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Yesterday, we updated the forum search engine. We have replaced the default vBulletin search engine, which was quite limited, with the MySQL search engine, which allows for phrase searching and Boolean searches.
Search Type
Threads
Searching in threads will return any thread containing the search term(s). Depending on the display mode you are using, clicking on a thread returned by a search may or may not take you to the post in that thread that actually contains the search term(s).
Posts
Searching in posts will return any post containing the search term(s). It also displays a brief snippet of text from found the post(s). Clicking on a post returned by a search will take you directly to the post in that thread that actually contains the search term(s).
Syntax
Single word searches
term1
- after execution becomes Keyword(s): term1
- returns all results containing term1
Phrase searches
"term1 term2"
- after execution becomes Keyword(s): "term1 term2"
- returns all results containing the exact phrase "term1 term2"
- must use double quotes, single quotes will be ignored
Multiple word searches
term1 term2
- is equivalent to term1 AND term2
- after execution becomes Keyword(s): term1, term2
- returns all results containing both term1 and term2
term1 AND term2
- after execution becomes Keyword(s): term1, term2
- returns all results containing both term1 and term2
term1 OR term2
- after execution becomes Keyword(s): term1 OR term2
- returns all results containing either term1 or term2
term1 NOT term2
- after execution becomes Keyword(s): term1 -term2
- returns all results containing term1 but not term2
Wildcard searches
term1*
- after execution becomes Keyword(s): term1*
- returns all results containing any word starting with term1
All term searches not using wild cards will only find a complete word matching the search word, not partial word matches.
For example, if you wish to find all posts containing ModalPanel and ModalPanels (singular and plural), you have to perform either of these searches:
- Wild card search:
ModalPanel*
- 2 term search:
ModalPanel ModalPanels
Date and Other Advanced searches
You can perform advanced searches, such as by date (e.g. A Week Age, A Month Ago, etc.) from the Advanced Search page.
Limitations
There are some limitations to searches.
Term length
A search term must be at least 3 characters long. The vBulletin search defaults to 4, but since this is a technical forum where lots of acronyms are used (e.g. DEO, DDO), we changed this to 3.
Common Words
The forum search automatically excludes words that are common English words (e.g. "of", "for", "to") since they would likely result in a lot of irrelevant hits. This limitation does not apply for phrase searches, for example, a search for "Set Size to" does not exclude "to" from the search.
Defaulting Threads or Posts in Searches
You can change the default of Search Threads to Search Posts on the Advanced Search page by using the Save Search Preferences option at the bottom of that page, but the search options stored this way unfortunately only affect the Advanced Search page, not the Search menu.
Using External Search Engines
There are some limitations to searches in vBulletin. An alternative solution is to use an external search engine, like Google, to perform searches. I will use Google as an example, but most search engines should have similar capabilities.
- Search for DAT in our forums (type or copy this line into the Google search text box):
Code:
site:support.dataaccess.com DAT