Site search

19 posts by 7 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: April 1, 2009   (RSS)

By Thomas - March 23, 2008

Hi,

I'm not sure if it's because I'm not reading it right, but can the search get results from the whole site in one results page?

Many thanks

Re: [Thomas] Site search

By MikeB - March 24, 2008

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for posting!

Each of the sections you set up in CMS Builder is it's own database table with it's own set of fields. Because of this, there isn't a way set up to search across the whole site. That said, you can definitely set up a search form within each specific section of the site to find records in that one section.

I hope this helps Thomas!
Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

<hr /><i><a href="http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/" rel="nofollow"><b>Hire me!</b></a>
Save time by getting our experts to help with your project. Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with <a href="http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/" rel="nofollow"><b>Priority Consulting</b></a>.</i>

Re: [MikeB] Site search

By Codee - March 27, 2008

Just seeing this thread and I hope I'm NOT reading it correctly. Just got the new CMS version because of it's ability to have separate accounts loading individual/specific records BUT all records display on the website and all records be searchable and display on the website. Are you gentleman discussing a different issue?

Thanks.

Re: [equinox69] Site search

By Dave - March 27, 2008

CMS Builder has a built in search engine. But it can only search one CMS Builder section at a time. So if you have a section called "News" and a section called "Widget Prices" there's currently no way to do a single search with CMS Builder and return results from both.

The reason is because both sections might have different fieldnames and different ways of displaying their data.

Which account owns a records doesn't make a difference.

Hope that helps.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: Site search

By InHouse - April 1, 2008

I ran into this issue and unfortunately see this as a serious shortcoming in this excellent product. For example, due to my client's peculiar requirements I'm going to have dozens of sections. I can't reasonably ask users to pick the correct search tool from a list of about 60 search tools. A search function is an absolute requirement and right now I'm hoping that the free Google tool is going to do this for us.

Is there any thinking about a meta-search function within CMSB? I'm vaguely imagining a section editor where we can define which fields in which tables are to be searched.

Jayme

Re: [InHouse] Site search

By Dave - April 2, 2008

Have you tried to free google one? Is it fast and easy to setup? Can you let us know how that goes?

I have some ideas on a global section search. I'm not sure exactly how the SQL would work. It would need to page through results from multiple section and it would need to link to different viewers based on those results. Also, it wouldn't be able to search static parts of the site...

Let me know how the Google tool works out. If it doesn't maybe we can find another solution for the short term that will work for your client.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] Site search

By InHouse - April 2, 2008 - edited: April 2, 2008

Hi Dave,

I've tried the free Google search tool on my sandbox server. Despite various configurations and trials I can not get it to reliably find any text on any of the pages. This is true both for static as well as dynamic content.

It can't even find words that are in the navigation - pure CSS and code.

I have tried it for another site of mine which is mostly static and which Google has known for years. It successfully searches that site.

Aiming it at a dynamic site (using another CMS) it is able to find content on the fist page but not deeper in the site.

This might become a serious issue. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Jayme

Re: [InHouse] Site search

By Dave - April 2, 2008

Is your sandbox server internet accessible (eg: not localhost, etc)? And is there a delay for Google to index the pages? Maybe it's a site google has never seen before? That's strange it's not working.

When do you need the site search working by? Could you email me a list of the section and login for CMS? I'll take a look and see what we can do.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] Site search

By InHouse - April 2, 2008

Hi Dave,

The sandbox domain is online and is on the same server that the production site will be on.

Google may know the sandbox domain but is not likely to know about the directory where CMSB is resident. That's why I was checking more established sites as well. You're probably right about that indexing issue.

I'll PM or email you the account details.

Bless your cotton socks.
Jayme