QueryString (QueryStringType)

The QueryString element contains a mailbox query string based on Advanced Query Syntax (AQS).

<QueryString/>

QueryStringType

Attributes and elements

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Child elements

None.

Parent elements

Text value

The QueryString element text value represents a mailbox query that is made by using a subset of Advanced Query Syntax (AQS). See the remarks section for information about the supported syntax options for query strings.

Remarks

In Exchange Server 2010, this element is an XML schema string type. In versions of Exchange starting with Exchange Server 2013, including Exchange Online, the type for this element is QueryStringType. This change does not break any existing clients because it adds three new optional attributes.

The QueryString element excludes the use of EWS restrictions. AQS in EWS supports three types of restrictions: word phase restriction, date range restriction, and message type restriction. The following tables list the supported search properties for each restriction type.

Word phase restriction

Word phase restriction match is always case insensitive. Word phase restriction supports two match types: prefix match or exact match. Prefix match is the default match behavior. If you want exact match, use double quotes. For example, subject:"product" matches 'product' but not 'production' in the subject. Multiple words in double quotes restrict both word phases and their order. For example "win product" matches only 'win product', not 'win95 product' or 'product of win'. You can use an asterisk (*) to define a prefix match with order restricted. For example, "win product"* matches 'win95 product', 'windows production line' but not 'windows new product' or 'product of win'. You can search all messages sent from or to a domain. For example, from:"@hotmail.com" returns all messages sent from hotmail.com.

The following table describes date range restrictions.

Date range restriction

The two dots (..) is a range operator. It can be used to define a range with a start and an end date. To specify a date, you can use relative dates. The following relative dates are supported:

• Relative dates: Today, tomorrow, yesterday

• Multiword relative dates: This week, next month, last week, past month, or coming year

• Days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

• January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

The following table describes message type restrictions.

Message type restriction

AQS in EWS uses the Kind property to specify the message type. The Kind property can be used with the following item types:

• email

• meetings

• tasks

• notes

• docs

• journals

• contacts

• im

The following table describes grouping logical connectors.

Grouping logical connectors

AND is always the default connector. For example, subject:project AND body:proposal is the same as subject:project body:proposal. Logical connectors are case sensitive. For example, body:(project Or proposal) searches messages with 'project', 'or', and 'proposal' in the body instead of 'project' or 'proposal'. The plus symbol (+) is equivalent to AND. The hyphen symbol (-) is equivalent to NOT. For example, body:(project - proposal) searches messages with 'project' but without 'proposal' in the body.

The query string can also contain nonindexed properties for search. If the query string contains nonindexed properties, the search might perform an Exchange search on the indexed properties and a store search on the nonindexed properties.

The schema that describes this element is located in the IIS virtual directory that hosts Exchange Web Services.

Example

The following example shows a request to search for messages in the Inbox with Autodiscover in the subject.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
               xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
               xmlns:t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" 
               xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Header>
    <t:RequestServerVersion Version="Exchange2010" />
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <m:FindItem Traversal="Shallow">
      <m:ItemShape>
        <t:BaseShape>IdOnly</t:BaseShape>
        <t:AdditionalProperties>
          <t:FieldURI FieldURI="item:Subject" />
        </t:AdditionalProperties>
      </m:ItemShape>
      <m:IndexedPageItemView MaxEntriesReturned="1" Offset="0" BasePoint="Beginning" />
      <m:ParentFolderIds>
        <t:DistinguishedFolderId Id="inbox" />
      </m:ParentFolderIds>
      <m:QueryString>subject:Autodiscover</m:QueryString>
    </m:FindItem>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The following example shows a successful response to the request.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <s:Header>
    <h:ServerVersionInfo MajorVersion="14" 
                         MinorVersion="0" 
                         MajorBuildNumber="639" 
                         MinorBuildNumber="20" 
                         Version="Exchange2010" 
                         xmlns:h="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" 
                         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" 
                         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
                         xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" />
  </s:Header>
  <s:Body xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
          xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <m:FindItemResponse xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" 
                        xmlns:t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types">
      <m:ResponseMessages>
        <m:FindItemResponseMessage ResponseClass="Success">
          <m:ResponseCode>NoError</m:ResponseCode>
          <m:RootFolder IndexedPagingOffset="1" 
                        TotalItemsInView="5" 
                        IncludesLastItemInRange="false">
            <t:Items>
              <t:Message>
                <t:ItemId Id="AAMkADEzOTExYjJkLTYx" ChangeKey="CQAAABY" />
                <t:Subject>How to use Autodiscover</t:Subject>
              </t:Message>
            </t:Items>
          </m:RootFolder>
        </m:FindItemResponseMessage>
      </m:ResponseMessages>
    </m:FindItemResponse>
  </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Element information

See also

FindItem operation

FindConversation operation

• EWS XML elements in Exchange