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Overview

The search functionality allows you to find content across multiple resource types simultaneously. The search command performs intelligent text matching across relevant fields and returns ranked results.

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Use Cases

  • Find services, events, or resources by keyword
  • Discover photos by location or tags
  • Research topics across multiple content types
  • Quick content discovery and exploration

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Benefits

  • Cross-platform search: Query all content types at once
  • Field-aware matching: Searches in relevant fields (title, description, location, tags, etc.)
  • Ranked results: Results sorted by relevance
  • Progress tracking: Visual feedback during search operation
  • Flexible filtering: Search specific content types or all at once
Search across all content types: 
dzdk search --query "education"
This searches through services, events, photos, and resources for the term “education”.

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Search Specific Content Types

Limit your search to a specific content type: 
dzdk search --query "health" --type services
Searches only within the services database, checking:
  • Service title
  • Description
  • Category

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Controlling Result Count

Limit the number of results returned: 
dzdk search --query "community" --limit 5
The default limit is 10 results. Increase this for broader searches or decrease for quick lookups.

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Command Reference

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Syntax

dzdk search --query <search_term> [options]

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Required Options

OptionDescriptionExample
--querySearch term or phrase--query "education"

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Optional Flags

OptionTypeDefaultDescription
--typechoiceallContent type: all, services, events, photos, resources
--limitinteger10Maximum number of results to return

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Search Implementation Details

The search function operates by:
  1. Determining scope: Based on the --type parameter, it selects which content types to search
  2. Fetching data: Makes concurrent API requests to relevant endpoints
  3. Field matching: For each item, checks if the query appears in searchable fields
  4. Ranking results: Sorts by relevance (frequency of matches in title/description)
  5. Limiting output: Returns only the top N results based on --limit

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Searchable Fields by Type

# dzdk.py:1686-1687
searchable_fields = {
    'services': ['title', 'description', 'category']
}

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Relevance Algorithm

Results are ranked using a simple relevance score: 
# dzdk.py:1709-1712
results.sort(key=lambda x: sum(
    query.lower() in str(x['item'].get(field, '')).lower()
    for field in ['title', 'description']
), reverse=True)
Items with more matches in title and description fields rank higher.

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Example Output

When you run a search, results are displayed in formatted panels: 
dzdk search --query "education" --type services --limit 3

╭─────────────────── Search Results ───────────────────╮
│              Searching for: education                │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

╭─────────────────── Services ─────────────────────────╮
│ Education Support Center                             │
│ Providing educational resources and tutoring         │
│                                                      │
│ Contact: [email protected]                            │
│ Location: Zone 3, Dzaleka Camp                       │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

╭─────────────────── Search Summary ──────────────────╮
│ Found 3 results across 1 categories                 │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

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Performance Tips

Optimize search performance:
  • Use --type to search only the content type you need
  • Start with a lower --limit value and increase if needed
  • Use specific keywords rather than generic terms
  • Combine with other commands using shell pipes for filtering

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Best Practices

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Effective Search Queries

  1. Be specific: Use precise keywords that match your target content 
    dzdk search --query "mental health counseling" --type services
  2. Use content-type filters: Narrow your search to relevant types 
    dzdk search --query "2024" --type events
  3. Adjust result limits: Find the right balance between completeness and clarity 
    dzdk search --query "community" --limit 20

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Search Strategies

Search for category keywords like “health”, “education”, “legal”, etc.:
dzdk search --query "legal" --type services
Search for location names in events and photos:
dzdk search --query "Zone 4" --type photos
Search all content types for comprehensive topic coverage:
dzdk search --query "youth" --type all --limit 20
Search performs case-insensitive substring matching. Very common words may return many results. Use the --limit flag to manage large result sets.

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Error Handling

The search command handles errors gracefully: 
# dzdk.py:1703-1704
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    console.print(f"[yellow]Warning: Error searching {search_type}: {str(e)}[/yellow]")
If one content type fails to load, the search continues with other types.

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Next Steps