Queries turn your wiki into an information system

A query function in a personal wiki is particularly useful when a large amount of information is stored in a structured way and you want to “extract” specific knowledge from it — similar to a small database.

Wiki queries go far beyond standard full-text searches. Structured information can be efficiently selected, grouped, and retrieved using queries.

Difference between a search and a query

Regular full-text search

The standard full-text search is ideal for quickly finding entries based on individual words. It searches through all titles and the text content of the entries.

Queries

Queries allow you to filter entries based on specific metadata (such as creation date or category) or using property fields. Queries are particularly useful once you’ve organized the information in your entries using property fields. Setting up a query takes a little time, but once it’s done, you can run it again at any time.

Use structured data directly

Much of the information in a personal wiki isn't just text. Thanks to wiki queries, you can now filter and group content based on the following metadata and information:

• Titles and headings of the entries

• Creation and modification dates of entries

• Names of the assigned categories

• Values of the individual property fields

Analyze property fields

Do you keep track of your devices in the smasi.app and want to see a list grouped by purchase date? You can now use the query feature to generate a summary of all recorded purchase dates, grouped by year and month:

Property fields in the entries

To ensure that the purchase date can be processed directly, you must enter this information in a structured format using the property field in the relevant entries.

In the edit mode of an entry, you can select the "Property" section with the "Date" type, which allows you to record the purchase date in a structured format. It is important that you name the desired property field "Purchase Date" for all entries so that you can analyze this data consistently across all entries.

Create a query

In the smasi.app, go to the "Queries" page, where you can create a new query by tapping the plus icon. In the "Grouping" section, you can now use the "Add" button to specify the two criteria required for grouping:

Define the criteria for the wiki query

Now you can define the criteria for any selection, grouping, calculation, or sorting. Select the desired property or metadata. You can also specify the format for the query.

The "Queries" tool in the smasi.app is very powerful. Just try out its options – your data is always safe, because the queries don’t change any data.