Back on the case
Square brackets are used here just to define the search term
The search function will not accept spaces but reads as is

so [vera] will bring up several as will [vera ] with a space
as will using double quotes ["vera"] and ["vera "]

using [vera&] brings up nothing as it doesn't convert the escaped space
using quotes ['vera'] brings up nothing as it reads the quotes as text

Any help deciphering how to use this widget would be good

I will have to look into the widget's workings one day maybe

Thank you for the feedback.

I would say that we want to display results which contain the word "vera" first, but still display the other results (several, veracity...) further down. This is especially useful in case of plurals (blog -> blogs) but also derivatives (blogger, blogging...)

Does that sound reasonable?

PS: what do you mean with "advanced search plugin"?

Hi Thanks for responding.

Well yes and no :0)

I agree with what you suggest but it's how to go about it. My old search engine, from 1996, would differentiate using quotes and + and -

[man] may find man, woman, manual and command
[man ] with a space would only find man and woman
["man"] or [" man "] would only find man
["man "] or [man ] would find any file with man or woman
[man-" man"-"man "] would only find command

[man dog] would find files with, either words form each group (man, woman etc. and dog, dogma etc0
man + dog would only find files with both, from each group

I'm sure you get the idea.

I know there is an option in the search widget, but I always get the same result, maybe now I'm thinking there's something wrong with my widget but I have reinstalled it to no effect. Anyway why have buttons to choose a few options { All, Some and Entire} when it could read the input instructions (quotes, +, - and spaces.

The least I would expect is that if I type in[vera ] with a space at the end it would not bring up several.

On the advanced search plugin, there were more options but only in terms of fields like 'author' 'title' 'date' for example, but that plugin doesn't seem to work with 6.5

Thanks again

I'll see if I have a copy of my old search engine function.

UPDATE I've tried the options available in the search widget, disabled it, uninstalled it, removed it from the website and nothing makes much sense.
Downloaded a new copy, extracted a 'new' file, ftp'd it and it;s the same.

One extra strange thing: I deleted it from my public_html/inc/widgets/widgets folder and when I went to the back office no widgets showed at all. May be as I didn't uninstall it there and the back office was 'confused'

Anyway apart form my original gripe about it's lack of intelligence there are the two basic problems I can confrm
1. the buttons have no effect
2. if I uncheck 'use the advanced search page' I can't see where any results would be.

Maybe the advanced_search plugin, which I said doesn't seem to work, is interfering.I will make sure I have that deleted from the server and check the widget again. Advanced apologies if it then works.

UPDATE: Have deleted advanced_search plugin but all is the same

My site is http://elf.calstock.org.uk

I have the search widget installed. I have called it [Roam and Dig].All I've done to the widget is add a &br /> before the submit button to force it on to a newline.

Why do I have to have to check 2. 'use the advanced search page' to see any results.
Why don't the options work when I do anyway?

OK, we'll see what we can do. It's a major issue when trying to respond quickly on complex searches on big databases (imagine 1 million forum posts and replies. We need to query them efficiently.)

PS:

- widgets are not designed to be removed and re-added.
- we don't make an advanced search plugin (it might be a 3rd party thing)
- our widget indeed has some options that need to be cleaned up. will do.

Thanks.

Thanks
fplanque wrote:

- widgets are not designed to be removed and re-added.

Yes I removed it just in case it was corrupt and I thought I do it and check rather than ftp over the current instance.

fplanque wrote:

- we don't make an advanced search plugin (it might be a 3rd party thing)

See http://forums.b2evolution.net/topic-15593 with such well know members as @mgsolipa responding to the post as late as Dec 2014

fplanque wrote:

- our widget indeed has some options that need to be cleaned up. will do.

Does this refer to the widget
1. only working if I [check 2. 'use the advanced search page' to see any results.] and
2. the options still don't work even though they are displayed if once checked
?

Yes:

- @mgsolipa is very helpful to everyone. It's still not an official plugin though. We'll fix search in the core.

- widget: both options are obsolete and will be removed (the only working combination is the default one).

The b2evolution v6 search engine has been completely rewritten. It's much more complex than it used to be. It now gives more points to some matches and less to other matches. For example a match in the title is a better match than in a comment text. Then it orders results by score.

The word match is definitely a missing feature and it's coming soon ;)

Ah! Ok so I'm not crazy, well???? :)

Much you have revealed kind sir.

Thanks

How would I go about adding to the this title (Closed but Not Resolved) ?

In further fiddling I have my custom Block Heading and button text but notice the results page does not conform them, not that I mind.
However I wanted the results page to be different so I looked in my custom skin and found [search_results.php] thinking this was the file to edit, as if I uncheck the option Results on Search Page I get no results, but [search_results.php] isn't the page,is it?

Ah! found [_search.disp.php] in the fall back folders; Nope not there will have to look into the widget Oops!

Version 6.6 is coming soon with improvements to search.

Every custom this/custom that request: a screenshot with an arrow on what you want to customize would help.

Thanks.