If I use a basic search for "<Topic Spiritual Gifts>" it returns zero results. If I use Topic Guide I get a fully filled in guide. What is going on here? What am I missing?
In the Basic search, make sure you are for "Everything" rather than "All Resources". I am not sure why it is designed this way, but the statements below are from the search guidance provided on this wiki page
Topics
If you perform a search over “Everything” (“Entire Library” before Logos 6) you can get results in the Topic section when corresponding articles are found within resources addressed by the “Logos Controlled Vocabulary” (LCV) feature. However, the Topic Guide is more convenient and you can get further results from the Collections section (in a collection of encyclopedias/bible dictionaries & concordances).
Factbook
These datatypes will return results from Factbook and a limited number of resources:
thanks, I will work on that and see
You have to use the input Spiritual Gifts, however, to get topic results from Everything. Topic Guide & Factbook also use that format, but will produce results if you type <Topic Spiritual and then select the topic.
Everything search behaves badly/unexpectedly when you input <Topic Spiritual and make a selection.
You have to use the input Spiritual Gifts,
Most probably know this, but Spiritual Gifts is a phrase, so it requires ""s.
Normally, but the lack of quotes doesn't seem to matter in this (topic) context.
Dave, Perhaps I misinterpret your comments, but when I run the searches the behaviors are distinctly different and as I expect. Please help an old man out and clarify this issue for me.
Normally, but the lack of quotes doesn't seem to matter in this (topic) context. Dave, Perhaps I misinterpret your comments, but when I run the searches the behaviors are distinctly different and as I expect. Please help an old man out and clarify this issue for me.
More search examples with
<Topic "Spiritual Gifts">
"Topic Spiritual Gifts"
having the same results:
Leaving off closing > from search finds words instead of topic.
Keep Smiling [:)]
I appreciate KS4J's helpful comment. However I would still like Dave to revisit his posted comment.
bump to Dave
Note that I am speaking about topic results from an Everything search.
This Topic section has the same results as "Spiritual Gifts", but no results from <Topic Spiritual Gifts> (even the Factbook section is lacking).
Library results (as per your first screenshot) will vary and you should expect Spiritual Gifts (no quotes) to provide more results.
Your second set of results fails primarily because <Topic Spiritual Gifts is missing the closing angle bracket > and because it is not an Everything search. <Topic "Spiritual Gifts"> produces different results to <Topic Spiritual Gifts> but the natural/suggested format does not have quotes.
Confused? I think Faithlife should rationalise results for <Topic xxxxxx> in Everything as <Topic "Spiritual Gifts"> gives spurious Library results.
Thank you so much Dave, I knew if I hung in there with you I would learn something unusual and valuable. Bless you. [8-|]
When I search for <Topic Spiritual Gifts>, I get 1 result in the Factbook section (as I would expect), so I'm not sure why yours is missing. The Topic section is missing though for this search, which I would consider a bug. I'll write it up on Monday.
<Topic "Spiritual Gifts"> is not a valid search, so the results are not defined. It appears to do the same thing as searching for "Topic Spiritual Gifts", but I would not recommend ever relying on this behavior.
This Topic section has the same results as "Spiritual Gifts", but no results from <Topic Spiritual Gifts> (even the Factbook section is lacking). When I search for <Topic Spiritual Gifts>, I get 1 result in the Factbook section (as I would expect), so I'm not sure why yours is missing. The Topic section is missing though for this search, which I would consider a bug. I'll write it up on Monday.
I should have been more precise, but I used "lacking" to mean "not as many results", so why only one?
The essential issue was the missing Topic section.
Confused? I think Faithlife should rationalise results for <Topic xxxxxx> in Everything as <Topic "Spiritual Gifts"> gives spurious Library results. <Topic "Spiritual Gifts"> is not a valid search, so the results are not defined. It appears to do the same thing as searching for "Topic Spiritual Gifts", but I would not recommend ever relying on this behavior.
I think Faithlife should recognize that users will tend to use quotes for phrases, because of spurious/inaccurate results in normal text searches, and just ignore them in <Topic xxxxx> and similar datatype searches.
This Topic section has the same results as "Spiritual Gifts", but no results from <Topic Spiritual Gifts> (even the Factbook section is lacking). When I search for <Topic Spiritual Gifts>, I get 1 result in the Factbook section (as I would expect), so I'm not sure why yours is missing. The Topic section is missing though for this search, which I would consider a bug. I'll write it up on Monday. I should have been more precise, but I used "lacking" to mean "not as many results", so why only one? The essential issue was the missing Topic section.
There's only one result because only one result matches the query (because you have exactly specified the single topic that you are interested in).
Try, for example: <Topic Spiritual Gifts> OR <Topic Gifts of the Holy Spirit>
Confused? I think Faithlife should rationalise results for <Topic xxxxxx> in Everything as <Topic "Spiritual Gifts"> gives spurious Library results. <Topic "Spiritual Gifts"> is not a valid search, so the results are not defined. It appears to do the same thing as searching for "Topic Spiritual Gifts", but I would not recommend ever relying on this behavior. I think Faithlife should recognize that users will tend to use quotes for phrases, because of spurious/inaccurate results in normal text searches, and just ignore them in <Topic xxxxx> and similar datatype searches.
Faithlife does recognize that searches in general are hard for users to create correctly, because the query language has exact specifications that are not intuitively obvious. We have ideas about how to solve that general problem, but it's not likely to get solved in the immediate future.
For now, the workaround to difficult syntax is use various features in the application to build searches for you (auto-complete, right-click context menu searches, or links from guides and Factbook) and then modify as needed, or to learn the details of the search syntax (using various resources) so that you understand the correct syntax.
Thanks, Andrew.
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