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MTLookup - the Movable Type Lookup - has an internal database filled with information about articles from resource websites. The result of a query is calculated by intrinsic MySQL fulltext search functions.

When executing a query, you can specify several arguments. These are...

  • websites
  • phrase
  • display
  • category
  • order
  • page size

Let us look at them in detail.

Websites

Currently, more than 20 websites have been indexed. Any combination of websites can be search by you. You can choose the websites with the help of checkboxes in the sidebar.

Phrase

You can enter several words into the »Phrase« textbox. Hitting »Search« will search for those words. The entries will be sorted by rank or by title.

The phrase can be further described by operators (just as with Google).

  • You can enter several words, meaning "find entries with all of the words".
  • Quotes can be used, meaning "find entries with the exact phrase".
  • You can put an OR between words, meaning "find entries with at least one of the words".
  • You can prefix a word with a dash, meaning "find entries that do not contain the word".
  • You can suffix a word with an asterisk, meaning "find entries that start with that word".
  • You can enter a single asterisk, meaning "find entries all entries".
  • You can add a site argument, meaning "only include entries from the given website".

Samples

Here are some samples.

  • Perl
    Find all entries containing the word "Perl".
  • Perl plugin
    Find all entries containing both "Perl" and "plugin".
  • Perl -plugin
    Find all entries containing "Perl" but not "plugin".
  • category OR perl OR mysql
    Find all entries containing at least one of "category" or "perl" or "mysql".
  • cat*
    Find all entries that start with the three letters "cat".
  • Perl site:movalog
    Find all entries containing the word "Perl". However do only look on the Movalog website.
  • Perl site:movalog site:lmt
    Find all entries containing the word "Perl". However do only look on the Movalog or LMT website.

If you want to use the site argument, use the following identifiers.

  • Movable Type Weblog: use "MTW"
  • Learning Movable Type: use "LMT"
  • Movalog: use "Movalog"
  • Eat Drink Sleep Movable Type: use "EDSMT"
  • geekmum {movable cafe}: use "GeekMum"
  • MT-Hacks: use "MTHacks"
  • PubHacks: use "PubHacks"
  • Staggernation: use "Stagger"
  • StyleMonkey: use "StyleMonkey"
  • MovableTweak: use "MovableTweak"
  • Murky: use "Murky"
  • alogblog: use "alogblog"
  • David Raynes: use "DavidRaynes"
  • Brad Choate: use "BradChoate"
  • Don't Back Down: use "DBD"
  • Everitz Consulting: use "Everitz"
  • Six Apart User Manual: use "6AUM"
  • Six Apart Knowledgebase: use "6AKB"
  • Six Apart ProNet Weblog: use "6APNWL"
  • Six Apart Pronet Plugin Directory: use "6APNPD"
  • Six Apart Pronet Articles: use "6APNAT"
  • Six Apart News: use "6ANW"
  • Six Apart Mena's Corner: use "6AMC"
  • A List Apart: use "ALA"
  • MezzoBlue: use "MezzoBlue"
  • Glish: use "Glish"

The search is not case-sensitive. You can search for "perl" or "Perl" or "PERL". All will return the same results. The same is also true for the site identifier.

Category

All articles have been categorized. You can choose one of several categories.

Order

You can order the list either by the entry's title or by its rank. The title is always sorted ascending. The rank is always sorted descending, so that more important entries are at the top.

The ranking is calculated by MySQL, based on the entire text of the article.

Page Size

As the result list might be very long, it is displayed with a paged display. You can choose, how many entries are to be shown on each page.

What is included?

A minimum word length of 3 is in effect. So you cannot search for words that are shorter than 3 characters.

No stopword list is used. By default, MySQL uses a stopword list of about 500 words. Effectively, all these words are removed from a search phrase, before the search is done. As I do not like this function, I disabled the stopword list. So for example, you might also search for "help", "name", or "plus", which otherwise would not be possible.

mgs | September 11th 2005