How the search works in Retarus Docs

Retarus Docs uses AWS OpenSearch to index and display results from all pages on the site, delivering a seamless, optimized search experience specifically designed for help centers. This ensures you can easily find the help you need—no matter where you are within the site.

Search ranking

The search feature prioritizes results based on relevance. Pages with the exact search term in the title are ranked highest.

Example

A page titled "Send a fax job request" will rank higher than a page where "send a fax job request" appears only in the body.

Fuzzy search and exact matches

Exact matches appear first, followed by fuzzy matches.

Fuzzy search allows for more flexibility by using the Levenshtein distance algorithm to detect words that differ from the search term by only a few character edits—such as changing, removing, or inserting a letter

Example

Searching for "TSID" may also return results for "CSID" because changing "T" to "C" is a minimal (one-character) edit recognized by the algorithm.

This design effectively captures minor typos and spelling variations.

Search experience

Retarus Docs offers a flexible search experience with the following features.

Search bars

A search bar appears on every page in Retarus Docs, including:

• Home page – for quick, general searches

• Help pages – for context-specific searches

Quick search

As you type, the most relevant results appear instantly, allowing you to open a page directly without visiting the full search results page.

Search results page

Press Enter or click the Search icon to view the full search results page.

Each result includes:

• Source
  The product or service it belongs to (e.g., Cloud Fax, Enterprise SMS).

• Title
  The name of the page.

• Snippet
  A text excerpt with the search term highlighted in bold.

Up to ten results appear per page. Use the numbered links or arrows to navigate through additional pages.

Search filters

On the results page, you can narrow your search by selecting a specific product filter.

Search limitations

Currently, Retarus Docs search does not support:

• Quoted search
  Quotes are ignored, and each word is treated separately.
  Example
  Searching for send email will return results containing send or email anywhere in Retarus Docs, not only the exact phrase.

• Partial search
  Only exact word matches are returned.
  Example
  Searching for install will not return results for installation or installing.
  If you don't find what you need, try searching for different word forms or related terms.