Problem With Forum Search - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 19, 2017, 02:46:16 am
content: Take this topic as an example:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/ntc-help-needed-for-fluke-pm3082/With the title: "NTC help needed for Fluke PM3082"Search for "PM3082" in various ways and the thread doesn't show up at all.Has anyone had similar issues recently?I know that SMF search has always been a bit troublesome, but I just want to make sure it's not a recent thing like new threads are not getting indexed or something

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2017, 02:52:01 am
content: there is a recent thread where folks were discussing this.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/eevblog-search-engine-missing-threads/

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2017, 03:38:06 am
content: I have to say that I never use the forum search on any forums. I never think it works very well.For the query given, I would type the following into Google:site:eevblog.com/forum pm3082

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 16, 2018, 10:43:21 pm
content: I quite often use the forums search feature and have always found it rather lacking but I now suspect that something has changed of late to make it almost entirely unusable. As can be seen from the images below the first page is where I entered the search term and then on the second page the returned and expected results, the third image shows what is returned after I select page 2 or next as it then displays an "Adjust Search Parameters" page and the prior search results disappear altogether.One thing I have noticed is that the returned search results are now displayed in reverse chronological order whereas previously I remember them as being all over the place, I think this is an improvement. I have tested the search feature on two different devices with the same result but somebody else may want to verify my findings, or the lack of.

author: klaus11
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 20, 2018, 08:15:05 am
content: Error,function Search the topics appear but when clicking on them the links do not work.Server Error 500...

author: gnif
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 20, 2018, 08:56:08 am
content: Quote from: klaus11 on April 20, 2018, 08:15:05 amWe just moved servers, there are some things to sort out still. But even still I can not reproduce the problem, what were your search terms?

author: klaus11
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 20, 2018, 06:48:48 pm
content: Quote from: gnif on April 20, 2018, 08:56:08 amDPO7104

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2018, 07:20:44 pm
content: I searched "DPO7104" and got one result, this thread. I clicked it, and here I am...

author: gnif
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 20, 2018, 09:52:05 pm
content: Works fine for me too, I can not replicate the fault.I did note however the top right search box is using the old search instead of sphinx, I will fix this today.

author: klaus11
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2018, 03:59:08 am
content: Quote from: gnif on April 20, 2018, 09:52:05 pmIf it works now there is no error.Quote from: metrologist on April 20, 2018, 07:20:44 pm8 results appear

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2018, 01:40:57 pm
content: I guess the forum search only searches in the subforum you are looking at. I get 8 results from home page.Google gives me 6 results: DPO7104 sitehttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/

author: StillTrying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2018, 03:44:21 pm
content: Searching for the words working on gave a strange subject: html effect for me, haven't tried a different browser/PC yet.Beginners / Custom Arduino PCB - notong class="highlight">workingong>after assembly?

author: gnif
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 28, 2018, 04:25:19 pm
content: Quote from: StillTrying on April 28, 2018, 03:44:21 pmWhat part of the forum were you on when you searched, I can't find the same result using the terms you provided.

author: StillTrying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2018, 05:14:42 pm
content: "What part of the forum were you on when you searched"The search page LOL, the search in the menu on the left, not the top right search box.It's hardly a major problem.Edit: Well I'm glad he found it, and it wasn't just me!

author: gnif
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 29, 2018, 05:08:53 am
content: I managed to replicate it, and I can confirm it is a bug in SMF.The search is doing a string replace for words to highlight, you used the terms "working on". The highlight HTML is "<strong>xxx</strong>", but "strong" contains "on". SMF is erroneously replacing the text in it's own tag, generating the output:<str<strong>on</strong>g>working</str<strong>on</strong>g>One day developers might learn that "preg_replace" on HTML content is a very bad idea, there is no excuse anymore with PHP's DOMDocument class. Or even simpler, split the content into words (explode) and apply the highlight to the words individually, then join it back together (implode), rather then a mass search/replace.

author: timelessbeing
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 07:57:50 pm
content: I noticed another weird thing about the search. (At least, it's not the behaviour that I would expect.) The search results are in crazy order. It shows hits from 2017beforeones posted yesterday.

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 08:00:16 pm
content: Quote from: timelessbeing on June 05, 2018, 07:57:50 pmNewer threads aren't necessarily more useful.

author: timelessbeing
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 08:27:42 pm
content: Quote from: Mr. Scram on June 05, 2018, 08:00:16 pm... so are you going to tell us what is?

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 08:41:26 pm
content: Quote from: timelessbeing on June 05, 2018, 08:27:42 pmPlease leave your grating attitude in the other thread. Nobody is interested in us rubbing egos, no matter how sensual that may sound.Newer threads may be small threads that died quickly, while older threads may have gone on for much longer and contain more valuable information. Relevance can be a metric, number of responses, number of responding forum members. There's more ways to skin the cat of presenting relevant search results.

author: timelessbeing
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 09:00:06 pm
content: My attitude is that you are a very annoying person, and it's really weird that you're following me around. You are now blocked so go rub someone else. Scram, Mr. Scam.The many many forums I've visited all sort search results by date. I think it's what people expect.

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 09:24:07 pm
content: We have the capability to create look-up tables with relative term rankings to score a search result. It's more better...but it is even better to be able to select a sort order too, if that is desired.

author: timelessbeing
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 10:07:37 pm
content: Sorry false alarm. In advanced search, you CAN set the sort order of the results.What about this: The search also seems to return only the most recent hit in a topic.Example (this 5-page topic):https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/suggestions-for-high-resolution-tiltmeter-(inclinometer)-sensor/Search for the forum for keyword "talyvel". You will see one result from the last page, but the word is mentioned 13 times going back to page 1.This I think is a problem, especially on those 100 page topics.

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 06, 2018, 01:41:48 pm
content: It looks like advanced search is just returning topics, not every message result within a topic. That might be desirable, but I think I recall seeing some search functions have a toggle to show topics or posts. The upper right search box returns all the results from within that topic, and it just returns the topics when searching from the forum index.

author: timelessbeing
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 06, 2018, 07:07:17 pm
content: Quote from: metrologist on June 06, 2018, 01:41:48 pmThe results takes you to thenewestmessage. If you select "Show results as messages" in the advanced search, the results will also show the contents of the post.Quote from: metrologist on June 06, 2018, 01:41:48 pmThat's good to know. At least I can pick a search depending on what I want.