More search flexibility?

[samtha25]

Will there be more work done on the search? I'd like to see the ability to search on both keyword and author together and the ability to search for all posts posted within a time period, like the last 2 days or last week.

[tubedogg]

You can already do all that.

[Wayne Luke]

You have to click on "Advanced Search" to do this though. The new simple search mode gets in the way.

[Grover]

Hmmm.....

The new simple search mode gets in the way. Is this just an observation or meant as constructive critisism? ;)

Well....as we are talking about it anyway: I tried the new option 'find threads with xxx replies'. I didn't put a value in all the other search-fields, because I wanted a listing of all the threads with NO reply, apart from ANY user / search-criteria.

BUT.... I got the following error: 'Please specify some words or valid user names to search on. There were no matches for those that you specified.'.....

Question---> I would like to know if it will be possible to search for all the threads (i should say 'posts' in this case, right?...;) that have NO (0) replies. Independent of any users or other search-criteria.

I think this will be a GREAT feature of VB3. Why? Because with an option like that I will be able to view ALL the posts with NO replies on it. I run a SUPPORT-website for patients who suffer from severe hairdiseases....Myself and my forumleaders/moderators can just with one click view all the posts with NO reply on it and make sure that the patient indeed gets his or her reply. Otherwise....chances are that his/her posts will be burried under the enormous amounts of threads at our forum.......

Just an idea.
Grover.

[Wayne Luke]

Originally posted by Grover
Hmmm.....
Is this just an observation or meant as constructive critisism? ;)


My personal observation. If a webmaster wanted to give his user's a simple serch function, it should be on each and every page (look at the header of SitePointForums.com or any page at Google). Once the user decides to actually enter the search engine they should get the full advanced search immediately. Granted it only takes a few seconds to load a new page but seconds add up and it wastes time. This is without considering the usability hits associated with a intermediary page.

[Grover]

Ok, Luke. It's clear for me.

Is there someone who can answer my other question concerning the '0 replies' thread-search?

Grover.

[s.molinari]

Originally posted by wluke


My personal observation. If a webmaster wanted to give his user's a simple serch function, it should be on each and every page (look at the header of SitePointForums.com or any page at Google). Once the user decides to actually enter the search engine they should get the full advanced search immediately. Granted it only takes a few seconds to load a new page but seconds add up and it wastes time. This is without considering the usability hits associated with a intermediary page.

I agree. Like the simple search within each forum. There should be a simple search for the whole forum at the top. But again it shouldn't add to the "clutter".

I also like the just search for "0" posts idea. Maybe as a vBConditional for admins/mods cuz most users wouldn't need it. ;)

[Wayne Luke]

Originally posted by Grover
Is there someone who can answer my other question concerning the '0 replies' thread-search?

Grover.

Going from past experience this requires some changes to the search engine. Not sure how it is handled in vB3 but it appears that a check needs to be modified which will allow 0-reply searches without keywords or usernames.

If they (the devs) don't add (fix) this then it would literally be a 10-15 second hack.

[Grover]

I also like the just search for "0" posts idea. Maybe as a vBConditional for admins/mods cuz most users wouldn't need

Exactly!

And speaking of the search.... I also wish for an option to search for ALL posts on a SPECIFIC date, like I requested in:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44226 :


Dear VbTeam,

I didn't find the following on the 'already suggested list':

I would like to have the ability to search postings after a SPECIFIC date. Now we only have the following options:

- any date
- yesterday
- a week ago

etc......

Isn't it much easier if we just could type in a date ourselves? The dropdown-list isn't really neccesary, is it?

What is your opinion about this or is it already suggested?

Grover.


Today.... I had -again- the wish to search for ANY new posts from they day before yesterday till today....but I couldn't do that with the search engine. You can not even search for all posts from yesterday till now, because you HAVE to put an keyword or username in!

I think mine idea is a good one, actually! ;) Any comments?

Grover.
Netherlands.

[samtha25]

Originally posted by tubedogg
You can already do all that.
Sorry I wasn't clearer. I want to search for multiple keywords and multiple authors in one search. Is that possible?

I've never found a way to search only on posting date range. Is there one?

[samtha25]

Originally posted by wluke
My personal observation. If a webmaster wanted to give his user's a simple serch function, it should be on each and every page.
I agree. Moreover, unless the "Advanced Search" is going to become considerably more complicated than it is now, I think it's pretty simple to use and don't see much reason for the "Simple Search". I hope that it will be fairly easy to elminate it.

[samtha25]

Originally posted by s.molinari
I also like the just search for "0" posts idea. Maybe as a vBConditional for admins/mods cuz most users wouldn't need it. ;)
I like the 0 replies search also, but not restricted to admin/mods. Like Grover, our site is also a support site, but we have lots of designated helpers who are not moderators.

Is there any reason that searching on date ranges or number of replies has to require that either a keyword or author be also entered?

[kyle]

samtha25 I'm looking for the same option ,,,,,,

Dose anyone know if there is a hack or somthing that will alow me to search keywords in a members profile?

[samtha25]

I consider the option to search on date ranges alone to be particularly important. Given that read/unread status is not tracked per post per user and given the ways read/unread status may be reset without a user having read all new posts since last visit, being able to get all new posts within, say, the last three days or last week is important to many people and would go a long way toward dealing with users complaints about the read/unread status handling - the only significant complaint we get about vBulletin.

[Mike Sullivan]

The examples you gave -- posts in last 3 days, last 7 days -- can be done. There's actually an undocumented feature in getdaily to handle this.

search.php?action=getdaily&days=7

If you don't specify days, it defaults to 1.

I do agree that "2-sided" date limits would be nice too.

[Grover]

Ok,

I hope the '0 replies'-search and the 'SPECIFIC date'-search will be implemented.

Speaking of this '0 replies'-search...MAYBE it's a good idea to provide some 'Quick Search'-links aka 'Favorites' in the Advanced Search Screen?

For example: PHPBB2 has a LINK on their Main Forum index called 'View unanswered posts': this brings you to ALL the posts with 0 replies. I think this is an GREAT idea. We REALLY need this '0 reply' thing. Even if you don't run a health-support site like myself, it is tremendously handy.

Maybe it's a good idea to include those links in the Advanced Search? There must be some more 'standard-searches' which can be implemented as a 'Favorite'-link.

Any thoughts?

[Grover]

Some ideas:

Quick Search 'Favorites'

[A:] 'View unanswered posts': this brings you to ALL the posts with 0 replies.
[B:] 'View posts with attachments' : this brings you to ALL the posts with attachments in it.
[C:]
[D:]
[E:]
[F:]
[G:]

Just some ideas...

NB: Some of those Favorites should only be accesible for the adminstrator/moderator.