Add a Google search to forum adv search page

[Forboding Angel]

Would you feel as though your privacy had been violated or would be violated by the addition of a google custom search box on the "advanced search" page of the spring forum? The search box on the main page would still be run through phpbb, and the advanced search would still display phpbb's advanced searching options, so you would have a choice as to which search you would like to use.


Would you be ok with a Google Custom Search box being added to the "Advanced Search" page on the Spring forums?

It would look like this:

[zwzsg]

https://github.com/spring/spring-website/pull/16/files

So apparently Forb already coded it, then was surprised when the higher ups refused. Hence why the need of a poll, to see how people weight on the issue.

Pro:
- Would let us search three letters word (like gpl, lua, cob)
- Better search results overall

Cons:
- Google is an evil megacorp! Open source software are the last pockets of resistance, we shall never give in to it!

[knorke]

Some blabla on it:
https://github.com/spring/spring-website/pull/6
code with comments:
https://developers.google.com/custom-se ... cs/element

- Would let us search three letters word (like gpl, lua, cob)

This phpBB forum can do it too, it is just set currently to 4 letters. I did not want to be the one who messes it up (something with rebuilding search index) so waited for replies from someone like abma...

[Forboding Angel]

This wasn't meant to circumvent Abma's authority. Simply to show that there would be support for it.

[Forboding Angel]

- Would let us search three letters word (like gpl, lua, cob)

This phpBB forum can do it too, it is just set currently to 4 letters. I did not want to be the one who messes it up (something with rebuilding search index) so waited for replies from someone like abma...

Rebuilding search index should be ok, that said, what is cached in there may or may not be that useful.

My contention is that the option would be nice to have, and other than google being "contacted" when the advanced search page is loaded up, there is no real breach of privacy as long as you don't type anything in the google box.

Obviously there is disagreement there, but which I could happily create a new forum page just for google searching, in order to do that, I would have to do it completely blind (I don't have a database to link to that is relevant, so I can't just start trying things out and executing it locally) , and have to wait for a pull request to go through just to see if it worked or not. Doing this blindly is not fun, especially because phpbb uses a pretty archaic theming system.

That said perhaps a better option would be jsut to scream geronimo and have a "Google Search" button next to the "Advanced Search", and have it pull up on it's own page. It seems like a very cruddy way to do it though.

Abma suggested some jquery to do it, and yes, that could do the trick, but I personally would find that annoying. Plus, the idea of spending 1 hour coding a 30 second fix (because I'll have to go and figure out how to add stuff to the silly theme without breaking things which requires me to learn more about the theme code which is useless to me otherwise) is frustrating to me.

@z, I didn't intend for that git pull request to end up in this thread, but apparently the cat is out of the bag. I only wanted to show abma that there would be support for it.

Spent some time looking and this might do the trick: https://www.phpbb.com/kb/article/add-a- ... -to-phpbb/

I'll see what I can make happen with it.

[Forboding Angel]

Ass deep in the theme crap and adding a new page. Have my new page added (theoretically), and it all should work out.

The problem is that phpbb doesn't seem to have any system for relative linking for custom pages.

You can add them in functions and common, but that's not a good method.

It's been an hour so far.

Edit: Meh, phpbb support for custom pages is really sloppy. There is, however, support for {ROOT_PATH} so at least you can manage semi-relative links assuming you aren't using custom dirs.

All told 1.5hrs. That's less than smoth has spent helping me in the last 48 hours with my own silly issues, so whatever.

[raaar]

what's the advantage of google search

why do we need it?

[Forboding Angel]

Google searches are better all around (assuming that you are remotely decent with google).

Phpbb searches are a bit hit and miss. It's not fun sorting through 5 pages of phpbb search because it doesn't understand relevance because it.

As mentioned before, Search this forum for "ee gpl" (no quotes). Then search google for the same thing, IE: ee gpl site:http://springrts.com

[Forboding Angel]

Here is a more pertinent example of why and how google is better:

phpbb


Google



To anyone who is familiar with the story, the thread "We need a stronger red" is clearly the thread I was looking for but phpbb search pulls up a bunch of irrelevant threads.

The thread that I was looking for is 13th down in the phpbb search. This is pretty easily repeatable with other things.

[gajop]

Here is a more pertinent example of why and how google is better:

phpbb
http://i.imgur.com/RAj8K5h.png

Google
http://i.imgur.com/e2NYWgu.png


To anyone who is familiar with the story, the thread "We need a stronger red" is clearly the thread I was looking for but phpbb search pulls up a bunch of irrelevant threads.

The thread that I was looking for is 13th down in the phpbb search. This is pretty easily repeatable with other things.

"We need a stronger red"
result #4
http://springrts.com/phpbb/search.php?k ... mit=Search
result #3 (for me) https://www.google.com/search?q=salmon+ ... ingrts.com

So what you're saying is it's basically worthless? And why do claim say that's "clearly the thread you were looking for"? I don't see how that stands out more than some of the other results.

[Forboding Angel]

If you had been here at that time, you would understand. If you read the thread, you'll understand, but it's a lot of reading and a lot of righteous buttraeg.

But google goes on relevance. That's why it's so good. Your search results might not be the same as mine based upon our searching history.

Anyway, this has been resolved anyway with all parties happy with the result.

[gajop]

If you had been here at that time, you would understand. If you read the thread, you'll understand, but it's a lot of reading and a lot of righteous buttraeg.

But google goes on relevance. That's why it's so good. Your search results might not be the same as mine based upon our searching history.

Anyway, this has been resolved anyway with all parties happy with the result.

Sorry, that's too cryptic for me. No idea what happened but I'm glad happiness was achieved.

[Forboding Angel]

Well it's a looooooooong story that spans multiple flamewars and spanned the entire forum.

Put simply, spring was rendering 255,0,0 as something like 255,130,130 (iirc). The result was salmon pink.

Argh argued vehemently that salmon pink was true red (as did a few other morons) and a flame war ensued, but it was fueled by tensions elsewhere.


Loooooooong story and you can't really abridge it properly.

[knorke]

In the pbpbb search it shows names of posters. This is nice because one can ignore posts from certain accounts to filter the results for relevant info.

[Jools]

It's not salmon pink, it's just "salmon" or just "pink". They are two distinct colours.

By the way, wild salmon meat is white, not "salmon" (that is "pink", but if I'd use pink here I'd contradict my previous argument). It only is coloured pink by the food they are fed.

[raaar]

i'm eating some grilled salmon right now, and it's more into orange than pink.

either way, i'm also glad that happiness was achieved.

[gajop]

Well it's a looooooooong story that spans multiple flamewars and spanned the entire forum.

Put simply, spring was rendering 255,0,0 as something like 255,130,130 (iirc). The result was salmon pink.

Argh argued vehemently that salmon pink was true red (as did a few other morons) and a flame war ensued, but it was fueled by tensions elsewhere.


Loooooooong story and you can't really abridge it properly.

Ahh ok, for some reason I thought you were referring to this thread, don't really care much for ancient issues

[Silentwings]

By the way, wild salmon meat is white, ... It only is coloured pink by the food they are fed.

No - wild salmon meat is reddish pink and the colour comes from compounds within the animals that wild salmon eat. Farmed salmon are fed dyes to mimic this colour.

[Jools]

I'm pretty sure one of them is white, but it's not first hand information, I hate fish. Maybe it was the other way around then. Or maybe it only applies to Norwegian wild trout.

About the search: will the google ones be additional or will it replace advanced search? It's not entirely clear to me.

Sometimes I used google search anyway to find stuff, it finds stuff better than internal searches. You can also use the – operator in google searches to exclude a term.

[Forboding Angel]

In the pbpbb search it shows names of posters. This is nice because one can ignore posts from certain accounts to filter the results for relevant info.

That's why you would have a choice between the two. Phpbb search wouldn't be removed, the only thing that would happen is the ability to perform a google search from the same page. Unless you have a specific beef with google, it's kinda stupid to vote down features just because you prefer the original. No one is forcing you to use said feature.

Regardless this has already been taken care of.