String refinements with special characters result in a malformed query error

When the search provider for a CMS site is Microsoft's FAST Search for SharePoint 2010, some string refinements containing special characters can result in a malformed query error when applied to search criteria.

An error (malformed query) occurs when submitting a query with a refinement known to include a special character, such as an exclamation mark (!). Zero results are returned.

Refinements that include a special character, such as an exclamation mark (!), can result in a malformed query error being returned from Microsoft FAST Search for SharePoint 2010. Typically, this would occur when the refinement represents a single word phrase with the special character interspersed. For example, a refinement with a value of "ref!nement" would generate such an error.

 

 

^{/cgi-bin/search?hits=10&resubmitflags=1&rpf_navigation:hits=100&query=and(and(string(}

^{%22careers%22%2cmode%3d%22simpleall%22%2cannotation_class%3d%2299%2c97}

^{%2c114%2c101%2c101%2c114%2c115%22)%2cor(and(and(not(ebicontenttype1%3a201)}

^{%2cnot(ebicontenttype1%3a202))%2cebicontentlanguage%3a1033)%2cand(not(contentsource}

^{%3aequals(%22ektron4EKTENG6OnTrek20120615%22))%2csize%3arange(0%2cmax%2cfrom}

^{%3dGT))))%2c+contentsource%3a%22ektron4EKTENG6OnTrek20120615%22)&similartype=}

^{refine&collapsenum=1&qtf_lemmatize=True&version=14.0.0.0&spell=suggest&qtf_parsekw:}

^{timezone=-1&rpf_navigation:enabled=True&offset=0}

^{&rpf_navigation:navigators=emtspecialcharacterproperty}

^{&collapseon=batvdocumentsignature&sortby=-rank&qtf_teaser:dynlength=185&rpf_sortsimilar:enabled=True}

^{&language=en&qtf_parsekw:locale=eng&navigation=}

^{%2bemtspecialcharacterproperty%3a%5eREF!NEMENT%24}

^{&qtf_securityfql:uid=MCMud3xjb250b3NvXGFkbWluaXN0cmF0b3I=}

 

 

Reconsider using metadata and other properties as refinements when they may contain values with special characters as described above.