Hey guys, I need your input on some changes I am going to make to the layout of the search results.

Please go to our sister site: www.lexuslife.com

Do some searches using the quick search box located between the "features" drop menu and the banner ad. ...where it says "type search here".

The results that you see will be displayed in the new layout format. Information has been compressed so that I can add some boxes to the right side of the results. In those boxes are going to be search results for various parts of the site... the parts and dealer databases, google results (shhh), and other searches. I am trying to make the search more friendly and usable while still being tied to the damn frustrating system built into the forums.

Please leave me your feedback here.

I like it better. How many posts and last poster is not normally needed. There already is a good method already in place to tell if there are any new replies to the post.
The google tie-in is good also.

Last poster is still there, just to the right of the date/time of the most recent post.

I love it.

Google link is sweet, and pointing searchers to the often-overlooked tech is nice.

I would like to see a search for terms of two characters, rather than the current four, given that all Scion models are currently two letters.

this is definetely awesome and very easy to use. For the users that don't know to press enter when they are finished typing, maybe there should be a button? The would be my only suggestion.

I ran into that search results page once before on the scion site sometime this week.... hmmmm

but anyway:
if that empty space on the right will be filled with that other stuff then it would be pretty good. (right now without it it looks akward)
I don't think we could do without the author of the thread being named, if thats needed then the search would have been for the author right? just keeping it to who made the most recent post and when should be fine....

maybe you can add boxes for the user to refine their search
I have always wanted a way to change my search without having to reload the main search page, but if thats too much then its ok, i have survived without it..

i don't think the 2 character thing would be a good idea. open the find box and type tC in a page and see how many useless occurances it finds. (watch, smartcarprices.com, etc)

Yeah, but type, say, "antenna" and want to limit it to only tC anrenna's and you just can't do it. Wanting two character search capability isn't to search for "tC" only, but as an additional limiter when OTHER terms are also entered as in "alignment tC" as a search...

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Other than that, it bugs me that I cannot find posts that *I* made by entering terms guaranteed to be in the post, but can dig through my old posts and find it and yes, the terms are there. Something sucks in the search system.

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New results look nice - assuming search will actually find things.

Tom

I like the way it gives resulte, but, like Thomas said, assuming it will find anything..

Using most searches is like using a dictionary to find how to spell a word. You have to know the answer before you ask the question.

this is definetely awesome and very easy to use. For the users that don't know to press enter when they are finished typing, maybe there should be a button? The would be my only suggestion.

I guess I kind of assume that if they aren't smart enough to know to hit enter then they won't be smart enough to notice the quick search anyway... and will hit the red search button. No room up there for a button. :) I would have to redesign the entire layout and I'm not in the mood, I guess.

I would like to see a search for terms of two characters, rather than the current four, given that all Scion models are currently two letters.

Unfortunately that is an inherent limit buil into the forum search and if I enable two-letter searching it could cause a LOT higher load on the server every time someone performs a search. Hmmm... I just added a modification to the way the search works, though, to make it faster. I wonder if that will allow me to perform two-letter searches more efficiently? I will check into that.

Meanwhile, you will have to use the advanced search. I will look into adding a refine box on the results, that is a GREAT idea.

I don't think we could do without the author of the thread being named, if thats needed then the search would have been for the author right? just keeping it to who made the most recent post and when should be fine....

The author's name is there, just under the title of the subject and to the left of the page shortcuts. In brackets. The last replier is just to the right of the date of the last reply. I hope that makes sense without labelling the names... should be failrly obvious I hope. I hope.

/snip

maybe you can add boxes for the user to refine their search
/snip

:clap: :clap: :clap:

..and search within results...

Right, which is why I said "Meanwhile, you will have to use the advanced search. I will look into adding a refine box on the results, that is a GREAT idea." two posts up. :)

I am going to get working on THAT idea right now!

Meanwhile, you will have to use the advanced search. I will look into adding a refine box on the results, that is a GREAT idea.
WooHoo! I made a good sugestion!

I don't think we could do without the author of the thread being named, if thats needed then the search would have been for the author right? just keeping it to who made the most recent post and when should be fine....

The author's name is there, just under the title of the subject and to the left of the page shortcuts. In brackets. The last replier is just to the right of the date of the last reply. I hope that makes sense without labelling the names... should be failrly obvious I hope. I hope.

I ment that we could do without the author of the thread in the search. :doh:
i edited the sentance too much i screwed up the meaning. :doh:
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I think we could do without the author of the thread being named, if thats needed then the search would have been for the author right? just keeping it to who made the most recent post and when should be fine....

I just saw the latest version. Looks great. That is a long list of usernames.

The google results are pretty well-tailored, but they include some archived forums.

Yo Darren, the new search layout is lookin good.

but thee "Member Search Results" is listing WAY to many items right now.

I think we could do without the author of the thread being named, if thats needed then the search would have been for the author right? just keeping it to who made the most recent post and when should be fine....

I agree.. that extra info was removed.

but the "Member Search Results" is listing WAY to many items right now.

Hmmm... I though this feature would be nice... I am always trying to find people's accounts and I hate to login to my admin page to do it.

I think I am going to add a checkbox to the "refine results" box to include different kinds of searches. That will be one...

i really need to reread my posts before i hit the button. :doh:

i ment that it was displaying to many items.

when I hit my ego search it was listing hundreds of members names

sorry, :doh:

I think it's fixed now, check it.

I think it's fixed now, check it.

PERFECT!

I like the refine box. A lot.

OK, I am done for today... more to come later...

lookin good. :clap:

i'm liking the FAQ's in the reg. forum boards alot with the star icon

i just now noticed that the FAQ board is gone too

some thing i have to get use too

it's awesome darren! diggin the google option too.

This is looking really good, Darren, and the ability to now focus on a specific model in the search is a great help - on one search I just did (because I needed to find something), the result with no model preselection was a couple pages of topics, limiting it to just "tC" brought the results down to just four, and one was exactly what i was looking for.

Tremendous improvement in search efficiency with just that simple feature.

Thanks!

Tom

Whoops! What just happened, NOW???

Going to my usual link to see what's been posted recently, etc. (http://www.scionlife.com/forums/search.php?search_id=newposts), I get the new search format which looses me the ability to even connect to the most recent post in the topics. Only links in this new one are to the forum or the lead post. That is NOT always where I want to go - I want to go to the new item(s)...

Adding a really nice set of features to the general search is fine - taking away something we've come to depend on while doing it is not. *SIGH*

The actual search is good. But I do not like the way things come up when I look for my posts, or recent posts. Very confusing.

I agee. I like the function, not the form.

Change sucks online.

Can we get the topic author back?

Darren, see the grumpy e-mail in your in-box...

I see you have moved your new search results format into the "newposts" output, too. http://www.scionlife.com/forums/search.php?search_id=newposts

This means that much of the functionality of 'newposts' has vanished.

'newposts' no longer has a direct link to the latest post, but only to the lead post on a page.

'newposts' no longer shows how many posts in a topic.

'newposts' shows that "X" "replied" even if there have been no replies.

'newposts' no longer shows who started the topic.

'newposts' no longer shows when a topic first started.

'myposts' only shows things like I posted SOMEWHERE in a 41 page topic, but not my posts - and it only will take me to the very top of a page.

When searching for either my posts or a specific post that contains specific search criteria, I don't want a the first page of a 41 page topic, I want that ONE POST that matches.

Having most recent poster buried under the topic title makes it harder to eyeball search for posters since they are not in their own column.

"replied" after every poster's name is a waste...

SOME of this may be fine in a 'specific search,' but does not work looking for new posts.

Sorry if this seems like I'm griping about everything, but every time you take away something we've come to depend on and don't replace it with something at least as useful (maybe because you don't use it in the same way?) it riles.

Your new quick search was looking pretty good, but this change is a step backwards. :(

OLD
http://tijil.org/regular_search.jpg

NEW
http://tijil.org/useless_search.jpg

I again agree. There must be more people who do. When I sign on I look at latest posts. Now with the new format of date its hard to tell at a glance how old the post is. and the [zucc replied] under the thread title is hard to see. With its own column its much easier to glance at. I guess the only reason it matters who posts last, is frankly becuase there are people on here I just get tired of reading their posts. And their are knowledgeable people on here who I read even if the title doesnt sound interesting.

just my 2 cents to show that thomas isnt losing his mind.

Just noticed also that the new 'newposts' has lost the "Jump to:" dropdown.

Search is broken... :(

I just tried to search for "rear strut bar" in both the box and clicking search and I get nothing either time.

Can we get the topic author back?

Agreed. knowing who last replied is cool, but the original author tells me if it's even worth going in there (mental note, ignore all thread started by AL and Jyl).

Ask and yeeee shall recieve. I read it backwards, since it used to have last replied where the author is now, but that's just a problem with me being slow to adapt to change.

OK, for now it is back to normal again... there were some features linked into it that I didn't realize. I'm going to do some more tweaking and work out some more bugs.

I just want to say thanks for looking around and trying new things for us to debate pros and cons.....

I have been a mod on another site that you can't even FIND the admins to do basic housekeeping...

I will be changing the search... but I just need to polish it a little better first, I guess.

well the refine search was still a good thing. and i saw nothing wrong with it.

Right, but it is an integral part of my new layout... can't just plop it into the old layout... the good goes with the bad. It will come back soon...

maybe just have it in a small bar at the top. use a little more options in it to fill the space.

google
member
forum
age
.......

Darren, ever since you changed it back, I think, when I do the search_id=new_posts and I get more than one page, when I click on the next page I get "search returned no results" as if, after I come in, the stuff's wiped out. maybe getting logged in twice in a row? I dunno.

This seems fixed.

Guys, while doing that redesign I also changed the basic function of the search with a mod that I found on phpbb.com. It basically threw out the old search functions with it's multiple database queries, blah blah blah, and now just searches the main database once... it is supposed to speed things up... and I think it has. The side-effect is that I can't seem to get ANY results for three-letter words. In fact, if you type a few words, and once happens to be three letters long, you get NO results. I'm trying to find a fix for this.

I've noticed that even 'before,' a search for things that should have returned multiple KNOWN GOOD reesults returned a 'nothing found.'

I never did figure out why. :(

I thought three letter words were ok here. Only four letter words were banned :P

i was wondering why "kit" and "bar" in my search terms would show nothing up...

OK, here is the deal. The limitation is a setting in mySQL. I can change it, but as soon as I change it the database server will take about an hour to reindex everything. I didn't realize that and attempted to do this earlier today! The forum crashed for about ten minutes until I got things running again -- THEN I realized what happened.

I will make this change again tonight, right before I go to sleep so that it should be good in the morning.

looks like re-indexing that table worked! 'strut tower bar' is now searchable! way to go! thanks!

Yup, sorry about the downtime guys... three-letter searches are once again do-able.

This is temporarily on hold until the new version of the forum software is implemented. Soon!