[Lisa LaMagna]

Hi Steve,

We have JKorn. customized cMap template at https://westcon.org/directory/

Our members expect that they can type a category into the search box, say, “electrical” and get everyone in that category. But it doesn’t work that way. The search bar doesn’t search category text (as that text is not in reach record, I get that).

The problem is, how do I solve this for users? It’s impossible to explain, oh, search here but not by category, use the category search for that.

Question: How can I set things up so that visitors can search for words in a category and get an answer? Do I have to re-key each entry with a new, hidden category text field?

Eg., Rod Tosetti of Tosetti Electric — he is in category “electrical” but because that exact word is not in his description, he doesn’t show up under keyword search results for “electrical.” However he will show up for “electric” but I can’t mandate how people search.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Lisa LaMagna.

[Lisa LaMagna]

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[Steven Zahm]

@ Lisa

Sorry, it not possible to use the keyword search to filter by category. I do have a suggestion though. You could disable the category drop down feature in cMap and add the Enhance Categories extension. Then you could display a list of categories above the directory for your users to click. It does not really solve your search question, but it will definitely make the categories far more obvious, much harder for a user to overlook.

Hope this helps!

[Lisa LaMagna]

Thank you Steven,

We have so many categories, and 3 different pages of the website search only among select “parent” categories, that I don’t think your elegant solution would work for us.

What I think we will do next is have the “categories” text copied into the description box. This way, the categories will be keyword searchable.

Then, we can modify the template to no longer show the “categories” text field, as this will be redundant to the Descriptions text area.

Thank you Steven and wish you a healthy 2018.

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