diff --git a/R/KorAPConnection.R b/R/KorAPConnection.R
index 1fdc587..469f228 100644
--- a/R/KorAPConnection.R
+++ b/R/KorAPConnection.R
@@ -1,11 +1,21 @@
 #' @import jsonlite
 #' @import curl
 
-library(jsonlite)
-
 defaultKorAPUrl <- "https://korap.ids-mannheim.de/"
 
-KorAPConnection <- function(KorAPUrl=defaultKorAPUrl, apiVersion='v1.0', apiUrl = paste0(KorAPUrl, 'api/' ,apiVersion, '/')) {
+#' \code{KorAPQuery} initiates a connect to some KorAP server.
+#' @param KorAPUrl instead of providing the query and vc string parameters, you can also simply copy a KorAP query URL from your browser and use it here (and in \code{KorAPConnection}) to provide all necessary information for the query.
+#' @return object that contains all necessary connection information and can be used on \code{\link{KorAPQuery}}
+#' @export
+KorAPConnection <- function(KorAPUrl=defaultKorAPUrl, apiVersion='v1.0', apiUrl = NA) {
+  m <-regexpr("https?://[^?]+", KorAPUrl, perl = TRUE)
+  KorAPUrl <- regmatches(KorAPUrl, m)
+  if (!endsWith(KorAPUrl, '/')) {
+    KorAPUrl <- paste0(KorAPUrl, "/")
+  }
+  if (is.na(apiUrl)) {
+    apiUrl = paste0(KorAPUrl, 'api/', apiVersion, '/')
+  }
   con <- data.frame(apiUrl, KorAPUrl, apiVersion)
   return(con)
 }
diff --git a/R/KorAPCorpusStats.R b/R/KorAPCorpusStats.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9e44cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/KorAPCorpusStats.R
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#' @import jsonlite
+#' @import curl
+
+#' @export
+KorAPCorpusStats <- function(con, vc = NA, query = NA) {
+  if ((is.na(query) && is.na(vc)) || !(is.na(query) || is.na(vc))) {
+    stop("Exaclty one of the parameters query and vc must be specified.")
+  }
+  if (is.na(vc)) {
+    vc = query$vc
+  }
+  url <- paste0(con$apiUrl, 'statistics?cq=', URLencode(vc, reserved=TRUE))
+  return(fromJSON(url))
+}
diff --git a/R/KorAPQuery.R b/R/KorAPQuery.R
index 6898a37..8bc822f 100644
--- a/R/KorAPQuery.R
+++ b/R/KorAPQuery.R
@@ -1,35 +1,76 @@
 #' @import jsonlite
 #' @import curl
 
-library(jsonlite)
-
 defaultFields <- c("corpusSigle", "textSigle", "pubDate",  "pubPlace",
-            "availability", "textClass")
+            "availability", "textClass", "snippet")
 
-derekoStats <- function(vc='') {
-  return(fromJSON(paste0(apiurl, 'statistics?cq=',
-                         URLencode(vc, reserved=TRUE))))
+contentFields <- c("snippet")
+
+QueryParameterFromUrl <- function(url, parameter) {
+  regex <- paste0(".*[?&]", parameter, "=([^&]*).*")
+  if (grepl(regex, url)) {
+    return(gsub(regex, '\\1', url, perl = TRUE))
+  } else {
+    return("")
+  }
 }
 
-KorAPQuery <- function(con, query, vc="", ql="poliqarp", fields=defaultFields) {
+KorAPQueryStringFromUrl <- function(KorAPUrl) {
+  return(URLdecode(gsub(".*[?&]q=([^&]*).*", '\\1', KorAPUrl, perl = TRUE)))
+}
+
+#' \code{KorAPQuery} perform a query on the KorAP server.
+#' @param con object obtained from \code{\link{KorAPConnection}}, that contains all necessary connection information
+#' @param query string that contains the corpus query. The query langauge depends on the \code{ql} parameter. Either \code{query} must be provided or \code{KorAPUrl}
+#' @param vc string describing the virtual corpus in which the query should be performed. An empty string (default) means the whole corpus, as far as it is license-wise accessible.
+#' @param KorAPUrl instead of providing the query and vc string parameters, you can also simply copy a KorAP query URL from your browser and use it here (and in \code{KorAPConnection}) to provide all necessary information for the query.
+#' @param metaDataOnly boolean that determines wether queries should return only metadata without any snippets. This can also be useful to prevent query rewrites.
+#' @param ql string to choose the query language
+#' @param fields (meta)data fields that will be fetch for every matcch
+#'
+#' @return A KorAP query object that, among other information, contains the total number of results in \code{$meta$totalResults}. The resulting object can be used to fetch all (\code{\link{KorAPFetchAll}) or the next page of results (\code{\link{KorAPFetchNext}}). Please make sure to check \code{$collection$rewrites} to see if any unforseen rewrites of the query had to be performed.
+#'
+#' @examples
+#' q <- KorAPQuery(con, "Ameisenplage")
+#' q <- KorAPQuery(KorAPConnection(), "Ameisenplage")
+#' q <- KorAPQuery(con, KorAPUrl = "https://korap.ids-mannheim.de/?q=Ameise&cq=pubDate+since+2017&ql=poliqarp&cutoff=1")
+#'
+#' @references
+#' \url{https://ids-pub.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/9026}
+#'
+#' @export
+KorAPQuery <- function(con, query = NA, vc=NA, KorAPUrl = NA, metadataOnly=FALSE, ql="poliqarp", fields=defaultFields) {
+  if (is.na(query) && is.na(KorAPUrl) ||  ! (is.na(query) || is.na(KorAPUrl))) {
+    stop("Exaclty one of the parameters query and KorAPUrl must be specified.")
+  }
+  if (is.na(query)) {
+    query <- QueryParameterFromUrl(KorAPUrl, "q")
+    vc <- QueryParameterFromUrl(KorAPUrl, "vc")
+    ql <- QueryParameterFromUrl(KorAPUrl, "ql")
+  }
   request <- paste0('?q=', URLencode(query, reserved=TRUE),
-                    ifelse(vc != '', paste0('&cq=', URLencode(vc, reserved=TRUE)), ''),
+                    ifelse(vc != '', paste0('&vc=', URLencode(vc, reserved=TRUE)), ''),
                     '&ql=', ql);
   webUIRequestUrl <- paste0(con$KorAPUrl, request)
+  if (is.na(vc)) {
+    vc <-""
+  }
   requestUrl <- paste0(con$apiUrl, 'search', request,
                        '&fields=', paste(defaultFields, collapse = ","),
-                       '&access-rewrite-disabled=true')
+                       ifelse(metadataOnly, '&access-rewrite-disabled=true', ''))
   result <- fromJSON(paste0(requestUrl, '&count=1'))
 
-  result$fields <- fields
+  result$fields <- fields[!metadataOnly || !fields %in% contentFields]
   result$requestUrl <- requestUrl
   result$request <- request
+  result$vc <- vc
   result$webUIRequestUrl <- webUIRequestUrl
   result$nextStartIndex <- 0
   result$hasMoreMatches <- (result$meta$totalResults > 0)
   return(result)
 }
 
+#' @export
 KorAPFetchAll <- function(query, verbose=FALSE) {
   if (query$meta$totalResults == 0) { return(data.frame()) }
 
@@ -66,6 +107,7 @@
   return(allMatches)
 }
 
+#' @export
 KorAPFetchNext <- function(query, offset=query$nextStartIndex, verbose=FALSE) {
   if (query$nextStartIndex >= query$meta$totalResults) {
     query$hasMoreMatches <- FALSE