Content search

When working with a lot of content in your space, you’ll find that you’ll need to refine the list of content to quickly find what you’re looking for. The search and filter options in the Contentful web app allow you to do this in a variety of ways.

You can search entries or media assets. The basic text option lets you search through all the text fields of your entries, while filters allow you to further refine the results to just the content types you’re interested in.

Basic search

The basic search works best when you generally know the name of the entry you’re looking for. 

To perform a basic search:

1. Enter your keywords into the search bar in the top navigation.  As you type, the results list will automatically refine itself, while suggestions will be shown as a drop-down in the search bar. 

2. The search will look through all of the possible text fields in your space.

Use filters and operators

Apply filters to narrow down your search results to a specific content type or field value. To further refine the results list, use operators. 

NOTE: IS operator returns the results that fully match your search query. MATCH operator returns the results that partly match your search query. 

To search for entries with a filter: 

1. In the Contentful web app, go to the Content tab.

2. Click Filter on the right-hand side of the search bar. 

3. Choose the filter option you’d like to search by from the drop-down list. 

4. Optional: Change the default operator by clicking on it and selecting the desired option from the drop-down.

5. Enter the search query or select the desired value as prompted. Your search results are displayed. 

Use multiple filters

To add multiple filters, simply use the method above for as many additional filters as you’d like.

For a more in-depth introduction to using multiple filters, watch the following video:

Multi-Content type selector search

The multi-content type search functionality allows you to filter content by multiple content types, simplifying searches for items belonging to any of the selected content types.

To choose multiple content type selector in the search bar:

1. In the Contentful web app, go to the Content tab. 

2. Click Any on the left-hand side of the search bar.

3. Select the intended content types from the drop-down menu. To see your results populate in the content table, you can choose from multiple options:

   • After 1.2 seconds of inactivity of completing the last selection from the list, your search request will be triggered.

   • Make your selections from list, press Enter or click outside of the drop-down will submit your search request.

4. Your search results will display in the content table.

Upon making your selections, they will remain in the same place in your drop-down list. However, once you exit the drop-down pop-up and return back, the selections you made will be moved to the top of the list. 

Optional: You can save multi-content type search selections. Find your saved searches  in the content sidebar under “Saved views.”   To remove the content type selections, click Clear in the drop-down menu. 

NOTE: To reset your selections, open the drop-down, uncheck your selections or click Reset to Any.

Tips for optimizing search

If you are having problems with search, the following tips can help:

• Wrap your query in quotes to match an exact phrase. For example, the query "my cat is blue" returns the entries that contain this exact sequence.

• Use the MATCH operator — the MATCH operator returns the results that partly match the search query. For example, the query "content" used with the MATCH operator returns all the entries that contain "content".

• Avoid searching fields that have a limited value set (e.g. number ranges 0 - 5, booleans, etc.) on content types with large numbers of entries.

Searching assets

Searching assets works the same as searching entries: the only difference is that there are filters that apply only to assets. These are:

• Width

• Height

• Type

• Size

• File name

Notes:

• Width and Height must be entered as whole numbers only (e.g., use 500 and not 500px).

• Size must be entered as a whole number only (for example, 100000 not 100k).

To search your media assets:

1. In the Contentful web app, go the Media tab. 

2. Optional: Click Filter on the right-hand side of the search bar. Choose the filter option you’d like to search by from the drop-down list. 

3. Optional: Change the default operator by clicking on it and selecting the desired option from the drop-down.

4. Enter the search query or select the desired value as prompted. Your search results are displayed. 

Quick search

To perform a quick search:

1. Press the q key anywhere in the web app to open the quick search dialog.

2. Enter your desired search terms. The search will search through all content types, entries, and assets in your space.

Download content search results as CSV

The CSV format enables you to extract customized search results and analyze that data in a BI tool of your choice. 

Export your Contentful web app content search results in the form of a CSV file for reporting. For example, analyzing metadata to improve SEO performance, archiving candidates, or enrichment. 

To export search results as CSV: 

1. Enter a search query in the content search bar. 

2. Apply the filter to the necessary columns in the table.  

3. Select the rows to export by checking the box on the left side.  

4. Click Export to CSV at the top of the search results table to download.

NOTE: Export as CSV works on a per-page basis. The number of search results you can download is limited to one page for each CSV file.