# Indexing Data with Verity

The Verity Search'97 indexing and searching technology, which has been incorporated into ColdFusion, provides a means for creating collections of indexed data optimized for fast retrieval.

| To use Verity searching and indexing technology you:

1. Create a Verity collection using the ColdFusion Administrator Verity page or using the CFCOLLECTION tag at runtime.
2. Populate a collection with data using options on the ColdFusion Administrator Verity page to index specific directories, or using the CFINDEX tag at runtime.
3. Build searching and indexing capability using the CFINDEX and CFSEARCH tags into your application.

For more information about populating and searching Verity collections using the CFINDEX and CFSEARCH tags, see Developing Web Applications with ColdFusion.

## Using the Verity Collections page

The Verity Collections page in the Administrator provides a means for creating collections. Collections can also be created and populated externally using native Verity tools. See your Verity documentation for more information about using native Verity tools.

Use the Verity Collections page to:

- Create and name collections
- Populate a collection with text file data from a specified directory.
- Purge, repair, optimize, delete, or update a collection.

## Creating a collection

Before you can search collections using the CFSEARCH tag in your ColdFusion application, you must first create the collection and then populate it with data.

| To create a collection, follow these steps:

1. Open the Administrator Verity page.
2. Enter a name for your collection.
3. If necessary, specify a path for the collection.
4. Select a language from the drop down list box.
5. Click Create.

Now, you can populate the collection with data.

## Populating a collection

Once you've created a collection, you can populate it with data from text and binary files in a directory you specify. Data from a ColdFusion query can only be indexed using the ColdFusion CFINDEX tag in a ColdFusion application page.

Verity indexes all supported file types found in the target directory. See Verity Supported File Types for more information.