Database: Search Feature - User's Manual

Hi, please do me (and yourself) a favor and read this document at least once - from analyzing the user input I *know* you'll profit from the following text, even if it may be rather dry and lengthy ... We'll cover the elements of the "Title & Actress Search Form" from left to right and from up to down but I'll also skip ahead (or back) a bit when the context requires it.

Search String:

This is your input - the thing you want to search for - sounds rather simple but it isn't because a number of checkboxes and radio buttons control the way the search is executed. These checkboxes and radio buttons will help you to fine-tune your search to find what you'd like to find without producing too much extraneous clutter.

Upper and lower-case doesn't matter - the search is always executed case-insensitive!

Wildcards are appended to your search string depending on the setting of the search algorithm. If set to "from start" a wildcard is appended to the end of your string (after trimming away leading and trailing spaces), if you choose to search "in the middle" a wildcard will be appended at the start and at the end of your search string.

Examples:

"Charlie" will find e.g. "Charlie's Angels 2000", "Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen" if you execute a "from start" search.
"Angels" will turn up empty with the default options but will deliver "Charlie's Angels 2000" if you set the algorithm to "in the middle".
"Angels" will turn up a lot more, if you set "in the middle" and set "search series" to "yes". :)

TIP: Type as much as you need to but don't type too much, to avoid a miss because of a typo. So, if you search for "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" doing an "in the middle" search for "hunchback" or "Notre Dame" is sufficient and very error resistant.

Search for Title, Actress, Series:

This tells the script what is has to search for - this isn't IMDB, folks, where everything is searched. You need to set the radio button to the appropriate entry if you expect results - this is, by the way, the most common error I observe by analyzing the log files.

Depending on what you search for a few tips to enhance your chances of finding it with a minimal amount of clutter:

Searching for Titles:

When searching for titles, the first thing to understand is that "Viper" isn't a title but a series, ok? Neither is "The Avengers" but "Mudersville", an episode of "The Avengers" is a valid title. If you want to search for "Viper" or "The Avengers" switch to series-search! This is the second most occurring error.

TIP: If you have a pretty good idea what the title is like, type as much as needed, giving preference to uncommon words and set the search algorithm to "in the middle" - if the title is a movie or TV-movie, i.e. not an episode from a series, make sure you disable "Search Series" to cut search time down and to remove wrong results.

TIP: If you have only a vague idea about the title (but know the actress or the series) search for series or actress until I have programmed a "by word" algorithm. If you know that there's an uncommon word in the title reduce your search-string to this word and do an "in the middle" search, remember to disable or enable "Search Series" as needed.

Searching for Names:

I'm always amazed how clever some users search and how ... un-clever others. Let's take "Jessica Alba" again ... why type "Jessica Alba"? Or something like "Catherine Zeta Jones" or is it "Catherine Zeta-Jones"? The little "-" might prevent you from scoring a hit. Why bother? "Zeta" or "Alba" are so uncommon that an "in the middle" search for "Zeta" or "Alba" are likely to produce the desired results and little to no extra clutter - keep it short, if you can!

Another example: "Gruschenka Stevens" ... Say, how many names do you know that start with "Gru"? So, maybe I have the lady filed as "Grushenka Stevens" and your search'll come up dry because of a simple typing error. Make it easy for yourself and just do an "from start" search for "Gru" ... see what I mean? :)

TIP: Double Names like "Zeta-Jones" are especially tricky. Try to avoid them by typing only a part of the name - in the "Zeta-Jones" example doing an "in the middle" search for "Zeta" will do nicely.

Searching for Series:

I've entered the series as they're listed at IMDB or at epguides.com. I've set up alternate spellings for a number of them but it'll take some time before I've covered them all. So, if in doubt, there's a couple things you can try until I have the series reporter up and running (you'll get a drop-down list there with all series, no need to type anything anymore):

• If you know an episode name with a DiD scene you can search for this title and then look at the series' name in the return record

• If you know an actress of this series you can search for her and then look at the series' name (like Diana Rigg for "The Avengers").

• Try to spell out digits "Seven Days" instead of "7 days" and add "." with abbreviations like "J.A.G" instead of "JAG".

Search Series: Yes or No:

Decides whether the script will include episode titles in its search. If set to "Yes", episode-titles will be searched, if set to "No" episode-titles will be skipped and not searched.

Example:

If you do an "in the middle" search for "Bird" you'll get "Down Came a Blackbird" and "Jailbirds" as reply if the option is set to "No". If you set it to "Yes" you'll also get "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" from the series "The Avenger", "White Bird" from "Knight Rider" and "Two Birds With One Sloan" from "Diagnosis: Murder" (the last two actually only, if "Search only DiD" is set to "No").

Note: This feature is very handy in filtering out clutter. If you search for a movie with the word "Angel" in it, setting this option to "No" will filter out quite a lot of episode titles from "Charlie's Angels".

Note: This option is set to "No" by default!
Note: This option has no influence when searching for an actress or a series, it applies to title-searches only!

Search Titles: German and Original:

The use of this depends on the reason why you search the database and where you come from. As a German I have access to the German titles and they're of interest to me when searching my TV-guide. As a non-German the original title is of interest to you because how should you know how a movie is called in Germany?

As a German you may consider turning off searching for the original names unless you know the original title (e.g. from Brian's DB) and want to check out the German name for it.

As a non-German it makes little sense to have "German" checked unless you receive German television and want to check out a few titles.

Note: Turning off "German" will only turn off German alternates, not titles originally made in Germany!

Note: This option applies to title-searches only and has no influence on searches for series or actresses!

Search only DiD: Yes or No

The use of this feature my not be apparent at first but is serves a very important purpose (at least for me). I keep two flags in my database: One for indicating that a title has DiD content, one to indicate that a title has no DiD content. Why is this important?

As a maker of DiD caps I know that Brian's DB isn't complete (no DB can ever be complete because new movies keep popping up every day and many users who notice a DiD scene never bother to enter it into a database). So - not finding a title doesn't tell you anything - it just tells you that up until now no one has entered information about this title ... still confused?

Sometimes a title sounds promising but doesn't contain a DiD episode. Since databases like Brian's do not show Non-DiD titles you record it, you search it and come up empty ... time wasted. Worse ... a year or so in the future ... same movie, same result. By adding the Non-DiD flag I can nicely maintain a negative list and check a promising title. If I find it with a DiD flag I can take a look a the caps and decide whether it'd be good to re-do the movie, if it has a Non-DiD flag I know I don't even have to bother with this title. If it has a "?" I'll do it and update the database later with either a DiD or Non-DiD entry.

Knowing that a title doesn't contain a DiD scene can be helpful! :)

Note: This option is set to "No" by default - you might consider setting it to "Yes" if you want to search for online records only and are not checking your TV-program against my DB.

Note: This option only works with title-searches. For actresses and series only DiD records are shown. Use the Series-Reporter (when available) to get a full listing of all episodes to plan your recordings ... DiD episodes are marked specially in the report.

Sorting Order: German or Original:

This option will actually have two effects on how the results are displayed:

1. The top field in the reply record will be set according to your search order (i.e. the German will be first if German is selected).

2. The results will be sorted alphabetically after the German alternates or the original titles.

If you're a German I recommend setting the search order to German!

Note: This option is set to "Original" by default.
Note: This option affects all searches, i.e. it applies to title-searches, actress-searches and series-searches!

Search Algorithm: "From start", "in the middle", "single words"

Now, this is a very important feature and it must be set in accordance with your search string if you hope to get results. :)

You have three options, only two of them currently work:

Search "from Start":

This means that your search string represents the start of what you're looking for. Keeping in mind that titles on this site do not have an appended ", The" or ", A" but are "normal" like "The Pale Rider" using "The" as search string and doing an "from start" search would list all titles beginning with "The" - think of it as searching for "The*" if you're familiar with strings or "The%" if you've been working with SQL statements before.

Well, the "The" search will not give you anything because it'll produce too many results so let's take a better example, let's switch to "Actress" search and use "Ann" as search string and do an "from the start" search. With the current database content you'll get the records for:

Ann Helm, Ann Rutherford, Ann Wedgeworth, Ann-Kathrin Kramer, Ann-Margret, Anna Friel, Anna Karin, Anna Karina, Anna Levine, Anna Loos ... and couple more.

Search "in the middle":

Now, if you keep searching for actresses and if you keep your search string "Ann" but change the algorithm to "in the middle" the string is changed to search for "*ann*" or "%ann%", this time you'll get all of the Damsels you got before but also a few new ones in addition, actually a LOT more and your result will be past the 100 maximum hits range. Why is this so .. well, you'll also get "Carrie-Anne Moss" because she's got an "Ann" in the middle of her name.

Search for "single words":

This search method hasn't been implemented yet because I don't want it to behave like most search engines and produce tons of junk replies but to actually be a bit smart and do a weighted search ... the feature will be available soon but not too soon ... :)

Why so complicated?

That's a question I've been getting from a couple of users. Well, here's the short version: I positively hate most search engines because they'll either produce no results (if you type too much) or too many results (if you don't type enough). By making you choose what you want to search for (title, actress or series) the number of results is cut down a bit. By selecting "from start" or "in the middle" depending on what your search string is the results are cut down again, yet enabling you to type only a bit of information instead of a lot of words.

It's up to you the make the best of this, though. Type "notre" and do an "in the middle" search for titles if you want to find "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", type "Heather" and search for actresses while doing an "from start" search and you'll get all Heathers. Type "Heather L" and your chance of finding "Heather Locklear" is pretty good.

Since, unlike another popular database, the results will be sorted by the Damsels even a few extra hits won't hurt because you can easily scroll down and find the Damsel you've been looking for.

Comment Options:

Check any of the checkboxes to get additional information about the returned titles. Please note that at this early stage of the database only a handful of titles actually has associated comments ... it'll be quite some time before all records are fully commented (volunteers?). :)

Info:

Some short(!) info - maybe an actress' name is not confirmed or something like this. With the Hercules and Xena series this field holds the funny disclaimer of the credits if available.

German:

A comment (with varying length and detail) in German language - quite often a copy & paste job from the Landvogt's alert page, sometimes written by me.

English:

A comment (with varying length and detail) in English language - usually a copy & paste job from Brian's DB, sometimes by me.

HtF's Comment:

An English comment that's 1:1 the text on the webpage(s).

New features will be added when available.