Author Topic: Searching GBO (Read 20967 times)

Matt · « **on:** September 02, 2006, 11:08:10 AM »

I have setup a Google Search feature to allow folks to search GBO. This is not a 100% fix but it will work and should work better than the search feature that came with the software. There is a draw back to it. GBO was on the old software for almost 5 years I think and in that time there have been lots of pages indexed by Google. If a link is pointing to the old software ie. "www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/" there may be a problem with the link. But when we made the software change I setup dummy files in the old forums folders to redirect any requests for the old phpbb topics to the same topic on the new software and done the same for links to the forum pages. I done this because I new all those links where out there and did not want them to all be bad. So if you use the search and get a result that looks like this:

Quote

Graybeard Outdoors :: View topic - 35 Whelen Deer bullets35 for deer . Any standard cup and core bullet should perform beautifully at Whelan velocities and be an absolute hammer on game . I would take that savings ...
www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/post-552672.html - Supplemental Result - Similar pages

Graybeard Outdoors :: View topic - 338WinMag vs 35Whelen-opinions?I don ' t want to hijack your thread , but I have a Remington 7600 Gamemaster in 30 - 06 and wanted to rebarrel for the 35 Whelan . What does something like ...
www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=77203&start=0 - Supplemental Result - Similar pages

The top one ---- www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/post-552672.html is a dead link...
But the second is not -- www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=77203&start=0

Note the "viewtopip.php?t=" This is key if the link does not have this then you can bet the link will be bad.
This is what I use to tell the new software what topic to display and for now if it is "viewtopic.php?p=" then this is pointing to a post and not a topic so this will be a broken link. I think I can fix this I just have to do a bit of reading to find out where in the code I need to make my change. But in time (few months) Google should have refreshed its links to use and removed most of the bad ones and replaced them with ones from the new software. In the meantime I can try to get the software search working to a level that I am happy with and I feel safe using.

I know some people are siting there dazed and confused but what it boils down to is.. use the google search and if the link it returns is a /phpbb2/ on and does not have "viewtopic.php?t=" do not waste your time clicking it cause it will not work and this will just cause you to get ill and post a message telling me the links are bad and then I will do one of 2 things
a) ignore you or
b) point you to this post.
easy enough....

Also please note that beacuse the system recycles topic numbers you may find that some of the urls that you try even though they have the proper format like /viewtopic.php?t= they may not be the topic you was looking for... This is not a bug it is just a common known issue that I can not do anything about. All I can say is give the search engine time to index the new software and this issue will be history....

Matt

GGaskill · « **Reply #1 on:** November 05, 2006, 04:59:04 PM »

One potential way around this problem is to do the search on google itself and view their cached page instead of trying to access the original but inaccessible page on GBO.

zwego · « **Reply #2 on:** December 15, 2006, 01:22:37 AM »

I have been trying to use the search feature but I get a response that says that I am not authuorized to search the forum. I have registered - why can't I search? What is the process?
Thanks
V

quickdtoo · « **Reply #3 on:** December 15, 2006, 06:53:39 AM »

It's disabled until Matt finishes indexing the data base, it shouldn't be much longer before that task is finished.

Tim

GGaskill · « **Reply #4 on:** December 16, 2006, 04:21:15 PM »

Search is back off because people do not know how to read or follow instructions.
Matt

That was quick, never saw it turned on. Can't you set it up so that it will only search the forum from which the search is submitted?

Graybeard · « **Reply #5 on:** December 16, 2006, 05:23:33 PM »

Searc WILL NOT be turned back on until Matt finishes indexing the database. At that time it should be fine to turn it on and let folks go wild. BUT not until he has it all indexed as it shuts down the site completely. The search feature of this software is the dumbest excuse for a search I've seen but once Matt finishes indexing all should be OK>

Muskie Hunter · « **Reply #6 on:** December 28, 2006, 10:52:12 PM »

Just wondering,cause I am having trouble doing any searches,but is the search feature functional yet?

Matt · « **Reply #7 on:** December 28, 2006, 10:53:55 PM »

no it is not

Muskie Hunter · « **Reply #8 on:** December 29, 2006, 06:26:17 AM »

Thank you Matt for your speedy response,have a great day and keep safe.

Graybeard · « **Reply #9 on:** December 29, 2006, 06:59:13 AM »

The way the search feature is designed with this software it totally shuts down all forum functions while a search is being conducted. NOT GOOD and NOT SMART. But it's the way these are and we didn't realize that until AFTER we comitted to this software and it's a bit late now to be backing out of it for another.

So Matt's task is to index all the posts (over 600,000 of them) so that the search can work without having to shut down the forums. He has been working on this for a long time now but it seems that for some reason every time he gets about 75% to 80% finished it just starts over again at zero. What he is now trying to do is to write a script that will work in the background doing the indexing for him without him having to keep an eye on it all the time. So far each script he has tried has met with no success in doing the job. So he has to just keep on trying until he finds one that will accomplish the job.

Until such time as the indexing is done so the searches can be done without totally locking up the forums the search feature will NOT be turned on. That is my decision as I will NOT have the site shut down every time someone wants to do a search. That would run off everyone as the site would be down half or more of the time.

Yes we're still looking for a different software that has the needed security features to keep out hackers and is compatible with this database so we don't lose the posts and member registrations we now have and that has a better search feature. BUT unless/until we find it we'll continue as is.

gof · « **Reply #10 on:** January 01, 2007, 03:19:05 PM »

I guess I picked a fine time to sign up so I could use the search function

Lawndawg · « **Reply #11 on:** January 11, 2007, 09:08:13 AM »

Heh, you aint the only one.

I registered a long time ago.....well a few years back. But always ended up a reader and not much of a poster. Needed to do some searching...but had to log in...Finnally remembered my Account/forum name and put it in...then it told me that I had to get re-accepted/re-registered via E-mail. Pretty easy to do...not like i had to re-fill out info or anything. Just had to accept a new email sent to me.

Luckily when I logged in and did one single search and got the "not allowed to search this forum" post. I came straight to here. Hope all goes well with the indexing. Lots of work, hope you dont stress over it too much.

Having to read more and search less....is a good thing anyways. Gets me to spend hours on end reading instead of vegging out in front of a T.V. or such.

Graybeard · « **Reply #12 on:** January 11, 2007, 07:17:44 PM »

We've added the Google search back to the Forums Index Page. Use it for searching the GBO site for now. It seems to have completed the processing of the site and it appears that all results you get back will now open. We were having some limited problems with that before but it seems to have cured itself.

pills · « **Reply #13 on:** July 07, 2007, 03:22:55 PM »

something aint right. I tried searching for yamaha and it says no entries found. I went to the atv area and saw several posts with yamaha in it.

benchracer · « **Reply #14 on:** August 03, 2007, 11:15:43 AM »

I have had similar problems. I was trying to find some posts made by a friend and the search kept returning no results. Then, I went looking for one of his posts manually. I found it after a few minutes of browsing. With one of his posts right in front of me, I ran the search again and it again returned no results. What gives?

RaySendero · « **Reply #15 on:** August 05, 2007, 07:47:01 AM »

Having trouble with search, too.

Any change we can get a couple more HOT buttons til search is working?

d_hiker · « **Reply #16 on:** August 24, 2007, 09:28:30 AM »

I tried the search today and had similar problems. Then I noticed something... the google search is searching www.graybeardoutdoors.com NOT www.gboreloaded.com

Matt or Graybeard: Is there anyway to change where the google search is looking?

Matt · « **Reply #17 on:** August 24, 2007, 06:15:29 PM »

hmm... I will check that...

Matt

quickdtoo · « **Reply #18 on:** August 24, 2007, 06:33:08 PM »

That made a big difference, thanks Matt and d_Hiker!! I suppose you'll get the new servers onine now that you have the google search working better!!

Tim

Matt · « **Reply #19 on:** August 24, 2007, 06:48:01 PM »

lol... yeah figure on them shipping out next week. I just have a little more I want to do before I send them out.

Yeah I noticed that it made a big difference in the search. Good looking out d_Hiker...

Matt

d_hiker · « **Reply #20 on:** August 25, 2007, 10:44:05 AM »

Sometimes the obvious is the hardest to spot. I have done a little programming in the past and also some beta testing. When I was programing I would be too close to the work and not see what was staring me in the eye. When I was beta testing I would look for ways to crash the software. Both activities were fun.

Thanks for the fix. Now if there was a way to select "GBO" or "GBO Archive".

GGaskill · « **Reply #21 on:** November 21, 2007, 11:50:57 AM »

The google search is sometimes returning only a text version of the pages it finds instead of the whole html page with images that it used to return.

Since it doesn't include a link to the actual page, this is a major inconvenience.

quickdtoo · « **Reply #22 on:** November 21, 2007, 11:58:06 AM »

It's the best you can do for now, but hopefully the new server will be online within the next week if all goes well, then Matt can enable the software search.

Tim

Graybeard · « **Reply #23 on:** November 21, 2007, 07:13:35 PM »

Best guess tonight is servers should ship either Friday or Monday. I had hoped he'd get them out today but it didn't happen.

GGaskill · « **Reply #24 on:** January 16, 2008, 11:01:10 AM »

Tried the newly activated native search and it wasn't bad, although I did limit searching to the forum where I knew the post was. I suggest that you either make no forums checked as the default or move the check box that turns off searching all forums up to the top or make a duplicate there so people see it before starting a whole website search when they know their answer will be in one specific forum.

GGaskill · « **Reply #25 on:** November 10, 2009, 08:56:43 PM »

After working well for quite a while, the Search feature is not working right most of the time, now. Check out this thread in particular.

quickdtoo · « **Reply #26 on:** November 11, 2009, 10:02:43 AM »

I use the search feature a lot, here are some tips that may help that I use that usually work, depending on what I'm looking for.

Tim

1. Check the Search in topic subjects only box.

2. Uncheck Check all then click Choose a board to search in, or search all

3. Select a limited number of forums from the list where you'd expect your search topic to be covered best.

4. Change the message age to 0 to 1000 days or less to search for recent topics only, otherwise you'll likely only get old hits.

5. Add a user name to the by user: field in place of the * if you know a topic was covered by a certain member.

BCB · « **Reply #27 on:** November 14, 2010, 12:35:36 PM »

Quote from: quickdtoo on November 11, 2009, 10:02:43 AM

I use the search feature a lot, here are some tips that may help that I use that usually work, depending on what I'm looking for.

Tim

1. Check the Search in topic subjects only box.

2. Uncheck Check all then click Choose a board to search in, or search all

3. Select a limited number of forums from the list where you'd expect your search topic to be covered best.

4. Change the message age to 0 to 1000 days or less to search for recent topics only, otherwise you'll likely only get old hits.

5. Add a user name to the by user: field in place of the * if you know a topic was covered by a certain member.

How does one search for topics (all) posted by a member? That is, all posts by that member?

Thanks...BCB

quickdtoo · « **Reply #28 on:** November 14, 2010, 01:18:18 PM »

Other than option #5, all posts are in their profile, near the bottom of the page, anyone can view them, see Show the last posts of this person. As a last option, if someone has relatively few posts, less than a few hundred, use the page search, ctrl f, to search each page of the list of their posts in their profile, for yourself, there 23 pages to go thru.

Tim

BCB · « **Reply #29 on:** November 16, 2010, 10:59:09 AM »

quickdtoo,

The method under the user profile seems to work...

Thanks...BCB