Full Text 5000

When you simply want to get a view from a Notes database, and search it for existing documents, and the database is normally full text indexed, you can do some simple Visual Basic (VB) code, similar to what is in the table at the end of this document.

Grab the view, format your search text string, setup an VB error trap.

Now, all we need do, is perform a query db.isFTInexed. This will trigger our error, and jump down to the message, "No it is not." If, in fact the database happens not to be full text indexed on that server, on that particular day. There are many reason for the database not to be indexed on any given day, and maybe I will write a little story about that, some day.

But, if the Boolean flag is TRUE, which is returned by the server, we can do out full tet search with out search string with a VB to Notes call like this:

cnt = view.FTSearch(searchstring, thisMany)

The next trick, is to actually CHECK the value of cnt (count), for the number of documents that have been returned. This is were the magic number 5000 comes into play.

One would normally think, that the search yielded 5000 documents. On contrair mona me, or however that is spelt :-)

This number, just happens to be the Default Search Limit setup in Domino Lotus Notes ( I think I have all the names here). I only noticed this, when I was gathering the search information into a comprehensive table for a semi-yearly report. I thought that it was odd, to have three months, with exactly the same number of documents returned, in the totals area, while the detailed report had various other categories of document groupings.

My curiosity and research revealed the fact that, one must also set a parameter in the Notes.ini file, to get past this limit. This parameter is:

"FT_Max_Search_Results=n"

So, after finding the correct Notes.ini files, I entered the string, and set it to 0.

Now, if the database is not indexed, there is another variable.

"Temp_Index_Max_Doc"

You must set both of these to the same value, to get the desired results.

However, there seems to be another gotcha, you must make the changes in the server's Notes.ini file or use the Configuration Manager on the server, if you are not using a local copy of the database :-(

FT_Max_Search_Results
Syntax: FT_Max_Search_Results=number of entries

Description: Specifies the maximum number of results (up to 2147483647) that can be retrieved at one time on a database without any index. For example, specifying
FT_Max_Search_Results=10000

allows a single NotesDatabase or NotesDocumentCollection "FTSearch" to return up to 10000 entries.

Applies to: Servers and workstations

Default: 5000

tResults = dRecord.GetView(pgThisDatabaseView)

Set view = dRecord.domView
searchstring = Me.txtSearch

On Error GoTo DatabaseNotIndexed

If db.IsFTIndexed <> False Then
Me.MousePointer = vbArrowHourglass
frmSearch.Caption = "Searching for: " & searchstring
frmSearch.Refresh
DoEvents
cnt = view.FTSearch(searchstring, thisMany)
Else
DatabaseNotIndexed:
Me.MousePointer = vbNoDrop
frmSearch.Caption = "Database " & db.FilePath & " on server " & db.server & vbCrLf & "Is not FULL TEXT Indexed." & vbCrLf & db.Title
Me.txtSearchStatus.BackColor = vbRed
Me.txtSearchStatus.Text = "Database not Indexed"
MsgBox frmSearch.Caption, vbCritical, "Notes Search Database"
Me.txtSearchViewName.Text = ""
cnt = 0
End If