Searches using exact matches.

You must tell WebDNA what data to search for, otherwise it will not know what to find. You tell WebDNA what field to look in, and the text to look for (we call it data) by typing the name of the field followed by the word "data" in a URL (or embedded [Search] context).

If your database has a field called "FirstName," and you want to look for records that have "Grant" in the FirstName field, then enter a URL something like this:

http://Results.tpl?command=search&eqFirstNamedata=Grant&db=SomeDatabase.db

The template "Results.tpl" displays after the search, and any [FoundItems] contexts in it fill with found records. "eq" stands for "equals", meaning the FirstName field must equal "Grant" exactly, otherwise it will not be considered a match. "eq" is one of many different ways to compare data in your database -- see Comparisons for a complete list of all the different ways to compare fields.

Note: If visitors leave a field blank in a search form, WebDNA assumes they do not "care" to search that field -- it acts as though you had not even specified the field in the search criteria at all. If you want to search for blanks (no text in the field whatsoever, not even a space), you can override this behavior by searching for "[blank]," as in eqTitledata=[blank].