Forum Search

[breezer]

sorry but the old search was much easier to read, and easier to find things

 

[DavidJW]

Why has the facility to specify the forum (e.g plumbing) been removed?

 

[breezer]

its supposed to be an improvement, but its only proved to be a pain in the butt

 

[breezer]

good example.

i wanted to link to the topic I started about sunflowers.

try sunflower in the search and see what you get

please can we have the old search facility back

( i found what i wanted evetually, but the old way was quicker and easier.)

 

[CAWORK]

sorry but the old search was much easier to read, and easier to find things

Here Here!!!!!!!

There were loads of times Ive used the search facilities and found the old one a damn site easier and better.

I'll explain more again-but just think about it, it looks like several people are having the same trouble as me.

 

[breezer]

 

[JohnD]

like?

 

[DIYnot]

Several things, the old search was not sustainable, the way the searches were executed was getting to the stage where it was beginning to cause problems when people were entering certain queries. With the number of posts being made on the forum daily, something had to be done. The new search is something that will be improved as time goes on in response to feedback and experience . Most of the old features will appear again once they have been completed and tested, like the author search etc. The ability to search a specific section will also be available soon, as will the ability to search with in a time span.

One final thing to note, there was a minor bug which was affecting searches made up until today where inclusion of a 'common word' e.g. the, it, etc in a search query would result in no results, this has been fixed.

 

[DavidJW]

Am I right in thinking that the software running the forum, and consequently the search facility, has been developed "in house"? If so, why?

There are many good programs available with tried and tested search facilities. Why re-invent the wheel??

 

[DIYnot]

No that's not correct, the forum is a modified version of a widely used open source project where the search facility is a common issue once the forum exceeds a certain size. The new search also is based on a proven technology that is in common use.

 

[DavidJW]

No that's not correct, the forum is a modified version of a widely used open source project where the search facility is a common issue once the forum exceeds a certain size. The new search also is based on a proven technology that is in common use.

That's reassuring - apart from the modified bit (Speaking as a retired software developer and IT Manager)

 

[DIYnot]

Don't worry all the modified bits are the good bits

 

[DIYnot]

UPDATE: Just a further update on the forum search;

Some hopefully big improvements are now complete. An advanced search that allows more specific queries, limit results from a forum section etc is available, you can find it here. Limiting searches by time will follow.

Furthermore, a problem with the indexing occurred which I think (and hope) explains some of the dodgy results you have received. Author was being searched in preference to the actual post content, hence some strange results. This is also now sorted.

I would again ask for any feedback to be posted here or emailed to [email protected]

Many thanks,

DIYnot.com

 

[JohnD]

tried it, results seem good, though the search seems to take a long time.

I can't see what order the results are returned in. Date order (newest first)would IMO be best.

 

[DIYnot]

The results are returned in the order of best match first. Time ordering/ search by time will be added soon.

The time it takes to do a search varies depending on the query, if it's a complex query it will take longer than for example a single word search. Unfortunately this is due to the quantity of posts in the forum.