topic Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match. in ArcGIS API for Python Questions

gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 00:04:01 GMT

Running this code in Jupyter notebook gives this output.

from arcgis.gis import GIS from config import Config portal = GIS(Config.PORTAL_URL, Config.PORTAL_USER, Config.PORTAL_PASSWORD) print("Logged in as " + str(portal.properties.user.username)) portal.content.search("title:\"Unlabeled Vector Tile Layer\"")

Logged in as bwilson@CLATSOP
[<Item title:"Package for Unlabeled Vector Tile Layer" type:Vector Tile Package owner:bwilson@CLATSOP>, <Item title:"Unlabeled Vector Tile Layer" type:Vector Tile Layer owner:bwilson@CLATSOP>]

How can I force an exact match?

I looked in Search Reference and gis.ContentManager but I can't see a way to do this.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

DanPatterson — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 01:50:23 GMT

Brian, I have moved your question to the ArcGIS for Python questions community since the python question is less python and more api related

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

PeterMilenkovic — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 04:40:43 GMT

Hi there

Is there any reason why you don't want to use the item id? This will be an exact match.

item = portal.content.get('itemid')

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 15:12:09 GMT

My goal is to create tools that other people can and will use.

If I tell my co-workers they will need to remember to type in "814cdd2d372f47ac88b9d2996567368e" instead of "Vector Tile Layer" they will simply not use the tool.

In fact I am already using "get" method because it works but that only works for me.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 15:21:41 GMT

I'm used to using SQL-like queries all over in Esri APIs, so it's a mystery why queries with this tool are so useless. I assume that it was an intern's summer project and no one competent ever checked it, it fell between the cracks.

Next summer maybe they will get an intern who has finished learning about SQL or even just wildcard matches and they can add a more useful method to the ContentManager.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 15:23:27 GMT

Thanks Dan. I'm thinking about adding ...thinking about retiring... to my posts explain my surliness.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

DanPatterson — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 16:51:29 GMT

@JoeBorgione has laid claimsies to "Can't Wait to Retire" so I think "thinking about retiring" is still open for now 😉

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

PeterMilenkovic — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 22:59:02 GMT

Ok,

You can specify the type of item? You have the same text in the title of your vector tile package/layer.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 23:36:48 GMT

Your suggestions are very good, but I still want to be able to do exact matching. 🙂

One of my other cases for example requires matching a layer named "Clatsop County" and we have probably 30 other layers that have "Clatsop County" somewhere in their names.

Ultimately I think I'll teach people how to find the ID, it is a pain but it removes all ambiguity.

Esri needs more than "Accept as Solution", I'd like to mark your answer as "Accept as Workaround" 🙂

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

PeterMilenkovic — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 23:47:10 GMT

Ah, that would be annoying.

Found this re searching, the overview explains why exact matching is not ideal.

https://developers.arcgis.com/rest/users-groups-and-items/search-reference.htm

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 15:13:38 GMT

That would explain the documentation, the text for "filter" bled through to the python docs even though it's not implemented. It says

"As a general rule, filter (i.e. defined in filter parameter) should be used instead of query

for binary yes/no searches.
for queries on exact values."

So when I am bored later this afternoon I will look at using the REST interface instead of the API and see if it works.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 16:31:05 GMT

Today when revisiting this issue I found this

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-ideas/exact-match-option-for-gis-content-search/idi-p/930617

and there's a mention that Esri closed the "enhancement request" with basically "we're not going to do this because it would be hard for us." 🙂

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 16:58:01 GMT

It's pretty easy, a REST query works like this to give me an exact match. It was so easy that I must be missing something critical 🙂 Here is a sample query.

https://myserver/sharing/rest/search?f=json&q=&filter=title:"Vector Tile Layer"

It returns exactly one match.

Note that I had to send an empty query for the call to work "q="

I get the fuzzy matching when I move the query from filter to q, then I get 4 matches.

https://myserver/portal/sharing/rest/search?f=json&q=title:"Vector Tile Layer"

title="Vector Tile Layer", title="Package for Unlabeled Vector Tile Layer", and so on.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

Brian_Wilson — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 19:45:40 GMT

This took a little digging around in the code but I got exact match to work, now I can wrap it in a "get id" function. Here is an example using fuzzy and exact searches.

from config import Config from arcgis.gis import GIS portal = GIS(Config.PORTAL_URL, Config.PORTAL_USER, Config.PORTAL_PASSWORD) print("Logged in as " + str(portal.properties.user.username)) q='title:"Vector Tile Layer"' fuzzy = portal.content.search(query=q) connection = portal._con # I understand, this is private and could change params = {'q': '', 'filter': q} exact = connection.post(Config.PORTAL_URL + '/sharing/rest/search', params) print("Fuzzy matches:", len(fuzzy)) print("Exact matches: %d ID: %s" % (res['total'], res['results'][0]['id']))

Output looks like this:

Logged in as bwilson@CLATSOP Fuzzy matches: 4 Exact matches: 1 ID: b69b15dbf53c459a9e709bde764aaefa

All the same options that work for the search and advanced_search methods can be passed in the "params" dictionary. If Esri would simply put an additional "filter" argument into those methods, they would work since all this code does is go directly to the post() call that's buried in those methods.

Re: gis.ContentManager.search will not do exact match.

PeterMilenkovic — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:53:19 GMT

Well done, that's really neat.