dbiel Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Thanks Wazoo for the new search windows It brings back an old question I keep forgetting to ask. The systems does not allow for searchs on words less than 4 characters (which does make sense) but, it also does not allow for string searchs in which any one of the words is less than 4 characters which makes no sense at all. I would guess that you probably can't do anything about it. Example "Forum FAQ" there is just no way to search for FAQ or anyother 3 leter term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farelf Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 ... but, it also does not allow for string searchs in which any one of the words is less than 4 characters which makes no sense at all. I would guess that you probably can't do anything about it. Example "Forum FAQ" there is just no way to search for FAQ or anyother 3 leter term. 35866[/snapback] Is it just the quotes thing? (then becomes case sensitive? [nope "forum faq" gives the same as below]) forum faq and "Forum FAQ" both bring up many hits, with what looks like loads of commonality. Or is Wazoo prepared to accept credit for yet another "fix" Next guess, you have some saved configuration for general Google searches which (somehow) get reused in this context? I can search on FAQ, no doubt "FAQ", faq, "faq" and I have minimal configuration of search options saved in my Google profile away from "here". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbiel Posted November 12, 2005 Author Share Posted November 12, 2005 I guess it was something that Wazoo could fix, and boy did he do it FAST!!!! Now I can beat myself up for not asking much earlier. I have been fighting that for over 1-1/2 y;ears!! Thank you Wazoo!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 I'm confused ..... I managed to get in here, was reading dbiel's first post here .. phone rang ... daughter-in-law had CD inserted, something like 29 minutes left showing on-screen (?) ... wanting to do an upgrade ... based on her story as related by her mother who bought the CD ... the only upgrade path from Win2K is to WinXP-Pro ... that's a new one for me ... at any rate, I've been walking through this upgrade with her by phone for the last few hours ... hampered by little things like not knowing what network device was on her computer, what graphics / chip-set was in her computer ... she actually didn't make the call until she had run into the "can't find the driver file" error screens .... XP-Pro is installed and running at present .. had her hang up while she wades through all the updates ... she said she "did" have a CD for the printer somewhere .. so she's supposed to be looking for that also ... I come back here and see the kudos for something I couldn't have done <g> 3 charcter issue: that's actually a MySQL thing. All the data in the database gets indexed for a future search. Default is to keep that index of words 4 characters long and up, so as not to kill that index file with all the small words (the, but, or, and, etc.) .... You'll run into this "limit" when trying to use the IPB search function, (as seen in the Help Search Members Calendar .. section) as it also is set to a default of looking for that 4 characters+ ..... Yes, one could change that default, trade-off is server load and search response time. Rarely done. Now the "Search for -->" item uses Google as its engine. Thus the Google functions, rules, tricks, boolean, pattern, etc. things work just fine there .... Based on the kudos offered, I'm thinking that the two different search tools were used and that's where the confusion came from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbiel Posted November 12, 2005 Author Share Posted November 12, 2005 Could it be the ghost of Wazoo at work? In the past, every time I tried to do a search that contained any word of less than 4 characters I got the error message. Search was always entered as "how to use IMAP" or "Forum FAQ" quote marks always used. Now it seems to work OK. Strange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff G. Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 It could have something to do with yesterday's hardware issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 Could it be the ghost of Wazoo at work? In the past, every time I tried to do a search that contained any word of less than 4 characters I got the error message. Search was always entered as "how to use IMAP" or "Forum FAQ" quote marks always used. Now it seems to work OK. Strange. 35885[/snapback] "how to use IMAP" - copied and pasted just as you see into the 'keyword' section of the windows brought up by the "Search" function in this IBP app .... gets me the following error .... The error returned was: One or all of your search keywords were below 4 characters or you are searched for words which are not allowed, such as 'html', 'img', etc, please go back and increase the length of these search keywords or choose different keywords. However, placing the same string into the little white box to the right of the "Search for -->" box gets me .... wow! .. nothing <g> there is apperntly not a single post in the Forum (that has been indexed by Google) that contains that exact phrase .... take off the quote marks and there are 'about 670 entries' found ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbiel Posted November 12, 2005 Author Share Posted November 12, 2005 It keeps getting stranger. Forum FAQ does NOT work since FAQ is less than 4 characters "Forum FAQ" does work but why? "The Forum FAQ" does work "The Forum FAQ search" does NOT work "A Forum FAQ" does NOT work "The FAQ" does work How* does NOT work "How*" does work (but no results) Note: by works, I mean does not get the error message about less than 4 characters. They do not necessary yield any results since the phrase may not exist. One other point of confusion I just discovered is that the various search windows do function differently. The one at the very top of the screen brings up a Google Search window The one at the bottom of the last post in a topic does not provide any additional options, but does provide a "Search Again" link which opens up the same search window as the "Search" link mentioned below. the one labeled "Search" as a link in the menu bar (between "help" and "members" allows for advanced options on the search Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farelf Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 It keeps getting stranger. Forum FAQ does NOT work since FAQ is less than 4 characters ... 35889[/snapback] See my post above (#2). Not only does that work for me but also FAQ alone works. I gather you get error messages when you click on my links in that post? That is, indeed weird. I have sometime suspected the search wasn't finding things that it should, (that is, the suspicion of "complex" behavior) but I could be mistaken. Haven't ever seen "the error message about less than 4 characters". We're not getting the same results using the same tools? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbiel Posted November 12, 2005 Author Share Posted November 12, 2005 We may not be using the same tools. You mentioned something about Google earlier, my guess is that you are using the search window at the very top of the screen (above the SpamCop.net name and Reporting Server Status graphic) That apparently uses a totally different search function. You will not get the 4 character error message there. It is the other two search windows/links and provide the error message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 Maybe this will help .. I put the Google search tool in place to get around the issues of the internal search function. The IPB forum is rife with these complaints ... RSS handling has been improved in the 2.1.x versions ... I can't search for RSS Skin changes must be made when upgrading to version 2.1.x ... the .CSS sections are impacted a lot ...... I can't search for CSS The ACP has been totally reconfigured and much improved .... I can't search for ACP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff G. Posted November 12, 2005 Share Posted November 12, 2005 I wouldn't recommend reducing the character limit from 3 to 2 until the server is fully functional on faster hardware. Also, you might want to increase clarity by changing "Search for -->" to "Google Search for -->". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbiel Posted November 12, 2005 Author Share Posted November 12, 2005 Wazoo, thanks for the explanation and thanks for adding the additional Google search link. It's nice to have options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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