Searches that include hyphenated words return no results. Is there a fix for this?

[macromotion]

Problem
We converted from vB3 to vB5 about 10 days ago. Since the conversion, we have struggled to get the search working properly. If users search for "Z-Wave" (a common topic on our board), no results are found. The same thing happens with other hyphenated words (like "sub-forum"). Searches with non-hyphenated terms seem to work OK. If you'd like to test this, our forum is here: https://forums.homeseer.com/

I have cleared the cache and have rebuilt the search index several times. However, the problem remains. I found an 8 year old (vB4) thread that seems to discuss the same problem but no solution was posted.

Old thread with problem: https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/foru...hyphen-dot-etc

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Mrs.T]

We have a similar problem that search will not find numbers, our searches will often be R10 R30 R40 etc. the names of motorhomes. Members struggle to find the info they are looking for related to these.

I guess the hyphen comes under the same character type as numbers.

[Mrs.T]

This is the tracker Wayne created asking for full text search. https://tracker.vbulletin.com/vbulle...sues/VBV-17331

[macromotion]

We have a similar problem that search will not find numbers, our searches will often be R10 R30 R40 etc. the names of motorhomes. Members struggle to find the info they are looking for related to these.

I guess the hyphen comes under the same character type as numbers.

Thanks for your response. This forum (vBulletin forum) doesn't seem to suffer from this issue. A search on "sub-forum" works just fine. So... a full-text search feature shouldn't be necessary. I'm guessing there's something different about the supported character set or database type or something. We're happy to make a change... just need a little help. Wayne Luke ?

[Wayne Luke]

Hyphens are a stop character so word-word should search for "word word."

If it isn't finding the single words, are they in the words table?

[macromotion]

Hyphens are a stop character so word-word should search for "word word."

If it isn't finding the single words, are they in the words table?

The words table? What is that and how would I find the answer to your question?

I did find a "words" table in the repair/optimize tables function. Is that what you mean? If so, how would I access that?

Also, we had a pretty big problem with special characters when we upgrade to vB5. Posts from iPads that included apostrophes or other special characters did not display correctly. We still have an issue with that. Could this be related to the problem? If so, what can I check to determine that?

[glennrocksvb]

macromotion, as a temporary workaround while waiting for this issue to be fixed, you could replace the search with Google search with this free mod I created.

https://vbmods.rocks/forum/vbulletin-5-modifications/vbulletin-5-products-and-extensions/9593-google-search-replacement

It will keep your existing Search box but when they search, it will show the search results page from Google search within your forum using the "site:" keyword trick.

So when a user types "z-wave" in your forum's Search box and hit Enter, they will see this search result page:

[macromotion]

macromotion, as a temporary workaround while waiting for this issue to be fixed, you could replace the search with Google search with this free mod I created.

https://vbmods.rocks/forum/vbulletin-5-modifications/vbulletin-5-products-and-extensions/9593-google-search-replacement

It will keep your existing Search box but when they search, it will show the search results page from Google search within your forum using the "site:" keyword trick.

So when a user types "z-wave" in your forum's Search box and hit Enter, they will see this search result page:

Hi Glenn - thanks for posting back. I registered for your board and posted but still don't have permission to download the mod to try. I assume my posting is processed as a promotion through your board... How long will that take? -Mark

[glennrocksvb]

Yes. I have a cron job running every 5 mins

[macromotion]

Hi Glenn - thanks for posting back. I registered for your board and posted but still don't have permission to download the mod to try. I assume my posting is processed as a promotion through your board... How long will that take? -Mark

Nevermind... I got it. Thanks!

[glennrocksvb]

Glad to help

[macromotion]

*** FIXED *** We implemented the Sphinx search engine and changed over to that. Searches with hyphenated strings now are found correctly. So we're in good shape. Thanks again to Glenn for the temporary fix.

[Wayne Luke]

Also, we had a pretty big problem with special characters when we upgrade to vB5. Posts from iPads that included apostrophes or other special characters did not display correctly. We still have an issue with that. Could this be related to the problem? If so, what can I check to determine that?

iPads use UTF-8. Your vBulletin most likely does not. Only new installs on vBulletin 5.3.4 and higher default to UTF-8. You would need to change the character set to UTF-8 under Languages & Phrases -> Language Manager. Edit your language and chance ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8.

[macromotion]

iPads use UTF-8. Your vBulletin most likely does not. Only new installs on vBulletin 5.3.4 and higher default to UTF-8. You would need to change the character set to UTF-8 under Languages & Phrases -> Language Manager. Edit your language and chance ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8.

OK, thanks for that. I've made that change. Now what about searches with hyphenated words? Do you have a fix for that too? We thought we did with Sphinx but the search indexing process "blew up" on us after several hours and made the board inaccessible. We had to change the search type back to DB to get the board running again.

[glennrocksvb]

If you enclose the keyword within double quotes (e.g. "z-wave"), does it still return empty?

[macromotion]

If you enclose the keyword within double quotes (e.g. "z-wave"), does it still return empty?

Yes, same with quotes or no quotes.

[glennrocksvb]

macromotion I tried "z-wave" including quotes and it returned results!