Forum search tuning

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john3voltas
Expert
Posts: 266
Joined: 19 May 2013, 21:53

Forum search tuning

Postby john3voltas » 19 Jul 2014, 21:14

Sim, it is very common to have the forum's search function failing on me with a message similar to:

Code: Select all

The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: install.
You must specify at least one word to search for. Each word must consist of at least 3 characters and must not contain more than 14 characters excluding wildcards.

That's usually due to a forum mechanism that detects if a search word is too common, ie 'this' or 'for' or 'but'.
That mechanism is usually set to 5%, meaning that if the search word is present in at least 5% of the posts it stops the database query and prints out the above message.
5% is nice for a huge database but is bad for small forum databases like our's.
Could you please raise that figure to something like 15-20%, please? It will still keep popping up once in a while but as it stands right now the search is almost unusable.
Here's a topic on how to tune the feature.
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1611055&start=0
Thanks mate

Scooby
Site Admin
Posts: 826
Joined: 09 Sep 2013, 16:52

Re: Forum search tuning

Postby Scooby » 20 Jul 2014, 10:02

It is a good idea to fine tune forum search function.

In the mean time you could try the site: command on google

for instance to search for "but"

Code: Select all

but site:alphaos.tuxfamily.org

john3voltas
Expert
Posts: 266
Joined: 19 May 2013, 21:53

Re: Forum search tuning

Postby john3voltas » 20 Jul 2014, 11:47

Scooby wrote:In the mean time you could try the site: command on google


That's exactly what I've been doing.

simargl
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Re: Forum search tuning

Postby simargl » 20 Jul 2014, 18:07

I've changed settings but word 'install' is still too common even with 15, 50% even 100%! Saved as 15%.

john3voltas
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Posts: 266
Joined: 19 May 2013, 21:53

Re: Forum search tuning

Postby john3voltas » 20 Jul 2014, 21:33

Sim, did you read the link to the phpbb support forum?
You can't just change the setting and expect it to work right away.
After changing the setting you have to rebuild the index or something like that (forgot the proper word for it).
Only then the 15 or 20% will be used. ;)

simargl
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Re: Forum search tuning

Postby simargl » 21 Jul 2014, 17:50

john3voltas wrote:After changing the setting you have to rebuild the index or something like that (forgot the proper word for it).

Done! It was delete index, then create index. Now it works.

john3voltas
Expert
Posts: 266
Joined: 19 May 2013, 21:53

Re: Forum search tuning

Postby john3voltas » 21 Jul 2014, 18:09

Great :P
Thanks sim ;)


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