Use advanced search

When searching for items using the website search or the focused search on any of the content page tabs, you can perform advanced keyword searches to narrow your results. Advanced keyword search is also available when you search for layers to add in Map Viewer (which was previously available as a separate beta installation but is now included with the portal automatically), search for layers to add in Map Viewer Classic (formerly Map Viewer) and search for layers to add in Scene Viewer. You can use any of the following in your advanced search: fields, range searches, Boolean operators, and grouping. These are described in the following sections.

Fields

When performing a search for content or groups on the website or in Map Viewer, Map Viewer Classic, or Scene Viewer, you can either specify a field or use the default fields. For items, the default fields are title, tags, snippet, description, type, and typekeywords. For groups, the default fields are id, title, description, snippet, tags, and owner. The best match is always returned. See the tables below for descriptions of these fields.

Note:

You can search a specific field by typing the field name followed by a colon and the term you are looking for—for example, enter type:geojson to find GeoJSON items. For a term with multiple words, it is recommended that you use double quotation marks for more precise results. For example, "map services" returns items with map services (in that order) in a field, whereas map services returns items with both map and services in the field.

If you do not use a field indicator, the default fields are searched. For example, if you want to add a layer to your map and know the name of the owner, you can enter owner: followed by the owner's user name in the search to narrow a potentially long list of results.

Tip:

You can create a search string by linking fields with the AND operator—for example, owner:esri AND tags:streets.

Item fields

You can refine your item searches using specific fields in your search string. These fields include the following:

Field	Details
id	ID of the item; for example, id:4e770315ad9049e7950b552aa1e40869 returns the item for that ID.
owner	Owner of the item; for example, owner:esri returns all content published by Esri. The field and value are case sensitive.
created	The date, expressed in UNIX time, that items were created; for example, created: [1249084800000 TO 1249548000000] returns all items published between August 1, 2009, 12:00 a.m., and August 6, 2009, 8:40 a.m.
title	Item title; for example, title:"California wildfire" returns items with California wildfire (in that order) in the title. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for terms that include a space.
type	Type returns the type of item and is a predefined field. For example, type:KML returns items with KML as the type. The exact item type name must be used. Item type matching is case sensitive and terms must be surrounded by double quotation marks for exact matching. For example, use type:"Geocoding Service" to return Geocoding Service items.
typekeywords	Typekeywords can be used to refine the search for a type of item using a predefined type keyword. The exact type keyword name must be used. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for strings that include a space. For example, to find hosted feature layers, use typekeywords:"Hosted Service".
description	Item description; for example, description:crimes finds all items with the term crimes in the description. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for terms that include a space—for example,description:"reported crimes".
tags	The tag field; for example, tags:"San Francisco" returns items tagged with the term San Francisco. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for terms that include a space.
snippet	The summary field; for example, snippet:"natural resources" returns items with natural resources in the item summary. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for terms that include a space.
accessinformation	Access information; for example, accessinformation:esri returns items with esri as the source credit.
access	The access field; for example, access:public returns public items. This field is predefined, and reflects the highest access (sharing) level of an item. Acceptable values are as follows: private—Only the item owner and administrators who have access to all content can access the items. shared—For items shared with one or more groups, item owners, and those who have access to the item through group membership can access the items. org—Items shared with the organization, as well as items you own, are returned. For items shared with the organization and one or more groups, members of those groups can also access the items. public—Items shared with the public are returned.
group	The ID of the group; for example, group:1652a410f59c4d8f98fb87b25e0a2669 returns items within the given group.
numratings	Number of ratings; for example, numratings:6 returns items with six ratings.
numcomments	Number of comments; for example, numcomments:[1 TO 3] returns items that have one to three comments.
avgrating	Average rating; for example, avgrating:3.5 returns items with 3.5 as the average rating.
orgid	The ID of the organization, for example, orgid:5uh3wwYLNzBuU0Ef returns items within the given organization.
modified	The date, expressed in UNIX time, that items were last modified; for example, modified:[1249084800000 TO 1249548000000] returns all items modified between August 1, 2009, 12:00 a.m., and August 6, 2009, 8:40 a.m.
categories	Organization content categories; for example, categories:"Historical Maps" returns items that are categorized in the organization as historical maps. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for terms that include a space.

Group fields

You can filter your searches on groups using specific fields in your search string. Only public groups or groups that you have access to will be searched. These fields include the following:

Group field	Details
id	Group ID; for example, id:1db70a32f5f84ea9a88f5f460f22557b returns the group for that ID.
title	Group title; for example, title:redlands returns groups with Redlands in the title.
owner	Group owner; for example, owner:esri returns groups owned by Esri.
description	Description; for example, description:"street maps" returns groups with street maps in the description field. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for terms that include a space.
snippet	Summary; for example, snippet:transportation returns groups with transportation in the group summary. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for strings that include a space—for example, snippet:"transportation routes".
tags	The tags field; for example, tags:"bike lanes" returns groups tagged with the term bike lanes. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for tag strings that include a space.
phone	Contact information; for example, phone:[e-mail] returns groups with [e-mail] as the contact.
created	The date, expressed in UNIX time, that groups were created; for example, created:1247085176000 returns groups created on July 8, 2009.
modified	The date, expressed in UNIX time, that groups were last modified; for example, modified:1247085176000 returns groups modified on July 8, 2009.
access	The access level of the group. Values are private, org, and public. For example, access:private returns private groups and access:org returns groups that can be accessed by all organization members. The default value is private.
isinvitationonly	The isinvitationonly field returns groups that require an invitation to join. For example, isinvitationonly:false returns groups that do not require an invitation to join. This field is predefined with the options true or false.
orgid	The ID of the organization, for example, orgid:5uh3wwYLNzBuU0Ef returns groups within the given organization.
typekeywords	Typekeywords can be used to search for groups using a type keyword. For example, to find groups related to fire, you can use typekeywords:fire.

Range searches

Range searches allow you to match on-field values between the lower and upper bounds. Range queries can be inclusive or exclusive of the upper and lower bounds. Inclusive range queries are denoted by brackets ([]). Exclusive range queries are denoted by braces ({}).

For example, to find all items created between December 1, 2009, and December 9, 2009, use created:[1259692864000 TO 1260384065000].

The created field contains the date and time an item is created in UNIX time. UNIX time, also used for the modified field, is defined as the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight January 1, 1970. The website stores time in milliseconds, so you must add three zeros to the end of the UNIX time. Additionally, you must add six zeros to the front of the number. This is because the number is stored as a string in the database.

Range searches are not restricted to date fields. You can also use range queries with nondate fields, for example, owner:[arcgis_explorer TO esri]. This will find all items from the owners between arcgis_explorer and esri, including arcgis_explorer and esri.

Boolean operators

Boolean operators allow terms to be combined through logic operators. The website supports AND, OR, NOT, and minus sign (-) as Boolean operators. Boolean operators must be uppercase.

Boolean operator	Details
AND	The AND operator is the default conjunction. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the AND operator is used. The AND operator performs matching where both terms exist in either the given field or the default fields. This is equivalent to an intersection using sets.
OR	The OR operator links two terms and finds a match if either of the terms exists. This is equivalent to a union using sets. To search for an item that contains either the term recent fires or just fires, use the query "recent fires" OR fires.
NOT	The NOT operator excludes items that contain the term after NOT. This is equivalent to a difference using sets. To search for documents that contain California but not imagery, use the query California NOT Imagery.
-	Similar to the NOT operator, the minus sign or prohibit operator, excludes items that contain the term after the symbol. To search for documents that contain California but not imagery, use the query California -Imagery.

Grouping

You can create subqueries using parentheses to group clauses. This can be very useful if you want to control the Boolean logic for a query.

To search for either California or recent and fires, create the expression (California OR recent) AND fires.

You can group multiple clauses to a single field using parentheses.