XF 1.5 Search Results Order by Most Recent Post?

[Steve Freides]

Is there any way to make search results appear in the order of their most recent updates rather than thread start date?

I've been finding it frustrating that, when an old thread is updated, it still places very low in the search results because of its creation date, even though it may contain the most recent forum activity on its subject. Since I view the forum using New Posts, my search results seem oddly out of sync with the way I otherwise use XF.

Thanks, and if this isn't configurable, does anyone know if it will be changed and/or be configurable in 2.0?

-S-

 

[Paul B]

The new posts link already does order entries by most recent post, from top to bottom.

https://xenforo.com/community/find-new/posts

 

[Steve Freides]

Perhaps I didn't express what I meant to. I use New Posts and like it. When I Search on a particular word or expression, the results of the Search don't appear that way, they use the thread creation date rather than the most recent post in the thread.

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[Paul B]

How/where are you doing the search?

Selecting 'Most Recent' works from the main search - https://xenforo.com/community/search/

 

[Steve Freides]

I go to my forum's main page, click search, type in something to search for, and click on the Search button.

Using the Most Recent will show me all most recent posts - I am asking to see only posts that match my search term, which the current search does, but to have those results ordered by most recent post rather than thread create date.

Perhaps a concrete example helps. A forum user recently replied to a thread from 2014. When I search on something that will find this thread, the old thread is very far down on the list, even though it contains the most recent activity on the topic, because other threads on similar topics have been posted since 2014. The newer threads, however, haven't been updated in a week or two, while this 2014-started thread was updated five minutes ago.

The thread that was updated five minutes ago appears in the middle of the second page of my search result because that thread was started in 2014. That is my issue here.

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[Steve Freides]

If you go to Google and put this in the search box

<search_term> site:strongfirst.com/community

the search works as expected, and threads most recently updated appear near the top of the list.

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[Paul B]

You use the main search, enter the search term, and select the 'Most Recent' checkbox.

 

[Steve Freides]

We are getting somewhere. Two things, please:

First, in order to see what you see in your link xenforo.com/community/search, I have to click on More which, when I hold my mouse over it, shows "Advanced Search." I was hoping not to do that but to change the default behavior.

Second, and perhaps most importantly here, you show an Order By with two choices - I don't have that, which is why I haven't used it. Is this something I need to configure in my ACP and, if so, where, please?

Thanks.

-S-

 

[Steve Freides]

If it's helpful, my XF version shows 1.5.12.

-S-

 

[Steve Freides]

I also don't have Search Media and Search Resources on mine. Is this perhaps an issue of my own rights in the forum?

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[Mike]

Second, and perhaps most importantly here, you show an Order By with two choices - I don't have that, which is why I haven't used it. Is this something I need to configure in my ACP and, if so, where, please?

Out of the box (MySQL full text search) is always ordered by recency. You'll only get the relevancy option with Enhanced Search.

Recency relates to the content in question. In the case of a post, it relates to the date of the post, not the date of the last post in the thread. There are no options that would change that. Similarly, a thread's date would be the creation date.

I also don't have Search Media and Search Resources on mine. Is this perhaps an issue of my own rights in the forum?

Those would also be dependent on you having the specific add-ons that create that content (the Media Gallery and Resource Manager, respectively).

 

[Steve Freides]

Those would also be dependent on you having the specific add-ons that create that content (the Media Gallery and Resource Manager, respectively).

OK, we have resolved that, thank you.

You'll only get the relevancy option with Enhanced Search.

What is Enhanced Search? An add-on, an option that can be turned on and off and, if so, where, please?

Recency relates to the content in question. In the case of a post, it relates to the date of the post, not the date of the last post in the thread. There are no options that would change that. Similarly, a thread's date would be the creation date.

When one does a Search from the forum's main page, what seems to be searched is threads, not posts. I don't understand the mention of searching individual posts in the context of our conversation if that's not an option available to me. When I put something into Search, I get threads, not posts. If that is something I can change, please tell me how.

Since I am being given threads, not posts, as my search results, I want to see them in order of recency by each thread's most recent post. As I mentioned earlier, the way Find New Posts works is a model which would solve my problem - the results of Find New Posts is threads (not posts), but ordered by the most recent post in each thread.

-S-

 

[Mike]

What is Enhanced Search? An add-on, an option that can be turned on and off and, if so, where, please?

I was referring to our XenForo Enhanced Search add-on (see the bottom of here: https://xenforo.com/purchase/xenforo-details). Note that using it requires additional elements on your server.

When one does a Search from the forum's main page, what seems to be searched is threads, not posts.

The results are individual posts within each thread. As an example, if I search for "search results order most recent" in this forum, you'll get 3 results from this thread: https://xenforo.com/community/search/9065090/?q=search+results+order+most+recent&o=date&c[node]=25

Note that the dates below each entry represents the creation date of the specific post (or when the thread was started).

There is no option to sort search results by the date of the most recent post in a thread.