Search by space name rather than within a space
Asked by IT Resourcing:

We just recently upgraded to the latest version of Confluence and the search feature has significantly changed. We used to be able to type in part of the name of a space and that space name would come up as the first result. Now it does not come up at all. Is there a way to fix this?


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hello there,

Thank you for contacting us about this. Do you happen to remember which version of Confluence this last worked in? We have a few feature requests about partial word search, and I believe this might be the issue you're running into because I can confirm the behavior is the same for text and space names.

* [CONFSERVER-10412](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-10412) *Support substring (partial) searches for terms used in Confluence: page title, attachment names, etc.*
* [CONFSERVER-32834](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-32834) *Confluence Search Result Should Include Partial Word Match*
* [CONFSERVER-54885](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-54885) *Filter box in the Space Directory does not return results beyond the first word unless whole words are matched*

Please vote on any that you'd like to see implemented in Confluence, and you will automatically be added to the list of watchers. Let me know if you have any questions about this.

If this is not the behavior you're referring to, can you let me know the version of Confluence where it last worked and how to replicate it? That way I can narrow down exactly when the behavior changed.

Regards,

Shannon

comments: author: IT Resourcing
body: Sorry, but I was expecting other replies to this. Sadly none came. I can't remember what version we were using.

basically what I want to be able to do is if I have a space called "Microsoft Corporation" and I type "Microsoft" in the search, then that 'Space' should appear in the results. Currently it doesn't and only displays pages it found within that space (and others) that has the word Microsoft on the page.


author: Shannon S
body: Hello,

Thank you so much for clarifying what you need to do.

We do have a feature request for this as well:

* [CONFSERVER-58298](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-58298) *Search result order should consider Spaces with highest priority*

In this request, it mentions that Spaces should have top priority in search and thus should appear first.

Let me know if you have any further questions about this.

Regards,

Shannon


author: IT Resourcing
body: I don't understand why this is a feature request when this ability used to be by design.


author: Shannon S
body: Hello [@IT Resourcing](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/673462),

Can you let me know which version you last remember that occurring? I've tested it and had a look at the documentation for Confluence 5.0, released back in 2013.

I can confirm in 2013, the quick search was showing the pages first:

![](https://confluence.atlassian.com/download/attachments/329980087/Search_quicknav.png?version=1&modificationDate=1361221755849&api=v2)

If you can let me know which version this last worked for you, I can include that information on the feature request.

To be able to filter your spaces by partial match, you can go to the Space Directory, you'll be able to search there with partial matches and it will show you any spaces that meet that match.

![Screen Shot 2019-09-04 at 12.35.01.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/65128iE1A40C93586CDB8D/image-dimensions/499x233?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2019-09-04 at 12.35.01.png")

![Screen Shot 2019-09-04 at 12.35.07.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/65127i3F752F0FEF2FC923/image-dimensions/495x219?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2019-09-04 at 12.35.07.png")

I hope that helps you in the meantime!

Regards,

Shannon


Tags: confluence-server

server