To enable synonym searching, combine the dtsSearchSynonyms flag with one or more of: dtsSearchUserSynonyms, dtsSearchWordNetSynonyms, dtsSearchWordNetRelated, or dtsSearchExternalSynonyms to specify the type of synonym expansion to apply.
You can enable synonym searching for all words in a request or you can enable synonym searching selectively by adding the & character after certain words in a request. Example: fast& w/5 search
Search flags control where dtSearch looks for synonyms for words in a search request. The four types of synonym expansion are: user synonyms, WordNet synonyms, WordNet related words, and external synonyms.
The User Thesaurus is a user-defined set of synonyms stored in an XML file (by default, thesaur.xml.) dtSearch Desktop has a dialog box to edit this thesaurus (Options > Preferences > User thesaurus).
The WordNet thesaurus is a concept network included with dtSearch. It includes synonyms and related words (holonyms, meronyms, antonyms, etc.).
External synonyms are synonyms returned by an external thesaurus used with the dtSearch Engine.
In a phrase search, synonym searching applies to the phrase, not to individual words in the phrase. For example, a search for "object lesson" with WordNet synonym expension enabled would find "example", which is a synonym for "object lesson". The individual words in the phrase, object and lesson, would not be expanded into their respective synonym lists.
The search flags to enable synonym searching are:
|
Flag |
Purpose |
|
dtsSearchSynonyms |
Enable synonym searching for all terms in a search request. |
|
dtsSearchUserSynonyms |
Use user-defined synonyms in the Options.UserThesaurusFile for synonym searching. |
|
dtsSearchWordNetSynonyms |
Use synonyms from the WordNet thesaurus for synonym searching |
|
dtsSearchWordNetRelated |
Use related words from the WordNet thesaurus for synonym searching |
|
dtsSearchExternalSynonyms |
Use synonyms generated by an external thesaurus for synonym searching. (See "External Thesaurus API" in the dtSearch Engine API Reference.) |
dtSearch gets the user thesaurus filename Options.UserThesaurusFile. This should be the full path and filename of the thesaurus file with your user thesaurus list.
The WordNet thesaurus must be in a folder named WordNet that is a subfolder of either the HomeDir or the PrivateDir.