Search & Filter Custom fields

[Alpha1]

I would like to be able to search custom fields and also to be able to filter on custom fields.
There are a lot of situations where this would be very handy. In some cases it would allow us to merge forums and just use custom fields instead.

For example: in the bug reports forums here there is a custom field for XF version.
It would be handy if you could search or filter for all bugs for a specific version.

Additionally: it could be taken a step further and make the custom field hotlinked to the search. So to take the example of XF version field, you could add a field for 'fixed version' and have this hotlinked a a search for all bugs fixed by this version. This in turn would give you a handy link to all fixes in a software release.
There are many ways in which that function could be handy.

 

[jb-net]

I'm gutted this didn't make the 2.3 round, and subsequently unlikely 3.0 either.

Its very sad, since this should be a no-brainer.

 

[tajhay]

Its very sad, since this should be a no-brainer.

Absolutely.

 

[benFF]

If I could double vote this I would!

 

[Kintaro]

Is it possible to know if xf devs are interested in this or no? if the answer is no people could stop holding their breath near every update and start looking for a 3rd party solution.

 

[cdub]

Is it possible to know if xf devs are interested in this or no? if the answer is no people could stop holding their breath near every update and start looking for a 3rd party solution.

I mean it really is a no brainer. What's the point of custom fields if you can't search or filter by them?

Sigh. I'm hoping that it's still in a coming HYS as they mentioned enhanced search but who knows.

 

[btmgreg]

I mean it really is a no brainer. What's the point of custom fields if you can't search or filter by them?

Sigh. I'm hoping that it's still in a coming HYS as they mentioned enhanced search but who knows.

I'll be pissed if they announce it in the new HYS for enhanced search after the sale ends. I have zero other reason to buy enhanced search

 

[cdub]

I'll be pissed if they announce it in the new HYS for enhanced search after the sale ends. I have zero other reason to buy enhanced search

Enhanced search is very useful to me as it lets me search for 2 or three character words. (My site is about universities)

 

[btmgreg]

Enhanced search is very useful to me as it lets me search for 2 or three character words. (My site is about universities)

True. I don't know why it just isn't baked into core, rather than an extra product. I know $ but still.

 

[TPerry]

I'll be pissed if they announce it in the new HYS for enhanced search after the sale ends. I have zero other reason to buy enhanced search

It has it's benefits if your site uses 2-3 letter terms that you want decent search on even if the custom fields search/filter ability is lacking.
But I do agree... the inability after 5 years to still be unable to search/filter on custom fields is rather irksome.
Custom fields are one of the strong points of the script, and extending their usefulness seems to get ignored by developers.

 

[btmgreg]

It has it's benefits if your site uses 2-3 letter terms that you want decent search on even if the custom fields search/filter ability is lacking.
But I do agree... the inability after 5 years to still be unable to search/filter on custom fields is rather irksome.
Custom fields are one of the strong points of the script, and extending their usefulness seems to get ignored by developers.

I mean no disrespect, but it feels like the feature set for 2.3 has a few big and medium features - but a lot of the most voted suggestions are 'small' but really useful changes. I say 'small' because I don't understand or comprehend the technicality behind it, but in comparison to the features they have added - I'd rather 10x smaller features that would really show visible user improvements than 1 that might not be for everyone.

I hope with the licence raise incoming, they hire another developer to manage the load and increase productivity.

 

[imno007]

It has it's benefits if your site uses 2-3 letter terms that you want decent search on even if the custom fields search/filter ability is lacking.
But I do agree... the inability after 5 years to still be unable to search/filter on custom fields is rather irksome.
Custom fields are one of the strong points of the script, and extending their usefulness seems to get ignored by developers.

Same with a few other features that could be improved upon. The philosophy seems to be "the foundation is enough, leave it to 3rd party devs to flesh it out more if they want."

 

[MerryDay]

 

[Kintaro]

Same with a few other features that could be improved upon. The philosophy seems to be "the foundation is enough, leave it to 3rd party devs to flesh it out more if they want."

IMHO custom fields filter can’t be left to 3rd parties.

 

[cdub]

IMHO custom fields filter can’t be left to 3rd parties.

Unless we're surprised by another HYS we're stuck with it for a while.

@AddonsLab 's filter add-ons are great and he's a wonderful developer who has also developed some excellent private custom add-ons for me... but having to maintain multiple different add-ons for each content type I'd like to be able to search or filter by custom fields is extremely cumbersome with a bunch of add-ons that need to stay updated to work together and it really should all be native to XF to reduce that issue.

Again... What's the point of custom fields if you can't search or filter by them?

 

[imno007]

IMHO custom fields filter can’t be left to 3rd parties.

There have been a few addons that allowed additional filtering/sorting with custom fields, but that wasn't really my point, my point was that most existing core features, such as Pages, prefixes, tags, custom fields, whatever, were dropped years ago and have had zero improvement outside of whatever 3rd party devs have done to expand them - which at best means limited financial gain for the devs, and often additional costs for the non-dev owners (who are the majority).

 

[Alpha1]

It would make sense for this feature to be added to a future release of XF Enhanced Search, so hopefully it will happen someday.

 

[imno007]

It would make sense for this feature to be added to a future release of XF Enhanced Search, so hopefully it will happen someday.

All I can say is that I hope it's not an Enhanced Search only thing. ES is overkill for many smaller forums and I don't think users should necessarily have to make the additional investment in both licensing and server costs to get some basic filtering. I'm already sore that I can't get basic Similar thread functionality outside of it.

 

[AndyB]

You might like this add-on:

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/member-search.5966/

 

[TPerry]

You might like this add-on:

Works if your custom fields are only user related.... not too helpful when they are linked to content.



But I think the point trying to be made is it would be more useful to have that search/discovery ability built natively into the script instead of relying on outside parties to supply it. Heck, I personally would not care if it was tied to an ES related function only.

 

[TimeWizardCosmo]

Much needed, surprised it's never been a priority.