Library Search Extensions in 7.15 Beta 2

As per the release notes, 7.15 Beta 2 adds some new search extensions that can be used in the Library. These extensions have the potential to make denomination and commentary collections much faster and more accurate.

For example, I'll take the Expository Commentaries collection rule from https://community.logos.com/forums/t/88829.aspx.

This is the original rule from that post:

type:bible-commentary (series:("3:16 Bible Commentary Series", "Africa Bible Commentary Series", "An Exposition of Ephesians", "An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible", "Analytical Bible Expositor", "Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars Study Series", "Barnes’ Notes on the Old and New Testaments", "Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible", "Boice’s Expositional Commentary", "Cecil Sherman Formations Commentary Series", "Clear Study Series", "Daily Study Bible Series", "David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible", "Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works", "Discovering Christ", "Essential Bible Companion Series", "Every Christian's Library", "Exploring the Bible Commentary", "Expositions of Holy Scripture (MacLaren)", "Expositor’s Bible", "Feasting on the Word", "Focus on the Bible Commentary", "Following God Workbooks", "For Everyone Bible Study Guides", "Gaebelein Selected Works", "Gaebelein’s Gospel of Matthew", "Gleanings (AW Pink)", "God’s Word for You", "Gromacki Expositions", "High Definition Commentary Series", "Holman New Testament Commentary", "Horae Homileticae", "J. C. Ryle Collection", "Knowing the Bible", "Life Application Bible Commentary", "MacArthur New Testament Commentary", "Manna in the House: or, Daily Expositions of the Gospels", "Old Testament for Everyone", "Opening Up Commentary", "Poor Man’s New Testament Commentary", "Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary", "Preaching the Word", "R. C. Sproul Exposition Collection", "Reformed Expository Commentary", "Romans: Donald Grey Barnhouse", "Roy Gingrich’s Commentaries in Outline Form", "Roy Gingrich’s Commentaries in Outline Form: Bible Themes", "Spurgeon Commentary Series", "St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary", "Standard Bible Studies", "Studies in the Book of Acts", "Summarized Bible", "Swindoll’s New Testament Insights", "Teach the Bible", "Teacher’s Bible Commentary Series", "Teed Commentary", "The Church Pulpit Commentary", "The Gospel according to the Old Testament", "The Lectionary Commentary", "The Life and Times of Gideon", "The Navarre Bible", "The New Daily Study Bible", "The Orthodox Bible Study Companion", "The Sermon Outline Bible", "Thru the Bible Commentary", "Transformative Word", "Treasury of David", "Walking with Jesus", "Welwyn Commentary Series", "Wiersbe’s Be Series", "Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines", "Works of H.A. Ironside", "Works of John Bunyan"), author:("Blanchard, John", "Chambers, Oswald", "Pink, Arthur Walkington"), mytag:commentary-expository) -series:("Expositor's Bible Commentary")

This is an updated rule that uses the new extensions:

type:bible-commentary ({Series "3:16 Bible Commentary Series", "Africa Bible Commentary Series", "An Exposition of Ephesians", "An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible", "Analytical Bible Expositor", "Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars Study Series", "Barnes’ Notes on the Old and New Testaments", "Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible", "Boice’s Expositional Commentary", "Cecil Sherman Formations Commentary Series", "Clear Study Series", "Daily Study Bible Series", "David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible", "Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works", "Discovering Christ", "Essential Bible Companion Series", "Every Christian’s Library", "Exploring the Bible Commentary", "Expositions of Holy Scripture (MacLaren)", "Expositor’s Bible", "The Expositor’s Bible", "Feasting on the Word", "A Feasting on the Word Commentary", "Focus on the Bible Commentary", "Following God Workbooks", "For Everyone Bible Study Guides", "Gaebelein Selected Works", "Gaebelein’s Gospel of Matthew", "Gleanings (AW Pink)", "God’s Word for You", "Gromacki Expositions", "High Definition Commentary Series", "Holman New Testament Commentary", "Horae Homileticae", "J. C. Ryle Collection", "Knowing the Bible", "Life Application Bible Commentary", "MacArthur New Testament Commentary", "Manna in the House: or, Daily Expositions of the Gospels", "Old Testament for Everyone", "Opening Up Commentary", "Poor Man’s New Testament Commentary", "Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary", "Preaching the Word", "R. C. Sproul Exposition Collection", "Reformed Expository Commentary", "Romans: Donald Grey Barnhouse", "Roy Gingrich’s Commentaries in Outline Form", "Roy Gingrich’s Commentaries in Outline Form: Bible Themes", "Spurgeon Commentary Series", "St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary", "Standard Bible Studies", "Studies in the Book of Acts", "Summarized Bible", "Swindoll’s New Testament Insights", "Teach the Bible", "Teacher’s Bible Commentary Series", "Teed Commentary", "The Church Pulpit Commentary", "The Gospel according to the Old Testament", "The Lectionary Commentary", "The Life and Times of Gideon", "The Navarre Bible", "The New Daily Study Bible", "The Orthodox Bible Study Companion", "The Sermon Outline Bible", "Thru the Bible Commentary", "Transformative Word", "Treasury of David", "Walking with Jesus", "Welwyn Commentary Series", "Wiersbe’s “Be” Series", "Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines", "Works of H.A. Ironside", "Works of John Bunyan"}, {Author "Blanchard, John", "Chambers, Oswald", "Pink, Arthur Walkington"}, {MyTag "commentary-expository"})

On my computer, the first rule takes four seconds to run, but the second takes 200ms (20× faster).

N.B. the new syntax is extremely precise and only performs exact matches. For example {Series "Expositor’s Bible"} will only match Expositor’s Bible but not The Expositor’s Bible; but series:"Expositors Bible" will match both as well as Expositor’s Bible Commentary. The first rule had to have a special "-series" term to exclude that last series, which is unnecessary when using {Series}.

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Comments

Mark Barnes

Thanks, Bradley. This will make a big difference to speed, especially at startup.

Can we assume that “exact matches” also means no wildcards? So no “... ??? Testament...” to match both “Old Testament” and “New Testament”.

Also, what are the implications for mobile? Will this syntax be supported there?

And, for clarity:

Is case important? Is {mytag... equivalent to {MyTag...?
Are quotes required? Do we need {MyTag "commentary-expository"}, or will {MyTag commentary-expository} do?

Andrew Batishko

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/974976#Comment_974976

Wildcards are not supported.

As with other extensions, case is important.

Quotes are required unless you are using the Any or None options.

Also note that unlike most search syntax, punctuation matters. Everything has to be an exact match.

There are no immediate plans for supporting this on mobile, but it could happen at some point down the road.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/974981#Comment_974981

Wildcards are not supported.

As with other extensions, case is important.

Quotes are required unless you are using the All or None options.

Thanks, Andrew. Could this be added to the release notes, to keep all the syntax in the same place? Thanks. I know anyone can edit the Wiki, but it wouldn't feel right editing release notes.

Philana R. Crouch

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/974982#Comment_974982

Wildcards are not supported.

As with other extensions, case is important.

Quotes are required unless you are using the All or None options.

Thanks, Andrew. Could this be added to the release notes, to keep all the syntax in the same place? Thanks. I know anyone can edit the Wiki, but it wouldn't feel right editing release notes.

Hi Mark,

I've added this to the release notes.

James Taylor

These extensions have the potential to make denomination and commentary collections much faster and more accurate.

So now we just need someone who understands these extensions well to redo all the commentary/denomination/theology collections ;-)

Dave Hooton

Be careful about exact syntax when changing existing collection rules e.g. "Wiersbe’s Be Series" ==> "Wiersbe’s “Be” Series" as Be has double curly quotes in the actual series name (if it had double straight quotes it would have to be escaped i.e. "Be" ==> ""Be"").

Armin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/975020#Comment_975020

So now we just need someone who understands these extensions well to redo all the commentary/denomination/theology collections ;-)

I agree. One of the major disadvantages of Logos for me is its lack of intuitiveness. While it is great that these new rules make things faster, it moves us further from intuition. It certainly is something that I won't try to learn (despite having a computer science background).

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

As per the release notes, 7.15 Beta 2 adds some new search extensions that can be used in the Library.

Any plans for Subject search extension ?

{Subject "Bible. N.T. Matthew--Commentaries.","Sermon on the Mount."}

Keep Smiling [:)]

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/975020#Comment_975020

So now we just need someone who understands these extensions well to redo all the commentary/denomination/theology collections

I've done most of the commentary ones. I'll share them later today.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/975038#Comment_975038

I agree. One of the major disadvantages of Logos for me is its lack of intuitiveness. While it is great that these new rules make things faster, it moves us further from intuition. It certainly is something that I won't try to learn (despite having a computer science background).

That's fine. The standard functionality still works and will be what people will use 99.9% of the time. The new functionality is just for the very long, complex queries that the original syntax wasn't designed for.

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/975050#Comment_975050

I've done most of the commentary ones. I'll share them later today.

Thanks a bunch Mark.

Andrew Batishko

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/975040#Comment_975040

Any plans for Subject search extension ?

{Subject "Bible. N.T. Matthew--Commentaries.","Sermon on the Mount."}

Not immediately, but we may add more at some point later.

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/975050#Comment_975050

So now we just need someone who understands these extensions well to redo all the commentary/denomination/theology collections

I've done most of the commentary ones. I'll share them later today.

Mark, did you ever share these? They don't seem to be on the FL Commentary Collections page.

Reuben Helmuth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/978757#Comment_978757

Mark, did you ever share these?

Yes, he did. In this thread.

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/978774#Comment_978774

Yes, he did. In this thread.

Thank you very much!