The Search Attributes section of a connection file contains a table that defines the various search options for a particular database.
Search Field Name: The first column identifies the name of a search. This is the word or phrase that appears in the menus in the Search dialog.
Use EndNote’s Generic field names as the search field names whenever possible. Doing so makes it easier to have a search apply to various online sources and local EndNote libraries.
EndNote’s pre-configured connection files often use parenthetical text after the search field name to help describe the search, if necessary. This parenthetical text is not considered part of the search field name when you change the focus of the search and EndNote looks for a matching search field name. See Changing the Focus of the Search. Also see the Generic reference type for a list of Generic field names.
Attributes: The rest of the items in a particular row are the various search attributes that control what index is being used for the search, and how the search term is interpreted.
A Z39.50 search attribute is a value used to define the characteristics of a search term. For example, if your search term is "ebola virus," the various attributes would be sent to the server along with that term to tell the server where to look for "ebola virus" and what qualifies as a matching reference.
Available attributes, as defined by the Z39.50 standard, are:
Use: The index to be searched (such as Keywords)
Relation: The relation of the search term to the index (such as equal, greater than, or less than)
Position: The position of the search term in the MARC record field (first, last, anywhere, and so on)
Structure: The structure of the term, such as a word or phrase
Truncation: Available truncation options used to interpret the search term (for example: right truncation, wildcards, no truncation)
Completeness: Indicates whether or not the search term should be the complete subfield in the MARC record corresponding to the field searched
The "Use" attribute is the most important here, indicating which index will be searched to find the search term. The other attributes will all have varying default values for each online database. These options are most often left blank to use the server’s defaults, but the default attribute values can be overridden by entering another value for the attribute.
Each database has its own supported subset of Use attributes and associated combinations of the other attributes. Consult the configuration information for the online database to determine which values for these attributes are supported. Clarivate Analytics does not provide this information. You will need to obtain it from the organization (or "information provider") that maintains the server.
When modifying the search attributes in a connection file, it is useful to first test the search with the new attribute combination before actually changing the connection file. You can do this by entering the new attribute values using the command-line search method. This lets you test new attribute combinations without having to edit and save the connection file, and reconnect to the server every time you want to test a modification.