Extra Fields search is useless/do not work the way it is

[Adriano Faria]

I got an extra field in Downloads, for example (this is a model, happens in any app), with option to search:

 

 

Then I got a file with this field filled:

 

 But when I search for something or here, I got nothing:

 

Also tried to search for:

• here
• "something here"
• something here
• something+ here+

 

How it should be?

Exactly like PROFILE FIELDS on Members search:

 

Those two (yelllow) fields are profile fields, so the user can search for them.

That doesn't happen on Extra Fields model. My Extra Field do not appear in the Advanced Search form:

No sign of the Extra Field there.

What's the point in allow the user to add a bunch of extra fields and do not retrieve records based on them?

I would like to request the addition of Extra Fields in the Advanced Search form, when the app uses it.

Thank you.

[Tracy Perry]

Agreed, if the field is important enough to be collected, it should be important enough to be able to be searched upon.  It is very limiting to not allow that and defeats the purpose of custom fields.

[LiquidFractal]

I'm sensing a pattern in recent posts, and that pattern is: IPS Search could definitely use a major upgrade.

[Prank]

Putting my weight in here also.

I'm using Google Custom Search (CSE) on my site now as the built-in search is just terrible and the search result page was high on my sites Exit Pages. 

Adding to this the inability to search extra fields is just absurd and creates a strangle hold on a community market place that IPS are so keen to build up and improve.

[Ohio Guns]

Agree completely. I have some fields in an application that need to be searxhable. 

[PPlanet]

My upgrade to IPS 4 depends on this pretty much. Until then I will push forward with 3.4.

[Haku2]

@LindyI believe you were looking for feedback on how the search utility could be improved and this topic provides at least some very important insight on how some aspects of the utility could be improved. If you could take a peek in here and forward this concern to the development team for review and discussion, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Tom_K]

IPS4 has some areas that really need a little TLC from the devs. While the recent new features in 4.1.17 are great, I believe there are bigger issue to be resolved first. This being one of them.

[SJ77]

Search Functionality as a topic is blowing up. So many folks politely asking for this to be addressed soon. Lindy just said something about it not being addressed until next year.  At first I thought GRRRRR, then I remembered... it's December   LOL 

[Adriano Faria]

Just now, superj707 said:

At first I thought GRRRRR, then I remembered... it's December   LOL 

The problem is that "next year" also goes until december. 

[SJ77]

Just now, Adriano Faria said:

The problem is that "next year" also goes until december. 

D'oh!!!!!

[Lindy]

Some of this is actually quite a large engineering task. Improved app searching through Commerce, Pages, etc. is definitely something that will be addressed and I know at a user-level, this seems like a no-brainer, but to allow IPS4 to do things like the activity stream and advanced search across all apps simultaneously, it utilizes a search index... this means data is aggregated into a single table for efficient-esque access. It's not efficient, in its current architecture, to dump everything in Pages, custom Downloads fields, etc. within it as well. So, there are a couple of ideas being discussed internally that need to be vetted, POC'd and benchmarked before being considered further. 

It will happen in due course. Our focus right now is on engagement -- things like reputation, keeping people active, etc. We'll likely be getting into enhanced search (yes, including external search engine support) by summer. 

[Prank]

2 minutes ago, Lindy said:

Some of this is actually quite a large engineering task. Improved app searching through Commerce, Pages, etc. is definitely something that will be addressed and I know at a user-level, this seems like a no-brainer, but to allow IPS4 to do things like the activity stream and advanced search across all apps simultaneously, it utilizes a search index... this means data is aggregated into a single table for efficient-esque access. It's not efficient, in its current architecture, to dump everything in Pages, custom Downloads fields, etc. within it as well. So, there are a couple of ideas being discussed internally that need to be vetted, POC'd and benchmarked before being considered further. 

It will happen in due course. Our focus right now is on engagement -- things like reputation, keeping people active, etc. We'll likely be getting into enhanced search (yes, including external search engine support) by summer. 

 

You guys could always re-implement Sphinx. Wouldn't that do all of this out of the box? 

[Lindy]

Just now, Prank said:

You guys could always re-implement Sphinx. Wouldn't that do all of this out of the box? 

No. There are still engineering challenges to overcome. Sphinx (or similar) would, however, improve the resource overhead and lead to better results. We are doing, as I mentioned, external search, but it will most likely be Elasticsearch - not Sphinx. 

[Prank]

1 minute ago, Lindy said:

No. There are still engineering challenges to overcome. Sphinx (or similar) would, however, improve the resource overhead and lead to better results. We are doing, as I mentioned, external search, but it will most likely be Elasticsearch - not Sphinx. 

 

Either works for me.  

Thanks Lindy. 

[Adriano Faria]

4 hours ago, Lindy said:

...but to allow IPS4 to do things like the activity stream and advanced search across all apps simultaneously, it utilizes a search index... this means data is aggregated into a single table for efficient-esque access. It's not efficient, in its current architecture, to dump everything in Pages, custom Downloads fields, etc. within it as well. So, there are a couple of ideas being discussed internally that need to be vetted, POC'd and benchmarked before being considered further. 

I don't think this is necessary, at least for now. You can do a widget, just like Pages has, to filter records on category view. That will certainly improve things.

[Adriano Faria]

On 06/12/2016 at 6:37 AM, Adriano Faria said:

I don't think this is necessary, at least for now. You can do a widget, just like Pages has, to filter records on category view. That will certainly improve things.

Any word here, @Lindy? Will at least be taken into consideration and discussed internally?

Thank you.

[Simon Woods]

Hopefully the work on improving search has very much begun and the issues Adriano raised are included.

[PrettyPixels]

Adding my +1 to this as well. We definitely need search for custom fields.

[DSystem]

On 05/12/2016 at 8:05 PM, Adriano Faria said:

O problema é que "ano que vem" também vai até dezembro. 

We are already in the "Next year" and for December is very little. 

[PPlanet]

14 hours ago, PrettyPixels said:

Adding my +1 to this as well. We definitely need search for custom fields.

Apart from several and diverse individual needs to do this people may have, it occurs to me that this shortcoming is also holding Pages from achieving its best potential. I really need this badly for a third app I have on the forums; however, I run IPB for my forums, blogs, etc (still 3.4 and waiting on this precisely so I can upgrade), then I run a directory on Joomla (using SobiPro), and a splash page on Wordpress matching the look of the Joomla one, but giving me a bit more flexibility for SEO purposes. (Maybe a bit overkill when my forums subdomain cannibalize any SEO attempts as it is the most popular one, but never mind that)

My wish is not having to run a website that consists of 3 completely different pieces of software any longer, and I'd be happy happy to do the whole lot with IPS (and maybe move all just to the top domain). However, while I'm sure that you must be able to build a directory using Pages (or maybe Pages and other apps too), you cannot have a directory where users can search by attributes if you cannot search custom fields (yes, you have tags, but I think it's not quite the same). So, I really hope this functionality is back with IPS 4.3.

[Linguica]

It is baffling to me that when creating a custom field in the AdminCP it explicitly tells you you can search on it, despite the fact that this functionality apparently just doesn't exist, at all.

Considering that this was one of the aspects I felt I really needed while evaluating the software before purchase, this sort of misinformation is really really frustrating.

[Joel R]

It's coming in 4.3 if not sooner.  Sources have alreadd stated search will be a big area of enhancement.  

[DReffects2]

Looks like i still cannot search custom fields which makes the whole pages custom databases pretty much useless...

Any update on this?

[AlexJ]

2019! 

This is much required. Even Apple or any good website will have more filter option so that users can filter out search fast! Example - 

 

 

My website has this custom options for 1 category Maps - but sadly - it's of no use at all for end user because they CANNOT search using it. It's like i have data through which users can search for what they want easily.. but none of that will work because after 3 years this functionality is not implemented!  Please do something about this.