Invision Forum Search Minimum Letters

[thenewbreed]

Just now I wanted to do a search for "upload pdf" in order to find out how to get the Invision Gallery to allow PDF documents to be uploaded.

However, I get the following error:

The error returned was:

One or all of your search keywords were below 4 characters or you 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.

Therefore it would be useful if the search function could be set to allow words that are 3 letters long instead of cutting it off at 4.

[Michael]

There are settings in the ACP to handle this. If you enable 'fulltext' searches, then the minimum number of characters is 4. That's a MySQL limitation, not an IPB limitation. I don't know the exact differences between using 'fulltext' searches and not, but I'm assuming using them gives more relevant results.

[.KX]

I think using 'fulltext' means if you search for "latest release" you would be more likely to get something like:

The

latest release

for IPB is now available for download.

Where as if 'fulltext' was disabled you'd be pulling in search results such as:

I went to the shop to get the

latest

cadbury's chocolate bar, oh and my brother was

released

from prison.

:lol:

[Michael]

You can search for two words that are always together by wrapping them in quotes. Searching normally for just the string latest release (without quotes) will turn up both of those posts. Searching for the text "latest release" (with quote) will only find the first post.

[.KX]

Well you learn something new everyday FuSoYa, thanks. :P Is there anyone here who can explain what 'fulltext' is? Because I thought I knew, but obviously I didn't.

[bfarber]

Fulltext indexes are a feature of SQL that goes through and pulls all the text inside a text/blog column and indexes it more efficiently than just a regular index. It can also provide for some good features by providing relevancy of search results and such. You can read about it on MySQL.com to get more detailed info.

[.KX]

So basically, it sort of caches all of the indexes to improve search speeds? Anyway, I'll check out the MySQL website, thanks again.