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Using commas in searches

 
 


Harvey
User

Apr 3, 2009, 3:56 AM

Post #1 of 8 (5880 views)
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Using commas in searches Can't Post
Hi. I have many custom searches and uses, such as related articles by keyword and related articles.

I'd like to know how to force the search.cgi to consider any items separated by a comma or AND as separate keywords to search for instead of searching for the entire block of letters.

That would help my writers and visitors a lot making everything more user friendly.

thanks


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Apr 3, 2009, 11:15 AM

Post #2 of 8 (5874 views)
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Re: [Harvey] Using commas in searches [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Harvey,

No commas or "AND" is necessary -- Article Manager already does keyword based searches, rather than phrase based.

I hope this helps. :)

Donna

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support@interactivetools.com


Harvey
User

Apr 3, 2009, 1:14 PM

Post #3 of 8 (5871 views)
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Re: [Donna] Using commas in searches [In reply to] Can't Post
Not sure that you understand. I have some specific fields in my Article pages where writers can add specific keywords. For example, a field could be a filled with "Ford, SUV." In the published page these will appear as Ford, SUV and when the visitors clicks on the links, it will return search results for Ford, SUV.

The problem, is that I want a comma and the word AND, to be used as dividers in the search, so the search.cgi will look for Ford and SUV separately and not only when they are combined in one block "Ford, SUV"

I want search results that can contain Ford; SUV; or both term together.

Hope that's clearer


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Apr 3, 2009, 4:42 PM

Post #4 of 8 (5868 views)
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Re: [Harvey] Using commas in searches [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Harvey,

Right now, if you enter "Ford SUV" without the quotes, it will search for the two keywords separately, they don't have to be together.

Adding the word "AND" is not necessary, both keywords are already there. (Also, as Article Manager does not support boolean searching, adding "AND" will simply mean that it's searching for the word "and" as well.)

If you DO want to search on a phrase, you would put the phrase in quotes. So, if you wanted to search for the phrase "I like Ford trucks" ... you'd enter the search just like that, including the quotes.

That said, if you're looking for it to return results that have "Ford" but not "SUV", that won't work -- Article Manager keyword matches always match all of the keywords.

Let me know if that makes sense. :)

Donna

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support@interactivetools.com


Harvey
User

Apr 3, 2009, 4:53 PM

Post #5 of 8 (5866 views)
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Re: [Donna] Using commas in searches [In reply to] Can't Post
What you say makes sense, but won't help me! What I'd like the search to do is to look for all instances of the word Ford, independent of the word SUV. That's what I tried to explain above.

The issue is about users - writers and visitors. I've observed that they will use commas or words like AND and OR to insert keywords in forms in the Article page and search field fields on the site.

I can't retrain them! So I have to adapt the search to do what THEY feel is natural. I've tried retraining my writers time and time again. Most stick to basics they understand and never bother to upgrade their skillsets. I won't fight that anymore. I want to adapt to their needs instead. And about visitors, there's just too many and to even bother!

So in a search with the key words Ford, SUV, I would like results to post all possible results for Ford, all possible results for SUV and all possible results for both words used together.


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Apr 3, 2009, 4:59 PM

Post #6 of 8 (5864 views)
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Re: [Harvey] Using commas in searches [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi there,

Unfortunately, Article Manager does not support boolean searching, so doing "OR" searches is not possible. There's no way around that with the built in search engine.

One thing that some people do is use a Google search on their page set to search only their site -- that might work for you, as Google's search engine has a lot more boolean options available. :)

Donna

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support@interactivetools.com


Harvey
User

Apr 3, 2009, 5:21 PM

Post #7 of 8 (5862 views)
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Re: [Donna] Using commas in searches [In reply to] Can't Post
Google won't work for the internal setup of the Article page, such as related articles or all articles by author x.


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Apr 6, 2009, 2:05 PM

Post #8 of 8 (5719 views)
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Re: [Harvey] Using commas in searches [In reply to] Can't Post
True, but unfortunately, as I mentioned... Article Manager simply doesn't have boolean searching, so what you're describing isn't possible. The related articles search can only be done with one keyword at a time.

Donna

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support@interactivetools.com