MEMBER SEARCH TOOL

[Hawkesburycouple]

Our Forums use a number of custom member profile fields. A large part of our site revolves around the Member Profiles providing a detailed description of that member and their interests with all our members being able to browse/search the member list.  As we have close to 10,000 members it is essential that it is possible to restrict or narrow a search of the member list to certain specific criteria such as Suburb – Interest or one of or a combination of any of the other member profile fields we use. 

We have been using IPB since early 2006 and up until version 4 our members were always able to search the Member List using whatever Member Profile Fields they wished or any combination of fields to narrow their search to a specific criteria.   From within the Admin CP when searching the Member List, Admin still have this form of search available to them while the search options available to the general membership are now very limited in version 4. 

With our members being used to having the type of member search that has always been available to them in versions prior to version 4 we have been getting many complaints from our members regarding the Member Search Tool asking why they no longer have the search options they previously had. 

Our entire membership would greatly appreciate the return of the Member Search options that were available in previous versions and is now only available to Admin from within the Admin CP.  We would also very much appreciated it as well so that we don’t have to keep explaining when replying that we can not say why these options are no longer available and apologising for the Member Search options now being as limited as they are. 

While the return of the Member Search options as they were in previous versions and are now only available to Admin, we have also been getting many questions from our members regarding what they see as a problem with the current member search tool.  It is not possible to just use the optional search options or combination of options to narrow a search to just those members who meet that criteria without also entering a SEARCH TERM.  Even if just that was possible that would be a definite plus. 

We really have no idea of how our site rates compared to others regarding the number of members (we are nearing 10,000) but if we are getting these types of questions from our members we are sure others must be as well.   We will be keeping our fingers crossed that future versions/upgrades include an improvement to the Member Search Tool.

 

[SJ77]

Would like this as well

[Hawkesburycouple]

The member search tool that is available to admin via the admin CP is much as it used to be in previous versions only then it was available to ALL members and not restricted to Admin only via the Admin CP.  As it is already in place for admin would it be possible to just have it so that the same search is available to all rather just admin only, as it used to be in previous versions. 

 

There seems to be little point in a site where its members can not easily connect with each other.  We have noticed that many of members end up getting frustrated trying to use the search as it is to find others who are local, share a similar interest or whatever and end up complaining to us and in some cases just give up and ask us to remove their profile and take them off the site.  IPB advertises its software being all about community.  Surely community must include a sites members being able to easily find each other and not just be about forum posts and activity streams.

[Hawkesburycouple]

Something we have found,   we can enter the full display name of a member who we know into the SEARCH TERM box of the Member Search on the public side of the site and it returns a NO FIND (search01.jpg)   If we then go to the Admin CP and enter the same Display name into the Member Search exactly as it was entered into the member search on the public side of the site we get a result (search02.jpg).   We then tried copying and pasting the Display Name from the Admin CP Member search into the SEARCH TERM box of the Member Search on the public side yet it still returned a NO RESULT. 

If we as the site admin are getting fed up with the member search when trying to do such a simple search on a member display name and find it necessary to go the Admin CP we can only imagine how the general membership feel about it and sympathise with them when they complain to us and can appreciate their frustration when they end up leaving the site to go elsewhere and more often than not a site using free Forums software such as phpBB or one of the others. At the end of the day regardless of where they go we are still losing members which is likely to continue unless things change.

 

[Michael Leahy_511557]

I'd like to add my vote, too. I just re-signed up assuming this search on profile capability would be a given. We hope to be a 10,000 user plus community (like Hawkesburycoupl above), but a big benefit we expected to be able to sell to our prospective clients included giving them the ability to do a member search based on profile info, especially the address fields (city, state, zip code), as well as some custom fields we've created (i.e. hobbies and interests, age group).

That way, a member could do a quick search that pulls up results like "show me a list of members who live in Alpharetta, GA who are 50+ years old and who like to go hiking." Make sense?

Anyone on staff at IPS who would be willing to commit to a date as to when that functionality might become available? Seems like a pretty important missing feature to a lot of folks, especially since it used to be possible to do that in the pre-4.0 product. Oh yeah, I'm also a cloud user, so I'm assuming if you add that back in for those hosting their own sites, that you'd add it for us cloud-based folks as well. 

[Christophe]

I m going to add to this topic because this functionality is crucial for our sites too

I was waiting since last october thinking that the reason the search members using custom fields was removed was because IPS was working on a better version but now I realize the option was simply removed. The current system does not allow our members to sort by which ones have a photo only (why was this removed?). I would also for example would like to find all the people living in my city (custom field) but I cant because the search does not allow this. I struggle to understand what could have been the reasons to remove these options in 4.

I see that there is a memberlist mod that is being sort of crowdfunded. I may add $100 to it if Adriano can add filtering by custom fields but I really feel that there is no reason why this is not a default option when it had been one for so long.

Please add back filtering members search with custom fields

[MADMAN32395]

On 1/15/2016 at 9:10 PM, Lindy said:

We can look into this.

 

10 minutes ago, Christophe said:

I m going to add to this topic because this functionality is crucial for our sites too

I was waiting since last october thinking that the reason the search members using custom fields was removed was because IPS was working on a better version but now I realize the option was simply removed. The current system does not allow our members to sort by which ones have a photo only (why was this removed?). I would also for example would like to find all the people living in my city (custom field) but I cant because the search does not allow this. I struggle to understand what could have been the reasons to remove these options in 4.

I see that there is a memberlist mod that is being sort of crowdfunded. I may add $100 to it if Adriano can add filtering by custom fields but I really feel that there is no reason why this is not a default option when it had been one for so long.

Please add back filtering members search with custom fields

@Christophe just let ips look into adding this feature back in for once. that way if something big like this would break, its fixed quickly.

[Lindy]

I want to bring this back up. I do understand you want to have more sorting options and greater flexibility, however, one point of confusion is searching on custom fields -- this is possible already. What specifically is the concern and could you use an example?

[Christophe]

Well I don t think this works

You can t search profiles that HAVE a profile picture which for a community is mind boggling

For the custom fields as you posted above I only get the Display format and NOT the search behavior option...how do you get that one? I tried on a custom field that is CITY to see if the search allows a search to all people living in CITY but is still isn t displaying in the search options

[Christophe]

On 3/15/2016 at 11:48 PM, Lindy said:

I want to bring this back up. I do understand you want to have more sorting options and greater flexibility, however, one point of confusion is searching on custom fields -- this is possible already. What specifically is the concern and could you use an example?

I think I found where this is...it appears when you select a new custom profile field

If I look at a current profile field the option for search behavior is not there

[opentype]

35 minutes ago, Christophe said:

You can t search profiles that HAVE a profile picture which for a community is mind boggling

Is it? You do use that word a lot. What type of community are you running that you need that? Other than dating sites, I can’t really think of reasons why a community would have a strong need for that as a search option. It’s certainly not a standard for communities, that is “mind boggling” not to have. 

[Christophe]

Ok I think I figured it out

This does not work if you pick your CITY from a custom field drop down (SELECT BOX)

Lets say I have 120 cities all over the world in a drop down. If I create a new field like attached then this works and the drop down search appears on the search page

But if I want to search for the current custom field that exists then it is not possible. I seem to also have to do a manipulation where I first have to select TEXT as the option then go down to the Search Behavior and select ALL results THEN go back and change TEXT to SELECT BOX

In essence at the moment all our members have a custom field based on a CITY drop down. They select the city from a list we provide

The current option does not seem to allow the search from existing custom profile fields drop downs

8 minutes ago, opentype said:

Is it? You do use that word a lot. What type of community are you running that you need that? Other than dating sites, I can’t really think of reasons why a community would have a strong need for that as a search option. It’s certainly not a standard for communities, that is “mind boggling” not to have. 

Members like to be able to search for pictures of other members and see if they know these people in their city

Nothing about dating many members are way passed that stage also since we organize tons of events people like to see who they are going to meet at those events like concerts, diners, conventions etc. If I am going to go play tennis with some people I d like to see what they look like so that I recognize them...nothing about dating. Its not about searching for profile and try to date people, it is about making a community of real people. The communities are private and members like to feel secure. I don t know...seems pretty normal to me

[chilihead]

1 hour ago, Christophe said:

Ok I think I figured it out

This does not work if you pick your CITY from a custom field drop down (SELECT BOX)

Lets say I have 120 cities all over the world in a drop down. If I create a new field like attached then this works and the drop down search appears on the search page

But if I want to search for the current custom field that exists then it is not possible. I seem to also have to do a manipulation where I first have to select TEXT as the option then go down to the Search Behavior and select ALL results THEN go back and change TEXT to SELECT BOX

In essence at the moment all our members have a custom field based on a CITY drop down. They select the city from a list we provide

The current option does not seem to allow the search from existing custom profile fields drop downs

I'd put that in the tracker they recently fixed member search so you can search all fields without a term in the main search field so what you are saying, I think, should be possible.