[R]Find and Search issues here at Forum

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    August 17, 2017 3:47 PM EDT

    **** Item#01 **********

    Find: When I use the browsers Edit->Find function, it appears/functions as usual.  Yet when I use CTRL-F I instead receive the below popup (but only in this Forum).  So CTRL-F seems to function differently only on this site/Forum.  Not a huge deal as I can still use the browsers menu options (thank goodness), I just never experienced this before on other web pages (but I only use the Find function a few times a day so I've only used it on a very small percentage of sites).

    Item#01A: Why does this appear instead of the browser's Find (i.e. is this a Theme thing, because it doesn't occur in my SE Site, but I'm using a different Theme)?

    Item#01B: This popup/Find doesn't work (I have searched for numerous phrases that are displayed on a page, even going so far as to copy/paste them - yet the phrase isn't found).  What am I doing wrong?

     

     

    **** Item#02 **********

    I simply can't find why this seldom works.  You can see in the below screenshots that many common phrases are not found (that exist in Forums, Topics, and Posts), yet a phrase such as 'Feature' is found.  So what am I doing wrong when I can't get the search to work?

     

    Your help would be greatly appreciated, especially with my inability to Search.  Something so simple - yet I can't get it to work

    Please move this post if I put in in the wrong Forum, but the Bug Reports I thought was for the Script, which is why I chose Website Feedback.


    This post was edited by gs at August 17, 2017 6:56 PM EDT
  • gs
    • 857 posts
    August 17, 2017 3:51 PM EDT

    Oh - and BTW - I realize that 'on' and 'after' are not typical searches, but I tested these because they occur much more often here than the other phrases, so there's no excuse for them not being located in Search (unless I'm doing something wrong, but it's pretty simple - enter a phrase and select where to look).

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    August 17, 2017 6:01 PM EDT

    We can't control browser things so we'll go over the forum search and thank you for posting.

    As this uses SEPHP 4.9.3, the issue could be a bug but I'll have to test it tomorrow.

    • 629 posts
    September 9, 2017 1:23 AM EDT

    Cool. Thanks for reporting this.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    September 9, 2017 3:56 PM EDT

    ==>"We can't control browser things so we'll go over the forum search and thank you for posting."

    RE: Browser Things: Maybe not, but when I tested this today, CTRL-F uses the browsers usual search mechanism - no longer the popup I provided in the OP.  This was the only site that I've ever experienced where CTRL-F replaced the normal mechanism with a Popup, and now the Popup is gone. 

     

    RE: Search - has anything been found out yet?  Obviously, as time goes on (due to more content here), search will be more beneficial prior to making posts, but if Search doesn't work and we're forced to read through many pages trying to find something manually (which is what I've been stuck doing since day 1 here), clients may either stop posting or simply walk away, or post a Topic that was already addressed.

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    September 12, 2017 9:26 AM EDT

    I've asked for a fix for this. We are working on that flash removal but perhaps we can get this issue resolved here sooner.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    September 29, 2017 1:33 PM EDT

    I vaguely recall someone posting about looking for an Articles Plugin but I'm not sure.  In addition, I thought the post mentioned they were hoping for a solution that didn't require a Core.  Anyway, I came across an Articles Plugin but it requires their core.

    All of that to say... I thought I'd try to help out someone here so I tried search.  Oops - it still doesn't work.

    I'm trying to be patient but things not getting done is getting old and tiresome.  I miss github.  I'd like to use a 'real' forum solution.  It's bad enough that the SE Forum is so basic and displays different widgets depending on the type of device used, but when common functionality (like search) doesn't work, it's a real bummer. 

    Even Item#01A where I mentioned about the Find/Replace popup wasn't actually resolved.  It was blamed on the Browser, yet no other website/browser/device combination displays this Find/Replace popup except for here at SE Forum. 

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    September 29, 2017 2:16 PM EDT

    We are going to improve this forum but the script has to come first. This forum will improve as soon as we can. I was the one that wrote the post looking for an articles plugin. 

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    September 29, 2017 2:41 PM EDT

    Ah, then I believe you were looking for one without a required Core.  SES and Radcodes both offer an Articles Plugin but both use their own Cores.

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    September 29, 2017 2:49 PM EDT

    I will poke Ray to fix this after 4.10. It's being a bit of a grumpy issue to remove flash but it is proceeding.We are still on track for 4th quarter. After that, I'll see what we can do to get this forum up the way we need it but it will be an "over time" process as there are several things to do here. Including making the new feature and bug section similar to github.

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    November 9, 2017 9:02 AM EST

    This issue should be resolved. It wasn't a bug in the script. It is a server mysql setting. We will make a tutorial for this but it is a tutorial for advanced users (those very familiar with running queries). Those not familiar with it are encouraged to get with their hosts to make the change. 

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    November 9, 2017 11:20 AM EST

    ==> "This issue should be resolved."

    Which issue - Item#01A or Item#01B?

    Search still doesn't locate content that exists as per below:

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    November 9, 2017 11:41 AM EST

    It won't find it like that due to safeguards which will be explained in the tutorial. These safeguards are server settings on all servers due to the method of search being used. It does find other three letter words.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    November 9, 2017 11:48 AM EST

    ==> "... on all servers..."

     

    smh... I give up.  I need search to search for what I request - not limit what I'm able to search for.  I won't even address 'on all servers' because it must be the later part of the statement that makes the difference 'method of search being used' - i.e. something SE does.  I've never experienced this issue at any other platform, so althouth others may have poor search mechanisms, I guess I've been fortunate not to have to deal with them.  So basically in this form I'm unable to search for anything about SE versions/revision/patches or PHP version specific questions, etc. 

    I shouldn't have to read a turorial to find out about how a search field works - or in this case, doesn't (I didn't bother reading it because it seemed the tutorial was for those wanting to make changes to their own site, and at the time I didn't realize 'safeguards' would prevent me from basic searches).

     


    This post was edited by gs at November 9, 2017 11:50 AM EST
    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    November 9, 2017 3:15 PM EST

    This is how it was designed. Does it need improvement? Yes. Do we have plans to improve search? Yes. Not in 4.10. It needs a bigger improvement in order to have a more robust search. For now though, the tutorial, once published, will have a work around. If you want a fix now, you need the tutorial. If you can wait (since most people use more than 3 letters in a search) then you will have something better soon. For now, it's what we have to work with. My author site does use three letter words in forum titles so this fix is a must for that site. This site also uses 3 letters (not numbers) in titles so the fix is important for that. We didn't know the issue before. We know it now. At least we provided a work around so that clients can still use their forum's search if they have 3 letter titles. 

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    November 14, 2017 6:15 AM EST

    Ok here's the tutorial for changing your mysql on the server to allow 3 letter word searches.  More details about FULLTEXT searches , and here and also the default stopwords.