{{ 'Simple search'|trans }}

{{ 'When searching a term in the search bar, results will contain this term in the title, main text, date or elabid.'|trans }}

{{ 'Advanced search'|trans }}

{% set fieldValue = "%s:%s"|format('field'|trans, 'value'|trans) %}

{{ 'The search bar supports searching with specific constraints such as "title:Something" and "category:Tests" (%s). You can combine them with logical expressions (AND, OR, NOT...) and group with parenthesis.'|trans|format(fieldValue)|raw }}

{{ 'To search in extra fields (metadata), use the dedicated helper to build your query. For example, to search all entries where "Temperature" is 37, you would use: "extrafield:Temperature:37" in the search bar.'|trans }}

{{ 'Available fields'|trans }}

Term

A sequence of characters without space (␣), |, &, !, (, ), :, ' and ".
termA or termB or 456

Quoted term

A sequence of characters including space (␣) enclosed in single (') or double (") quotation marks.
'Hello world' or "I love eLabFTW!"

Two wildcards are available. The percent sign (%) matches zero or more characters while the underscore (_) matches exactly one character. To search for literal % or _ the characters need to be escaped with a backslash \% or \_.

Term concatenation and grouping

Terms can be connected in different ways:

• OR or |: termA OR termB or termA|termB
• AND, & or space (␣): termA AND termB or termA&termB or termA termB
• NOT, !: NOT termA or !termA
• Parenthesis (): (termA OR termB) AND !termC

The operators are listed in increasing order of precedence. Note the whitespace around the operators. OR, AND and NOT require to be surrounded by whitespace while |, & and ! don't.
termA termB OR termC is equivalent to (termA AND termB) OR termC. To give priority to OR, use parenthesis: termA AND (termB OR termC).

Field/value pair searches

Field/value pairs are also applicable in the quick search fields.

Basic syntax field:value

By default wildcards are added to Terms and Quoted terms. The strict switch (field:s:value) disables the wildcards.

attachment

yes or no, true or false, 1 or 0, on or off:
search entries with/out attachments
Term or Quoted term:
search in filenames and comments of attachments

body

Term or Quoted term

category

Term or Quoted term; Only if Database is selected.

created_at

See accepted date formats below

custom_id

Custom ID (integer) of an experiment or item

date

See accepted date formats below

elabid

Term or Quoted term

extrafield

Uses a different syntax: extrafield:s:key:value (s: is optional and only affects value).
key (Name of field) and value (search term) can be a Term or Quoted term.
key has to be an exact match, hence there are no wildcards. However, two asterisks (**) can be use to search absolutely all fields.
value can use wildcards as described above.

group

Term or Quoted term

id

Id (integer) of an experiment or item

locked

yes or no, true or false, 1 or 0, on or off

locked_at

See accepted date formats below

rating

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, unrated or 0

owner

Term or Quoted term
Without any owner the entire team will be searched.

status

Term or Quoted term; Only if Experiment is selected.

timestamped

yes or no, true or false, 1 or 0, on or off

timestamped_at

See accepted date formats below

title

Term or Quoted term

visibility

Term or Quoted term
{# A group name (e.g., 'Lab Heroes') or #} public, organization, myteam, user, or useronly.

Date formats

A date has to be provided in the following format: YYYYMMDD, i.e., four digit year, two digit month, and two digit day. Year, month and day can—but don't have to—be separated by hyphen (-), slash (/), period (.), or comma (,).
Either a single date or a date range can be used.

Single date: operatordate

operator: <, <=, =, >=, >, or !=
An operator is optional. default is =
e.g., date:17890714 or date:>1909-12-12 or date:>=1867.11.07

Date range: date..date

Two dates separated by two periods (..)
e.g., date:20200101..20201231

Date fields ending with _at only accept dates between 1970-01-02 and 2038-01-18.