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Search API Introductory Guide

Working with the Search Endpoint

When working with the Search endpoint (/api/v1/search), the 'q' parameter is the primary search field recommended for use with keywords or terms.

Each query parameter is designated as q (the Base Search), Filter, or Result Option:

  • Note that only the q parameter determines the relevancy score of the documents that are returned by our database; filters are not used in the calculation of relevancy.
  • Filters allow for more targeted, more performant searches, as they narrow down a result set.
  • Result Options allow you to control the way documents are returned, such as with highlighting (highlight=), sorted (sort=), with pagination (offset=), etc.

The q field

The `q` parameter is the Base Search field and should be used with all searches. This field accepts letters, numbers, special characters, and operators. Wildcards are generally allowed, except for leading wildcards.

Using quotations and parentheses:

Use quotations around multi-word phrases or names to group everything together as one item. Parentheses can be used to form subqueries.

Using Booleans:

You can use AND, OR, NOT in this field, for example: hack AND breach.

Use search operators when searching for emails, cards, ssns, ips, cryptocurrency in the q field.

q=email:(first.last@company.com OR first@company.com)

q=cryptocurrency:griheoaho3249070

q=drugs AND email:(first.last@company.com OR first@company.com)

Exact Searching and stemming:

DarkOwl Vision supports a process called stemming, which tries to reduce a word to an approximation of its stem or root form. This means that searching will return matches on related forms of a word (hope, hopes, hoped, and hoping may be returned in results when searching for hope), unless you specify otherwise. When you want to search for a specific term, including special characters and punctuation, use the exact: operator to prevent word stemming:

q=exact:hack

Using highlight with q:

When you append your query with the highlight parameter (&highlight=true), data you enter in the q parameter will be highlighted in the body field in the response.

The q parameter determines relevancy:

The relevancy score – how well the result matches the query submitted – is determined by the content in the q parameter; note that filters are not used in the calculation of relevancy.