Author Topic: The search function (Read 2908 times)

Pan · « **on:** May 08, 2012, 03:50:43 PM »

Hi all

I'd like to ask if anyone else has had trouble with the search function lately? I use the forum a great deal, as a resource, for information about artists, songs, and musicianship. Lately, I've encountered many instances , where the search function could't find topics that I know have been discussed here. Recent cases are such as "Lonzie Thomas" and " Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out", just to cite some examples.
I must confess, that the "tag" function is a bit over my head, but I would still assume that the topics mentioned should be found by the search function. Or am I just plain wrong?

Cheers

Pan

Slack · « **Reply #1 on:** May 08, 2012, 03:57:19 PM »

Pan, are you saying you get no topics when you enter those searches?

Pan · « **Reply #2 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:17:01 PM »

Quote from: Slack on May 08, 2012, 03:57:19 PM

Pan, are you saying you get no topics when you enter those searches?

Yes, that's correct, although, I often haven't tried to do the search again. Instead I've referred to the "Weenepedia", which has the list of artists in question, and a link to the forum thread I knew would exist. A somewhat long route to some topics at times, but my "computer skills" might play a role at this.

Cheers

Pan

Pan · « **Reply #3 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:25:37 PM »

Maybe I should add, that I seem to remember that sometimes the search has seemed to be case sensitive regarding people's names, and other times not. Go figure. Most of the time the error message is something like "Sorry, no matches could be find. Did you mean to search for... (a misspelled name etc.).

Cheers

pan

Rivers · « **Reply #4 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:40:58 PM »

I know about the problem, and there is a workaround. Do not start your search while down in a low level topic. For example starting a search while viewing this post will not find what you want.

The workaround is to go up to the main 'list of all boards' page and start your search from there.

What seems to happen is the contextual search gets confused if you're not looking down on all of the boards.

Gumbo · « **Reply #5 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:48:17 PM »

using the search function at the top of the page i currently get one hit if i type in 'lonzie' (lower case) since I'm searching this topic. if i use the associated drop down menu and select 'entire forum' I get 16 hits for lonzie (most of which have a capital 'L'

what do you get, Pan?

Pan · « **Reply #6 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:54:30 PM »

Quote from: Gumbo on May 08, 2012, 04:48:17 PM

using the search function at the top of the page i currently get one hit if i type in 'lonzie' (lower case) since I'm searching this topic. if i use the associated drop down menu and select 'entire forum' I get 16 hits for lonzie (most of which have a capital 'L'

what do you get, Pan?

Hi Gumbo.

Just now, I got exactly the same!

I really don't know what's going on! $:-\$

Pan

Pan · « **Reply #7 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:56:48 PM »

Quote from: Rivers on May 08, 2012, 04:40:58 PM

I know about the problem, and there is a workaround. Do not start your search while down in a low level topic. For example starting a search while viewing this post will not find what you want.

The workaround is to go up to the main 'list of all boards' page and start your search from there.

What seems to happen is the contextual search gets confused if you're not looking down on all of the boards.

Thanks Rivers.

I believe that most of tge times I've used the search function starting on the "main" forum page, since that's what I have bookmarked.

Cheers

Pan

Rivers · « **Reply #8 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:59:53 PM »

It's a bug, so all bets are off in terms of understanding its behavior. Start from the main board and it will, hopefully, work as you expect.

[Darn, now somebody's noticed I'd better try and fix it... ]

Pan · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:02:37 PM »

Quote from: Rivers on May 08, 2012, 04:59:53 PM

It's a bug, so all bets are off in terms of understanding its behavior. Start from the main board and it will, hopefully, work as you expect.

Thanks, Rivers!

Cheers

Pan

Slack · « **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:06:15 PM »

Ah yes, rivers is correct, it is a bug, my memory is jogged.

Actually the best search is to pick Google from the drop down. This option does not search the web, but uses Google to search this site only. Give it a try.

Rivers · « **Reply #11 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:17:23 PM »

Whew more workarounds! Here's yet another workaround: Use the other search box. Look to the far right of the banner heading while viewing this post, you should see a pale-colored chevron or arrowhead. If the arrow is pointing down, click it, and a search box will appear that looks kind of like the one on left menu. If the arrow is pointing up you already see the top right search box. Type in 'lonzie', and select 'Entire Forum' from the dropdown list of contexts.

It works fine. So what's up with the one on the left menu?

Basically it's a hack. I extracted out the top right search from the standard forum code and made it into 'code block' so we could add search to the SimplePortal 'always visible' left menu, which everybody agrees is a good place for it. It works fine, except when you start an 'Entire Forum' search from within a low-level topic. I'll try debugging it on the weekend, apologies for the inconvenience, and thanks for calling it out.

Slack · « **Reply #12 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:22:00 PM »

Actually rivers, I think the top right search box has the sme problem. I think it is a problem with SMF, the forum software's search.

Rivers · « **Reply #13 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:30:24 PM »

I just tried it (the top right search) and it worked! This is fun!

Gumbo · « **Reply #14 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:48:59 PM »

yowza - I never noticed that one on the left

Rivers · « **Reply #15 on:** May 08, 2012, 06:11:10 PM »

That's pretty funny, I thought you were discussing the left one, which I thought was not working because had I stolen the code from the top right one and in so doing had somehow broken the code.

So they both don't work quite right. I feel much better now!

[later: I just re-read the whole thread and Gumbo's test did seem to confirm the top search is working correctly]

Pan · « **Reply #16 on:** May 08, 2012, 06:22:00 PM »

I'm not quite sure I can follow you gentlemen, but I was referring in the search box on the upper right corner.

Millions of thanks for taking care of such issues for us!

Cheers

Pan

Rivers · « **Reply #17 on:** May 08, 2012, 06:24:01 PM »

OK, so I'm back to feeling better, I just migrated an existing bug to the left menu search. I'll see if it's been reported on the SMF site, maybe there's a fix we can apply to both searches.

uncle bud · « **Reply #18 on:** May 08, 2012, 06:28:27 PM »

The reason one gets fewer results for "lonzie" searching with the drop-down menu set to "This topic" is you are only searching this current thread. This is useful for enormous threads like some lyric threads that run to 15-20 + pages when you want to find a certain song discussion. If you want to search the whole forum, you need to set it accordingly. The default setting when viewing a thread is "This topic"; the default when viewing a board (e.g. the Lyrics board) is "This board"; the default when viewing the main forum page is "Entire forum".

It seems that when searching using the left-hand search box, if you set it to search "Entire forum" and the top right search box is still set to "This topic", you get "This topic"/limited results. Vice-versa may also be true.

However, there is still buggy behaviour. I find that sometimes when there is punctuation in the search string such as an apostrophe, results are sometimes wrong. Sometimes the inclusion of words of less than three letters in a search string can also turn up incorrect results.

I don't know if the search Google function of the menu yields different results but it would be worth testing obviously.

Bunker Hill · « **Reply #19 on:** May 09, 2012, 01:06:34 AM »

FWIW when I can't locate someting by using the tags I use the search facilty located between HELP and PROFILE and it's never failed me.

Pan · « **Reply #20 on:** May 09, 2012, 03:54:53 AM »

Thanks for the clarifications and tips, everyone! I'll get back to practicing how to use the search function.

Cheers

Pan

Gumbo · « **Reply #21 on:** May 09, 2012, 04:54:35 AM »

Quote from: uncle bud on May 08, 2012, 06:28:27 PM

It seems that when searching using the left-hand search box, if you set it to search "Entire forum" and the top right search box is still set to "This topic", you get "This topic"/limited results. Vice-versa may also be true.

good catch. vice versa isn't true though - i get a larger set of results using the 'entire board' from the top right.

uncle bud · « **Reply #22 on:** May 09, 2012, 06:42:28 AM »

Quote from: Gumbo on May 09, 2012, 04:54:35 AM

Quote from: uncle bud on May 08, 2012, 06:28:27 PM

It seems that when searching using the left-hand search box, if you set it to search "Entire forum" and the top right search box is still set to "This topic", you get "This topic"/limited results. Vice-versa may also be true.

good catch. vice versa isn't true though - i get a larger set of results using the 'entire board' from the top right.

Yup, looks like top right settings definitely control the left-hand menu search parameters and not vice versa, which would makes sense, since it is the original search function code, while as Rivers said, the left menu was added in as a modification.

Slack · « **Reply #23 on:** May 09, 2012, 06:45:33 AM »

Quote

Yup, looks like top right settings definitely control the left-hand menu search parameters and not vice versa, which would makes sense, since it is the original search function code, while as Rivers said, the left menu was added in as a modification.

Aha, there you go. I think we need to cut Rivers salary.

uncle bud · « **Reply #24 on:** May 09, 2012, 06:51:27 AM »

To be clear, I wasn't assigning blame.

Not like I could have figured out how to add the additional search box without weeks of painful study.

Slack · « **Reply #25 on:** May 09, 2012, 07:09:25 AM »

Wan't trying to imply you were of course - just being my usual smart-ass self.

Nice to have that mystery solved though... it's kinda confusing! ..and rivers needs a project.

Rivers · « **Reply #26 on:** May 09, 2012, 04:22:34 PM »

I do need a project, I'll experiment with it on my local installation on the weekend, the only thing I have booked is a blues mando workshop w/SteveJ on Sunday afternoon [edit later: whoops, that's next Sunday] at local music store Fiddler's Green.

I think your analysis is correct, good work, I had not considered that. That being the case the first thing to try would be removing the top right search entirely, since it's kind of redundant with the left search always visible, and see if that fixes it.

Cut my salary!?

Rivers · « **Reply #27 on:** May 13, 2012, 08:57:46 AM »

The left menu search is now working according to the Principal of Least Astonishment.

I removed the top right search, its context drop-down default selection was confusing the left menu version, as you guys rightly diagnosed. If you still see search at the top right press F5 to force your browser to reload everything.

Thanks, saved a lot of time y'all figuring that out.

For the record for the next upgrade, it was in the div box labelled "news" in index.template.php. I backed up the old version and replaced it.

If you were used to using the top right search apologies for that, please use the search box immediately underneath the Member Info block in the left menu. It works identically to the removed top right one.

Thanks for reporting and diagnosing the problem, please test it out, and just holler if there are any other issues.

Slack · « **Reply #28 on:** May 13, 2012, 11:05:52 AM »

Thanks Rivers!

Pan · « **Reply #29 on:** May 13, 2012, 12:59:05 PM »

Quote from: Slack on May 13, 2012, 11:05:52 AM

Thanks Rivers!

Seconded!

Cheers

Pan

Gumbo · « **Reply #30 on:** May 13, 2012, 01:06:22 PM »

Looks like your salary is safe for now, Rivers!

News:

Member Info

Quick Menu

Author Topic: The search function (Read 2908 times)