Feature Preview: Search (Again?)

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Wait, doesn’t Connections already support search? Well, yes. That was a first attempt. This revision of search has been better optimized for speed which will allow searching of thousands of entries really quickly. It should also, hopefully, return more relevant results. It still could use more tweaking, but for now, this is a much needed improvement.

Connections is used on thousands of sites. All of them have different needs and the results of a search they expect are based on those needs. Currently Connections searches most of all its fields and if a hit is found in any of those fields the entry is shown as a result. Depending on your needs this may not yield results that are useful for your visitors. This can now be customized. If the premium template you’re using supports search and you want the search input to only search for zipcodes, you can do that now by simply going into the Connections settings and uncheck all the other fields.

Two things to keep in mind. One, this will also affect the search results in the admin. Two, this is not a setting that should be changed randomly. Why? Because if the db supports FULLTEXT searches the indexes will have to be rebuilt each time you make a change which can be from seconds to many minutes depending on how many entries that have been input into Connections. I do expect most users to fall into the seconds group so this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

19 Responses to Feature Preview: Search (Again?)

Mitch 06/21/2012

Good to hear. But what I would really, really love to see would be the ability to use Connections search as a separate search box on my home (or any) page sidebar. A search box specifically limited to returning connections database results. Is this something that your new search will offer?

Thanks!
- Steven Zahm 06/21/2012
  
  @Mitch
  
  These changes were all about relevance and scalability. A search widget is something entirely independent fro the search logic. This is something I will be addresses as soon as I have a version of Connections out the door that supports permalinks.
- Steven Zahm 08/05/2012
  
  @Mitch
  
  Just wanted to follow-up… You’ll be happy to hear that I created a simple search widget for Connections for testing the permalink support. It’ll be bundled with a Widget Pro pack I plan on releasing.

Roberto 07/13/2012

Hi Steven

I need to include an option/search-form at the top of the public profiles list or at the sidebar, with options like Category or City, where’s a good start to start to develop it? I think I’ll need an extra param or attribute inside the [connections] shortcode isn’t it?

Steven Zahm 07/13/2012

@Roberto

The best way to add items, such as forms, to the Connections output is by hooking into the various actions/filters in the inc.shortcode.php file. You would use those just as you would any of the core actions/filters. All the parameters necessary are already built into the the shortcode. Hope that points you in the right direction.

Roberto 07/16/2012

Ok, I did some tests, it’s really simple, I’m using something like this inserted into the template:

do_shortcode(‘[connections city=”‘.$_GET[“city”].'” category_name=”‘.$_GET[“category_name”].'”]’);

But, the search form…, basically I need only the City and the Categories used in the profiles, any idea to improve a form with options filled with the data of the profiles?

Roberto 07/16/2012

SOLVED, I made a -shortcode-, if anyone is interested to add a simple search form:

In any page.php template:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[connections city="'.$_POST["city"].'" category_name="'.$_POST["category_name"].'"]'); ?>

Add to the inc.shortcodes.php

add_shortcode('connections_search', '_connections_search');
function _connections_search( )
{
    global $connections;
    $categories = $connections->retrieve->categories();
 
    $cities = $connections->retrieve->cities();
 
    $form = '<form action="/FOLDER-WHERE-CONNECTIONS-ARE-LISTED" method="post"><br /><br />';
    $form.= '<label style="width:70px;float:left;margin-top:8px;">City</label> <select name="city" id="city">';
    $form.= '<option value=""></option>';
    foreach ($cities as $key => $value) {
        $form.= '<option value="'.$value.'"'.(($_POST["city"] == $value)?' selected':'').'>'.$value.'</option>';
    }
    $form.= '</select><br style="clear:both" />';
    $form.= '<label style="width:70px;float:left;margin-top:8px;">Category</label> <select name="category_name" id="category_name">';
    $form.= '<option value=""></option>';
    foreach ($categories as $key => $value) {
        $form.= '<option value="'.$value->name.'"'.(($_POST["category_name"] == $value->name)?' selected':'').'>'.$value->name.'</option>';
    }
    $form.= '</select><br style="clear:both" />';
    $form.= '<label style="width:70px;float:left;margin-top:8px;">&nbsp;</label> <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search">';
    $form.= '</form>';
 
    return $form;
}

And a method in the class.retrieve.php

/**
 * Returns cities list.
 *
 * @param none
 * @return object
 */
public function cities( )
{
	global $wpdb;
 
	$sql = 'SELECT DISTINCT(city)
 
			FROM ' . CN_ENTRY_ADDRESS_TABLE;
 
	$results = $wpdb->get_col($sql);
 
	if ( empty($results) ) return array();
 
	return $results;
}

Roberto 07/16/2012

The code above have a mistake, not because me, because the forums, it deleted some php code, so If anyone is interested, reply me to this comment.
- Steven Zahm 07/16/2012
  
  Please send the code via the Help Desk and I’ll update the comment.
Ben Fitts 08/04/2012

Can the above code also search by zipcode instead of city name? That’s REALLY what we’re looking for and will gladly pay for.
- Steven Zahm 08/05/2012
  
  @Ben Fitts
  
  Yes, you could turn off all the other fields and then Connections would only search the zip codes.
Tone Williams 12/09/2012

I’m a bit confused.

1.) Upon installation, can the standard WordPress search box return Connection entries and categories? Because currently NO entries are returned when searching for a company name.

2.) I wish to use an AJAX-based search bar that is fully functional w/ pages and posts. Is there something I need to do in order to get it to search through Connections entries and categories?

Thanks.
- Steven Zahm 12/10/2012
  
  @Tone
  
  1.) No Connections does not integrate with the default WP search. Connections has its own search that is enabled by several of the premium templates such as cMap, Market and Tile Plus. Alternatively, the Widget Pack comes with a search widget.
  - ld 11/13/2014
    
    Does the search widget offer “search as you type” capability which shows matching search results as you begin typing in the search box?
    - Steven Zahm 11/13/2014
      
      Sorry no, it does not. I’ve tried a few that add this feature to the WP search and my experience is WP is too slow for live search results. Add a link in a test post to see what I mean, it has a live search. The only ones hat seemed to work well were those that used a third party service to index and serve the live search results.
      - ld 11/13/2014
        
        Can your search widget be modified to allow this even it is slow?
    - Steven Zahm 11/14/2014
      
      Sorry no, it can not be added … unless … quite a bit of coding would have to be done to enable the feature.
sapu 12/05/2013

hi steven

is it still the same?

no integration of default wp search?

txs
- Steven Zahm 12/05/2013
  
  @ sapu
  
  Sorry, no change. I will like not integrate with the core WP search because of the end user confusion this may cause and that it is not often requested.