[Bubba]

Since the search was fucking useless, i've changed the way it works and rebuilt the search index.

Hopefully it will be a bit better now.

[GCW]

Does it only search by topic title, still struggling to find stuff.  Could be just me though

[Bubba]

By default it searches the title and contents; you can choose "title only" on the advanced search options page.

TBH I don't know whether it'll be much better I'm just hoping a fresh index might help.

One thing that I have noticed is that only the search box from the forum homepage seems to work properly.

If I search for something when I'm in a topic then I often get no results. If I click "home" then use the search it works.... 

[GCW]

If I search for something when I'm in a topic then I often get no results. If I click "home" then use the search it works.... 

A-ha.  You are right, works better when you do that.  I was getting no results at all before.  How strange.

[Bubba]

I'll see if I can find any information on the SMF site...

[Bubba]

Ah, I see how it works now - obvious really but something I'd never realised.

The search box is context sensitive.

If you use it from the home page, then it searches the whole forum

If you use it whilst in a particular sub-forum then it only searches that sub-forum.

If you use it whilst reading a topic, it will only search that topic.

So I guess the key is to only use if from the home page for a forum wide search.

[Bubba]

Agreed Gruff, the Google search works really well which is why i'm trying to improve the forum search as an experiment.

If Google still does a better job than the new search then when SMF 2.0 is released i'll chop out the forum search facilities and replace with a Google version.

I've changed the search to use a completely different way of doing things, so it'll be interesting to see how it pans out

[Jaspersharpe]

Ah, I see how it works now - obvious really but something I'd never realised.

The search box is context sensitive.

This must have been the only thing about the site that I knew and you didn't then!