Character limits with Item Details and Tag Parameters

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08-26-2013 10:56 AM
CoryCampbell
New Contributor
Does anyone know if there is documentation stating the character limits and parameters for each Item Details field? So far I've only found that the Summary field is limited to 150 characters, and the Tags field is limited to 250 characters.

It would be good to know if the Tags limit includes/excludes commas or if there is a limit on the number of allowable tags (as there is for this post). It would also be helpful to know the search parameters for tags. It seems that tag searches only look for complete, not partial, strings. Presumably, tags are read left to right ??? meaning that a tag search will look for a match starting at the beginning of a string, but not elsewhere within it.

For instance, so far as I can tell, a search for the tag ???child??? will yield both ???child??? and ???children???, but a search for the tag ???children??? would only yield ???children??? and not 'child' or ???step-children???. A search for the word ???culture??? would yield ???culture???, ???cultures???, or ???cultured???, but would not yield the word ???agriculture??? or ???monoculture???. A search for the partial string ???ag??? or ???agri??? also would not yield the word ???agriculture???. A search for either the word ???best??? or ???practice??? would not yield the tag ???best practices???, but a search for the term ???best practices??? would yield both ???best??? and ???practice??? tags.

Any help would be appreciated.
Tags (2)
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5 Replies
MikeMinami
Esri Notable Contributor
not sure about the limits.

We use a stemming model for searches.

Thanks,

Mike
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CoryCampbell
New Contributor
Hi Mike, thanks for the info.

Is there documentation on the specific algorithms used by ESRI? This seems important to promote data sharing among the publishing community and optimize user searches for maps and services.

Also, knowing the character limits for Item Detail elements will help publishers to edit their metadata prior to submitting it to ArcGIS Online (and avoid undeclared errors for exceeding those limits).
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MikeMinami
Esri Notable Contributor
No we don't document the algorithms we use. What exactly are you trying to achieve? We use the stemming model for keyword searches, but results are weighted, effectively, by popularity. There isn't really a way to promote items to the top of the list.

Thanks,

Mike
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CoryCampbell
New Contributor
Primarily, I want to make certain the results I described above do capture search parameters, and so could inform policy guidelines for creating tags in our organization. Generally, I'll instruct people to focus on root words without affixes, and industry standard acronyms, and also to avoid the use of multi-word phrases, terms, or titles.
Thank you for your help.
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RandyKreuziger
Occasional Contributor III
I've noticed a 147 character limit in the MXD Summary property.  I agree with the others that this sort of thing should be documented somewhere in the ESRI help files.
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