Can't search in Chinese, if any one could kindly help me...

[ttk_2k]

Hi friends, I'm on a shared hosting, and it's the first time for me to enter the world of vB, my question might be confused and when you read my following words, just be little bit patient because... eh my English is not good...

Ok, first of all I am on the following system: PHP version 4.4.4 with MySQL version 4.1.21-standard. Hosted in the US.

I've installed 5 times with different settings and attempts, but not even once could solve my problem: can NOT search with Chinese keywords when set the vBulletin with UTF-8 encoding, like to search "论坛", etc..

This issue had been discussed here before at:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165109

But untill today there isn't any solution here with the official English version, the only way I know to solve this problem is to buy the Chinese service from vBulletin-chinese.com, however their website has been down for many days, thus I decided to open a thread here to see if anyone could help me on this.

Here are attemps I've done:

1. I installed the forum by uploading the entire .zip pack and extracted directly from the file manager of CPanel, and ran the install, everything went perfectly. Then after installed the first thing I went to do was to post a thread in Chinese and tried to test the search, because I saw from somewhere that vB English might couldn't handle the chinese searching. However as expected, the forum was really and always returning 0 results. I tried to see if there's anything I could do then I opened FTP, and saw all .php files in the directory on the host had the permission setted 755. I was aware there might be too many works to do if I try to modify one by one to 644, then I deleted the whole package and the database and went for a new re-install.
2. This time I uploaded all files through FTP, one by one, as following times as well. After installed, the problem persisted. Then I changed the forum searching type from Full-text to regular vB searchs. But with no luck.
3. Then I thought I could download the chinese language pack, and put it into the /install directory, and when running the installation it might directly import the Chinese language pack and the problem might could be solved, then this is the third time installation. But faild once again, the search result was always 0.
4. Then I started to read the config.php file carefully, wished I could find a bit light of hope, suddenly I saw this: // $config['Mysqli']['charset'] = 'utf8'; I was so happy, I thought that might solve my problem, but never realized that this d*mn thing is for php5+ only... of course I realized that after the 4th installation.
5. This time, I bravely went to phpMyAdmin.. Aha what I saw ... the charact encoding of those MySQL tables (those vB ones) were encoded with Latin1, then I went to "Operations", changed the default encoding for this database to unicode, which called the 5th installation.
   
   Finally... failed... searches still came with 0 result...!

I must say it's strange, very. Because I also have Wordpress installed, and it does work perfectly with the searching for Chinese words. After 5 times installation of vB, I decided to seek help from everywhere on the Internet, but no where could provide a solution.

However I'm not that sad, because I believe tha failures teach us to become better than before, so now I am gladly wish if there's anyone could help me on this, and any answer would be highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance, and thanks for you guys valued time too!

TT

[Jake Bunce]

I have dealt with this problem before. The default search feature indexes individual words which are separated by spaces. The Chinese language does not separate words with spaces so the search feature cannot index Chinese posts.

I am told that vBChina uses a modified search system that works with Chinese posts. You would have to ask them about their search system. I am also told that the fulltext search feature in MySQL 4.1.1+ can search Chinese, though I have no experience with that.

[mrwuss]

His whole reason for posting this here is the fact that vBchinese seems to have shut down shop and left town.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=207691

[Reeve of Shinra]

Have you tried switching to full text searching? From Jakes post, it sounds like that should help.

[ttk_2k]

Hi, thanks for all your replies.

I've tried to switching from different searching solutions, like switched to full text searching, and also tried "vB default searching" of course, but ended with no luck..

It's very strange, here at the English official forum, if I search for Chinese words, such like "中文", it works perfectly! Why...

[feldon23]

This just points to the fact that Jelsoft really needs to create and manage a site for each language. It's ok if there are staff from each local country performing day-to-day operations, but this can really affect sales negatively to say "if you don't speak English, you're on your own".

I know Jelsoft has a lot on their plate, but supporting Authentication with LDAP and thus linking vBulletin to other software like Joomla as well as support for other languages is all part of making vBulletin "play well with others". It is a testament to the quality of vBulletin that people go to such great lengths to create compatibility where none inherently exists. Imagine if vBulletin shipped with that compatibility!

[Zachery]

Hi, thanks for all your replies.

I've tried to switching from different searching solutions, like switched to full text searching, and also tried "vB default searching" of course, but ended with no luck..

It's very strange, here at the English official forum, if I search for Chinese words, such like "中文", it works perfectly! Why...

I know we are running PHP5 and MySQL5 and it may have something to do with it.

[feldon23]

ttk_2k,

Are you running MySQL FULLTEXT Natural, MySQL FULLTEXT Boolean, or built-in vBulletin Search?

[ttk_2k]

I know we are running PHP5 and MySQL5 and it may have something to do with it.

Thanks Zachery, I see. I'm on php 4 and MySql 4. And I thought the reason here works with chinese searching is that maybe if I should install again and set everything to the encoding here ISO-8859-1 might help.. Fortunately I didn't try for 6th installation.

ttk_2k,

Are you running MySQL FULLTEXT Natural, MySQL FULLTEXT Boolean, or built-in vBulletin Search?

Hi feldon23, I have tried Fulltext and vBulletin search by switching from the backend, but haven't try the MySQL fulltext Boolean, can you tell me how?

Thank you!

[ttk_2k]

So what if I install vB on a php5 and Mysql 5 host? Anyone know if that'd solve the problem?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

You could try the following first:

Create a new Database, and set the collation for the database to use an encoding that supports Chinese characters. After you have done this, install vBulletin into the database. All tables should be created with the proper collation now.

Next make sure the HTML Character Set is also set correct in your Language settings (Language Manager -> Edit Settings).

After that experiment with the buildin vB search and/.or the MySQL Fulltext search options.

[ttk_2k]

Hi Macro,

That was my 5th installation, but with no luck..

[ttk_2k]

Latest important update:

Sounds like the search in Chinese/Japanese/Korean doesn't work ONLY when your forum is set with UNICODE (UTF-8).

My latest test with vBulletin installed with its default encoding ISO-8859-1 on 4.4.4 with MySQL version 4.1.21-standard (collation Latin1) do works perfectly on posting and searching in Chinese language! Seems php5 and MySQL5 isn't required. I have no chance to test how it is with GB2312 and GBK since I'll run my forum in English only, but other people may try them and kindly post an update here to just let others and me know. Thanks a lot!