I tried to find a workflow that would run samtools index on a file. Searching Dockstore for the exact phrase “samtools index” using Advanced search produces >200 results, but there seems to be no way to rank these results by whether the phrase appears in the title of the workflow or as a single command buried in a much more complex workflow. The workflow I want does exist, but I was only able to find it by knowing who the author is. There may be other workflows that do the exact same thing, but I’d have to look through hundreds of search results in order to find them.
Is there any way to rank search results such that the most relevant appear at the top?
Hi there! Thanks for taking the time to let us know about your struggles in using Dockstore search. I was able to replicate your issue when searching for the phrase “samtools index” using the free text search box. There is currently a known issue with Dockstore search that makes it difficult to use simple free text search with a phrase.
To help narrow down results Dockstore offers an “Advanced Search” which can be opened by clicking the link below the free text search box. From there you can choose whether you want to search within descriptions or files, and further to require specific words appear. Since samtools is present in the workflow descriptors for many workflows on Dockstore, restricting the search to descriptions helps with this issue. Here’s a link to that query being performed that returns a more manageable result set. And once you find a workflow you find useful and are a logged-in user you can star that workflow making it easy to find again using your Starred Entries.
Again, thanks for pointing out the issue with the simple free text search, your input will help us prioritize improvements to our search interface. Please let us know if you have any other issues using Dockstore or Dockstore search!