XF 1.4 Improving the search

[flowerpot132]

I'm not very impressed with the search out the box to be honest.

Looking at our user search logs, I can see a lot of users are getting zero results which is bad.

I want one search that searches everything on the forum including the resources section. Users do not know to go to the resources and that search (although looks exactly the same) is only for resources. Just complicating and misleading.

Can I remove the restrictions on the search like the word is too short or ignoring words like "new".

Another issue is if the user searches on resources and gets no results, the user then tries a different search term but the view is then for the forum search, not the resources search.

So can you help with this please? One powerful search for everything on the site all together.
Digital Point Search
IS the advanced search worth it? I need to upgrade hosting right?

 

[Paul B]

Can I remove the restrictions on the search like the word is too short or ignoring words like "new".

That is due to the default MySQL stop word list.
See points 13 and 14 of the FAQ here: Frequently Asked Questions

The Enhanced Search add-on doesn't use MySQL search so it doesn't suffer the same limitations, although there is still a default stop word list.
You need to install the elasticsearch service on the server in order to use it.

With regards to the quick search, it is page dependent so will adjust depending on the content.
In order to search everything, you can do it from the main search page: Search | XenForo Community

 

[flowerpot132]

Thanks Bogan. Will ask my hosting company about elasticsearch

Any ideas on the other bits please?

 

[Paul B]

Which bits?

I believe I covered them all.

 

[flowerpot132]

I want one search that searches everything on the forum including the resources section. Users do not know to go to the resources and that search (although looks exactly the same) is only for resources. Just complicating and misleading.

Another issue is if the user searches on resources and gets no results, the user then tries a different search term but the view is then for the forum search, not the resources search.

So can you help with this please? One powerful search for everything on the site all together.
Digital Point Search
IS the advanced search worth it? I need to upgrade hosting right?

 

[Paul B]

There are no configurable options related to the various search fields on each page.

Any changes would require custom development.

 

[flowerpot132]

So there is no way to search everything in one go? resources and the forum?

 

[Paul B]

In order to search everything, you can do it from the main search page: Search | XenForo Community

 

[Martok]

What Brogan said.

You can actually also use the quick search on the forums too. For example:





As you'll see from the results below, it has found content from the Resource Manager (Resource), XFMG (Media) as well as the forums (Thread, Post). If there were Profile Posts with this content, they would be listed too.

 

[flowerpot132]

Thanks. I want the search box in the top right that appears on all pages on our xenforo install (forum, resources, help pages, the lot) to work like this:
/forum/search