Search function not working...

[Jorin]

Hi everyone,

maybe this problem is told many times before, but it is still not cleared. I talk about the search function in 1.1.x, which is not working correctly on some boards.

Many SMF forum administrators in germany (and I am sure this problem is a world wide problem) told me about their experiences with the search function, with many different sightings:

1) Without an index the search isn't really working.

2) Sometimes any of the possible indexes make sense, sometimes they don't.

3) We found out at our board that the search for (for example) "advanced" list the threads correctly, some minutes later not, and again some minutes later it again works correctly.

4) Search.php from older versions sometimes work better, sometimes not.

5) Search for only parts of a word is not working sometimes.

So this is really stupid and annoying, and we as "normal users" can't really help finding out what happened. It belongs to you, the coders and developers, to get the search function work correctly as it does in many other forum software.

The search function is one of the most used function in a forum and it is really necessary! Please help us all and try to fix this problem! 

[SleePy]

nehcregit,

The only thing I can say about this is from what I have seen it only has happened to do upgrade to 1.1 for a few. Anyone that installed 1.1 doesn't seem to have a problem but those who upgraded to it seem to have the problem.
Though I don't have the problem at my own forum that started out at 1.0.5 and went to the 1.1 RC2 all the way to its final.

[Eddie Felson]

I have problems, too (SMF 1.1.2).

When I search especially topic titles, often search function found nothing. I tested with all available options.

[Jorin]

nehcregit,

The only thing I can say about this is from what I have seen it only has happened to do upgrade to 1.1 for a few.

I startet with 1.1RC3 and updatet till 1.1.2 now... And still have problems with the search function. If it is correct what you are saying, why is it so? Whats the difference between updated and not updated forums? Isn't the Search.php the same?

[haschi]

Hi!

I've also upgradet fom RC3 to 1.1.2. Same problems....

4 weeks ago a user wrote a thread with the name "Handschuhfach-Subwoofer". If one looks now exactly for this wording, SMF indicates 250 results. But not this topic "Handschuhfach-Subwoofer".

Same user noticed it and informed the support forum. Now the users can find this topic in the support-forum while searching  "Handschuhfach-Subwoofer", but not stuck for the right topic.
If one looks for "Handschuhfach Subwoofer", one has four results, however also only again the advice.

[nitins60]

I started my forum with v1.1.0 then 1.1.1 and now 1.1.2

yesterday i was searching for one term, in search results, i got a topic where it's showing percentage of occur... But i am suprised to see, it doesn't showed the words(highlighted from that post) and when i entered the topic, the term itself didn't found! After going back, i research the same term, the topic is out of results. Really frustrating!?

[Jorin]

Interesting news! It seems to be depending on the SQL version on the server:

Auf dem Server im Netz nutze ich MySQL 4.0.22 mit aktiviertem Query-Cache, auf der lokalen Maschine eine aktuelle MySQL 5.0.37 ohne aktivem Query-Cache. Vermutlich liegt es also an der MySQL-Version oder am Query-Cache (werd ich heut abend aber nochmal gegenchecken, um das Problem noch weiter einzugrenzen).

Thorsten tried MySQL 4.0.22 with activated query cache online on his server and MySQL 5.0.37 without query cache local on his computer. Online the search function is not working correct, but local on his computer everything still works fine.

Maybe this can be a hint?

Our search function at www.smfportal.de didn't work correct on PHP4, but now seems to work perfect on PHP5 (we changed the hoster). We will test this...

[Jorin]

It seems that the "SMFSearchBot" Joomla module founds correctly all searched words, while the SMF search function alone doesn't work correctly on the same site with the same search words. Totally annoying! 

haschi reported this experience in this german topic about problems with the search function.