OR. You can use brackets to alter the precedence of the concatenation.

Example: Herakles AND (Dionysos OR Bacchus)

How to search for entire phrases instead of multiple loose words?

Put the entered phrase between quotation marks. Hereby only objects that contain exactly this phrase can be found.

Example: "Akropolis von Athen"

How to specifically search in single fields rather than searching the entire content of an object?

This can be achieved by prefixing the searched fields, separated by a colon. Following fields for object of all categories are currently available:

• entityId: The global, unique Arachne ID of an object
• internalId: The category-specific serial number
• type: The category
• title: The title
• subtitle: The subtitle
• datasetGroup: The recordset(dataset)

Example: title:"Akropolis von Athen", entityId:1, internalId:500000, type:Topographien, subtitle:"Attika", datasetGroup:Arachne

For type, the exact German category name must be used, i.e. "Topographien" and not "topographien", "Topographie" or "Topographies". A more convenient way is the "show all" link on the category pages, e.g. for Topographies. A list of all categories is given here.

Which wildcards are supported?

The search query can contain the following wildcards:

• ? as any single symbol
• * as none or multiple successive random symbols

Example: Akropolis*
(finds next to "Akropolis" terms like "Akropolismuseum" or "Akropolisberg")

Are regular expressions supported?

Yes, the search engine supports all common operators to formulate regular expressions. Latter must be placed between two slashes.

Example: /Pompe[ij]/
(finds results for “Pompeii” as well as for “Pompeji”)

Are exclusively objects found, that contain the exact entered keywords?

No, the keywords are adapted to the point that similar notations can be found. For example, words are reduced to their respective families, so that "cow" ("Kuh") also finds "cows" ("Kühe") and vice versa.

Furthermore, the operator "~" allows for a rough, approximate search. That means that terms with a similar spelling than the specified keyword can also be found.

Example: Pompei~
(finds “Pompei”, as well as “Pompeji” or “Pompeii”)

The search query caused a syntax error, what to do?

Syntax errors may occur if the request contains reserved search operators (eg. `/` or `~`). If these operators are used within a search, they can be escaped with `\` or be used as part of a search phrase within `"`.

Example: 87\/243

What determines the order of search results?

By default search results in Arachne are ordered by relevance. This depends on one hand on the relevance of an object in relation to the keywords. So objects appear earlier if they contain the keyword several times or in the title. On the other hand, the quality of a record flows into the relevance measurement. This gives highly contextualized, extensively illustrated and described objects a better position in search results.

The default sorting can be changed right above the display of search results

Why are there sometimes more sometimes less filters being offered?

There are a bunch of default filters, that are offered for any search. This includes "Location" and "Dating". In addition there are filters that only exist in certain categories, for example "Function" in the category "Object". Those filters are only shown, if the filter "Category" has the corresponding category selected.

In a specific search only filters that can actually help filtering the search result are shown. If, for example in the search results no results are included for which a location is specified, the corresponding filter is not displayed.

Do filters show all available values?

No. Only the most common values for the specific search result are displayed

How to cite an entity?

Every Entity has a permalink underneath its title, which should be used for citing the latter

The link looks like this: arachne.dainst.org/entity/1241246

Why isn't Arachne displayed correctly in my webbrowser?

Please ensure that you're using a modern web browser. Arachne supports current versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari or the Internet Explorer / Edge. If Arachne contents aren't displayed correctly, make sure that

• Arachne-Cookies are accepted from your browser
• JavaScript is enabled in your webbrowser
• your ad blocking software isn't acting against Arachne.