XenForo Enhanced Search

[Adam Howard]

So I'm possibly looking into purchasing XenForo's Enhance Search.

Would like people's pros and cons from having done so (please and thank you in advance).

 

[Paul B]

You need to be able to install elasticsearch on the server and most shared hosts won't do that.

There are for more benefits than just having the stemming analyzer in your language, which have already been mention.

 

[Moshe1010]

I've read it requires a dedicated or VPS server. I'm on shared one. Is it possible to use it anyway? Are there likely to happen server errors because of it?

Another question: if my language is not included in ES - is there a point to use it?

Thanks in advance for answers.

Shared hosting most likely wouldn't install it since it consumes a "lot" of RAM compared to what they usually allocate to a single user. The benefits for ES if it doesn't support your language are mainly:
1. Searching is faster, but not noticeably faster if you have less than 500K posts
2. You can search content with less than 3 characters (usually not useful)
3. You can enable "Warmers":
http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-warmers.html
4. The search index is separate from your database. Not sure how much advantage it gives it terms of resources

I guess basically that's it.

 

[AndyB]

Another advantages of the Enhanced Search is that your mysqldump will be smaller because the database is smaller.

 

[Adam Howard]

Another advantages of the Enhanced Search is that your mysqldump will be smaller because the database is smaller.

Database is a little over 1 GB

Search index is just shy of 350 MB ... So I guess that would be saving me a little.

 

[Slavik]

Shared hosting most likely wouldn't install it since it consumes a "lot" of RAM compared to what they usually allocate to a single user. The benefits for ES if it doesn't support your language are mainly:
1. Searching is faster, but not noticeably faster if you have less than 500K posts
2. You can search content with less than 3 characters (usually not useful)
3. You can enable "Warmers":
http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-warmers.html
4. The search index is separate from your database. Not sure how much advantage it gives it terms of resources

I guess basically that's it.

You also forget search results will be *considerably* more relevant than MySQL results.

 

[Moshe1010]

You also forget search results will be *considerably* more relevant than MySQL results.

Personally, they both suck. site:www.website.com *keyword(s)* on google is way better than any of these...

 

[Paul B]

Google is a multi-billion dollar company whose business is founded on search results.

So that's not surprising.

 

[Slavik]

Personally, they both suck. site:www.website.com *keyword(s)* on google is way better than any of these...

Have you tried the latest enhanced search version with a compatible elasticsearch version to enable all the new features? I would say it is far from "sucking" when I generally get the result im searching for in the top 5 results.

 

[Adam Howard]

Google is a multi-billion dollar company whose business is founded on search results.

So that's not surprising.

Yes, but they started in a classroom with no budget. I'm confident that it is possible to enhance the search from within a forum development

 

[Adam Howard]

Have you tried the latest enhanced search version with a compatible elasticsearch version to enable all the new features? I would say it is far from "sucking" when I generally get the result im searching for in the top 5 results.

Is XenForo.com using it?

 

[Moshe1010]

Have you tried the latest enhanced search version with a compatible elasticsearch version to enable all the new features? I would say it is far from "sucking" when I generally get the result im searching for in the top 5 results.

I can't really use most of the features on my board since it's not in English. I mainly use it here and it sucks. I always go to google and search there whatever I need (usually it's a solution to a problem (error message or a resource).

Google is a multi-billion dollar company whose business is founded on search results.

So that's not surprising.

I'm not blaming anybody for this, just saying that there are way better alternatives, but they are not realistic for the casual user (unless you completely relay on Google Search on your board. I give users both options, so they can choose what best fits their needs).

Is XenForo.com using it?

I'm pretty sure it is. They use the ES add-on, but I'm not sure if they use the beta version. Considering that they use the beta version for the core software, I'm assuming they use beta add-ons as well (RM and ES).

 

[Paul B]

Yes, Enhanced Search is installed here.

The Relevance option wouldn't exist otherwise:



http://xenforo.com/community/search/?type=post

 

[AndyB]

Moshe1010 makes a good point. I also use Google to search XenForo all the time, I use this command:

search query site:xenforo.com

However, Enhanced Search works very well when you want to limit results based on a user or forum. So both Google and Enhanced Search are very useful.

 

[MattW]

 

[Moshe1010]

Moshe1010 makes a good point. I also use Google to search XenForo all the time, I use this command:

search query site:xenforo.com

However, Enhanced Search works very well when you want to limit results based on a user or forum. So both Google and Enhanced Search are very useful.

I made it simpler:


When you hit "search" (it's in Hebrew here), it will give you Google Search results inside an iframe. If you write something in the ES regular search, you will get the regular XF results. Win-Win situation I guess, and easy for users to use without commands.
You can get the code here:
https://www.google.com/cse/all

 

[Adam Howard]

I made it simpler:
View attachment 75388

When you hit "search" (it's in Hebrew here), it will give you Google Search results inside an iframe. If you write something in the ES regular search, you will get the regular XF results. Win-Win situation I guess, and easy for users to use without commands.
You can get the code here:
https://www.google.com/cse/all

I've added the google code before and it happens to not be so good on the layout... ie... The search results were long in a small sidebar (scrolling past the footer)